"Remember who the real enemy is"

Hello Everyone :-)

Anyone who read my garbled post about ‘The Hunger Games’ knows how much I like this series of books. I credit them with getting me back into reading and basically acting as a gateway drug to my current ‘Game of Thrones’ addiction. My favourite of Suzanne Collins’s trilogy is ‘Catching Fire’ which I went to see the other week.

We pick back up with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) just before they embark on a tour of the districts to celebrate their victory in the 74th Hunger Games. Ably assisted by the booze soaked Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) and Capitol pet Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) they set off and soon discover all is not well amongst the people. Katniss takes centre stage but ends up in the firing line of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) who tries to get rid of her once and for all.

This is brilliant stuff. Really, really brilliant :-) In fact in spite of a few minor quibbles ‘Catching Fire’ may be… dare I say it… better than the first one.

Rather than the child on child violence of the first film ‘Catching Fire’ focuses more on a public beginning to revolt against their government. You get to see a much bigger picture of Panem and there’s a definite shift in tone from governmental oppression to one of slowly unfolding chaos. This works really well because ultimately this film copies the same template as the last one (setting the scene in the district followed by training at the Capitol and finally the games proper)and in lesser hands it could have looked like a cut and paste job with some different costumes added in.

Francis Lawrence has taken over the reins from ‘The Hunger Games’ director Gary Ross and does a really good job with it. Gone is the shaky hand-cam that annoyed me so much from the last film but ‘Catching Fire’ keeps the essential lived in future feel and stunning aesthetics. It’s brilliantly paced, full of action, probably 15 minutes too long but in spite of that you’re never bored.

The cast acquit themselves beautifully.
Harrelson and Banks are polar opposites as Haymitch and Effie but both are great in reprising their roles, Banks in particular reveals a whole new facet of Effie when she delivers the line “You both deserve so much better.”
From the haul of new characters the two stand outs are Sam Clafin as Finnick Odair and Jena Malone as Johanna Mason. Clafin fits Finnick like a glove; sexy, aloof and a tiny bit haughty he pitches in such a way so that the (non-book reading) audience doesn’t know whether or not to trust him.
Meanwhile Jena Malone makes the biggest impact in a minor role that I have seen in a long time. She is pure fury and anger and does it all in a ridiculously small amount of screen time. I can’t wait for the next instalment so we can spend more time with her.
The star of the show is, once again, the epically awesome Jennifer Lawrence. Building on the promise she showed in the last film, Katniss is a more rounded, powerful and positive female lead than we’ve had in many a year. She’s strong but we never forget that she’s only 17 and everything that happens in ‘Catching Fire’ profoundly affects her. I adore her.

This franchise is shaping up to be a perfect example of how big money blockbusters can be interesting and thought provoking while still being huge and exciting. I particularly like how they’re shaken off the ‘Twilight’ comparisons by having the love triangle take a back seat. Katniss has feelings for both Gale (Liam Hemsworth doing his best but still being robbed of screen time) and Peeta (coughTEAMPEETAcough) but she never lets herself get carried away as she clearly has bigger fish to fry.

The entire film is an example of how a film series can grow and improve with each movie. So many series adhere to the rules of diminishing returns but ‘Catching Fire’ proves you can follow up a brilliant first instalment with an even better sequel. ‘Mockingjay part 1’ can’t come soon enough :-)

‘Catching Fire’ is still showing in cinemas now.

So after all that lets have some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)
1. The officialtrailer for ‘How to Train your Dragon 2’ has landed! ‘How to Train your Dragon’ was a sparklingly funny piece of animation from Dreamworks and this follow-up seems rather good too. Can’t wait :-)

2. Keeping with the animation theme the full trailer for ‘The Lego Movie’ is here! From the Directors of the excellent ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ and the hilarious ’21 Jump Street’ Phil Lord and Chris Miller have previous good form. I think this is going to be BRILLIANT.

3. OMGSHERLOCKISBACK!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!
Returning triumphant from a two year hiatus the world’s only consulting detective is back! Episode 1 is on the IPlayer till 19^th January. As I was watching the show there are a couple of moments where I’m pretty sure I could feel certain corners of the Internet going into meltdown. As for the episode itself, I loved it :-) Episode 2 ‘The Sign of Three’ will air on Sunday 5^th January at 8.30pm on BBC1.

That’s all for today! I’ve got various bits and bobs in the pipeline including my top films of 2013 so I’ll keep you posted!

Goodbye till next time :-)
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