On November 22nd, the sequel to The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, finally came to theaters. On opening weekend, the movie was expected to make about $161.1 million.
In the first movie of The Hunger Games, the last scene was of President Snow watching Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) intertwine their fingers and raise up their arms, smiling to those in District 12 due to their victory at the 74th Hunger Games. In the very beginning of Catching Fire, it commences with Katniss and her friend, Gale (Liam Hemsworth) in the woods, on a casual hunt for food. Something’s different with Katniss though. As she finds an animal and shoots her arrow at it, she quickly begins hyperventilating and panics, as she flashbacks to the the boy she killed during the Hunger Games.
A brief description of the movie is that in the beginning, Katniss and Peeta are sent to all districts to give a speech. After visiting all districts, including the Capitol, they return home only to find out that the 75th Hunger Games is near. There’s something different about this game though, it’s a Quarter Quell game since it happens to be the 75th. On each Quarter Quell, there’s something new added to the rules. For instance in the last Quarter Quell, the Hunger Games Haymitch participated in, the amount of people that were sent to the games was doubled by district. Unfortunately for Peeta and Katniss, this Quarter Quell the victors must go back into the games and this time only one can be victor. During their training for the Quarter Quell, Katniss and Peeta meet new significant people who become their allies as they fight for their survival in the games together. Almost each character who participates in the Quarter Quell game plays an important role that leads to the games changing forever and creating a history that will be thrilling for Panem.
Although there were some differences between the movie and the book, the movie is still worth seeing. For those who have read Suzanne Collins series of The Hunger Games, many were displeased to see the differences with the first book compared to the first movie. If you have read all books as well and plan on seeing the second movie, you too may be a little disappointed. One big difference that you will see is that President Snow has a granddaughter. This isn’t revealed in the series until Mockingjay. In fact, there is a scene in the movie where President’s Snow granddaughter sits at the table with him for breakfast and her hair is styled in the famous Katniss braid. She even tells him that everyone in her school wears their hair that way.
Also, in the beginning of the book while Katniss goes hunting, she stumbles across a male and a female named Twill and Bonnie; however, they never appear in the movie. These are characters who had ran away from their district, seeking District 13. Although it is believed that district 13 was completely destroyed during the initial rebellion and there were no survivors, some people also tend to think that the people of District 13 moved underground. In addition, in the book when the new Peacemakers arrive to Katniss’s district, Gale is whipped because he was caught hunting. In the movie, the whipping occurs because he tried to prevent a peacekeeper from harming an innocent old lady. In the book while he was getting whipped, besides Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) and Katniss coming in to stop the peacekeeper, another Peacekeeper had stepped in, meanwhile in the movie there was no sight of the friendly Peacekeeper.
There are plenty more differences that you can pick out if you watch the movie and read the book. However, this movie is definitely worth watching.
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