Saw the movie last night and was a bit disappointed…
Positive first: the filming was so much better than the first movie. The wild camera movements in ‘The Hunger Games’ made me feel dizzy at some points. It was probably done to hide the bloody details and still show some action, but ‘Catching Fire’ – although it has fast camera movements – just seemed more realistic to me.
Jennifer Lawrence/Katniss – still not the Katniss I envisioned while reading the book, but I could appreciate her acting more in this movie (especially the last scene!)
Josh Hutcherson/Peeta – Definitely liked him more this time. I assume my ‘book Peeta’ is changing to the ‘movie Peeta’ since it’s such a long time ago that I read the books.
Donald Sutherland/Snow – Perfect in this one!! Friendly yet lethal and you could feel the fear when he stepped into a scene. I’m so glad I got it wrong in my first review. Sutherland is as brilliant as I knew he could be!
Sam Claflin/Finnick Odair – Well hello! Great addition 🙂
Jena Malone/Johanna Mason – I didn’t know the actress but she seemed familiar and all through the movie I kept thinking: I know her… but from where? Now I know: Stepmom. I thought she was great as Johanna Mason, scary and you’re not sure if you can trust her, determined and skilled. Got my approval.
The scenery, the costumes, the book adaptation, all well done. The problem with the length of the book versus the length of the movie is a thing that will keep bugging me. There just isn’t enough time in a movie to get everything from the book covered. But that’s a given fact. The only thing that will solve that is to change my way of thinking and see the movie as a great addition to a book instead of the book being told in a movie, kwim?
But it’s hard to make that change in my head and I think that’s the biggest disappointment for me with this movie.
Manon and I discussed it afterwards and we came to the conclusion that Catching Fire is an awesome movie… if you haven’t read the books.
Still I would recommend everyone to read the books, there’s so much more in it. Situations described into detail on lots of pages instead of a in scene of 2 minutes or even less.
Much to my surprise I didn’t shed a tear, though I had goosebumps when Mags sacrificed herself and the scene where Katniss is forced to witness the killing of Cinna. But again, it was so much better in the book! It was clear in the book that Cinna was killed, but in the movie he was beaten up and then dragged away, still leaving the possibility open that he survived the attack (or is it all in my brains? Please tell me what you think!)
You could hear the disappointment in the audience after the last scene. People were ‘shocked’: ‘noooo this can’t be it’ and ‘you gotta be kidding, is this the end?’ were the things we heard most. Funny, because I remember that was what I thought when I finished the book
Mockingjay will be a two-part movie. Good decision IMHO, more time to tell the story!
To end on a positive note: If you keep the pros and cons in mind, go see the movie (Finnick alone is worth it – lol)
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