Catching Fire (Hunger Games, part 2) is in almost every way a better – and better made – movie than the first. They are clearly working with a bigger budget and a better script that gives more moments for the actors to emote. The acting isn’t so much better as the actors are given more time to express feelings, especially for Jennifer Lawrence and, surprisingly, Elizabeth Banks (Effie Trinket) who did a bang up job of showing real growth for her otherwise ancillary character.

This movie does a great job of world building and establishing the stakes in the districts – much more so than the first movie. So much better, I felt, were the moments outside the arena, that when the arena sequence occurs, it’s kind of a let down (it’s also remarkably dark for something apparently filmed in Hawaii).

I felt Catching Fire the book was inferior to the first novel… but this movie takes those elements and improves upon them without adding any additional content. And, yes, it ends in a cliffhanger of sorts for the next movie (or two movies since they are breaking the third book into two movies) since they know they are getting their next movie.

Overall, a successful film that is unique among big Hollywood blockbusters in that it offers believable motivations, emotions, and character moments. I’m not saying this is an ultimately amazing greatest movie ever, but it’s really well done and any gloss of The Hunger Games just being on the surface level of a Twilight should be ejected.

Score: 87