First Glimpse at Catching Fire

I'm not expecting much from the movie, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, as someone who loved the books, but I still get excited to see how they put some of the things I envisioned in my mind in to the big screen.

Now that the first images from the set of Catching Fire are released on Entertainment Weekly, the producers officially started the buzz for the screening on November, 22nd. With Jennifer Lawrence's Oscar nomination on top of, Golden Globe award, I think now is just about time to remind everyone that her new movie is on the way.

And not only one new movie but three, Mockingjay has been announced to be filmed as two parts - completely unnecessary if you ask me but that's a discussion for later.

 *** The rest of the post contains heavy SPOILERs on Catching Fire the book and the movie. ***

No trailer or anything yet but the logo is revealed for the movie and it made me have goosebumps. There is also a poster version of it here, but it starts the music right away so I didn't want to surprise you with the sound.

For those who only watched the movie but did not read the book, I have bad news for you. It's not all that different than the first book. Literally. Since it's the 75th year of The Hunger Games and every 25 years something special is prepared, this year President Snow decides to have all the previous champions compete among each other. So that he could have Katniss killed without doing it outright. It's again preparation for the Games and again, Katniss goes in thinking I must save Peeta and Peeta thinking I must save Katniss, nothing different really, except I'm looking forward to the arena this time. As we can see the Game Makers' point of view in the movie, I think we might see some cool Augmented Reality shots again. The arena this time is the center of attention, I hope they will give importance to that, I'm really excited to see the works of the arena and how the tributes figure out the details.

Finnick being Finnick

This time though there aren't greedy, vein children at play but old champions so , there is more maturity - excluding Finnick of course. Ah, Finnick, the charming, flirtatious, handsome man every movie and/or book needs. In the book there is nothing but harmless attraction but it appears there is more to see of Finnick in the movie. As he is on the cover of the EW magazine. Yet another pretty face to drive fan-girls crazy, eh?
After the first movie we somewhat know what is going on, why there are the Games, and the works of the Games, but Catching Fire is more about the alliance between tributes and their actions starting up the mutinies in the Districts. They put the uprising in District 11 in the first movie so, a little bit of the excitement died for me.

At the very end of the book we see that Haymitch has not been sitting idle by, but plotting the uprising outside of the arena... The tributes find a glitch in the sky of the arena, find an escape route and there is Haymitch rescuing them with a hover craft. The exciting part is when Katniss opens her eyes and find herself in District 13, a District that was thought to have been destroyed, when they stood up to the Capitol years ago. I'm not sure how much they'll show District 13 in the movie, but since this is not a Part 1 of a sequel, they might show a little, but more than just a glimpse.
Looking at that pictures though, just makes me angry that Cinna won't be a part of this, his styles is Katniss' cover 'hobby' to make her look like she has not been sitting around and doing nothing. Also his designs are what inspire people and make her the Mockingjay, I'm looking forward to see how they altered that into the movie. Another alteration that is likely to effect the plot is that, after the 74th Games, Peeta's leg and Katniss' ear are injured severely so they have to be surgically mutated. And this effects Peeta's movement in the arena. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how they made it in the movie but not all that excited I must say...

Donald Sutherland as President Snow

This time around it's not surviving The Hunger Games that matters but the repercussions of their actions. It's not escaping The Hunger Games alive, but facing President Snow's words and influence against them that will cause the most hardship for them. Not to mention that wealthy Districts do and believe whatever President tells them to, so that doesn't help them at all. He will do whatever he can to kill the hope to a minimum where he can control, just as in The Games.



What I fear is, since Liam Hemsworth got so much attention for his tiny but big role as Gale, they are plotting the love-triangle for the other movies. It's clear the images below go together during the promotion of Hunger Games in District 12.

Honestly, I'm a little rusty on the details of the actual Game scenes, as it has been over a year since I read the book, but I don't plan on reading until the movie either. As I said before, expecting the movie to be loyal to the book only results in disappointment here, so no expectations no disappointment, right?


There is also a game of HG, it's called The Hunger Games Adventures. I don't care much about the game, I don't like the fact that you have to play it on Facebook if you don't have an iPad and it's not very user friendly or challenging but it has a very accurate map of Panem for those who are wondering about the Districts and their placements.

You can find my review of the first book and movie here.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is in theaters November 22nd, 2013.