“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” opens on a shot of Katniss Everdeen shooting arrows at turkeys, which is perfect: As embodied by the surefooted, smart Jennifer Lawrence, the hero of this dystopian saga does not suffer fools gladly.
Too bad about that, because Katniss is now an indentured servant to the barbaric reality-TV franchise that is her country of Panem’s “Hunger Games.” As the winner – along with her on-camera love interest, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson)- of that televised battle to the death, she’s now obligated to embark on a cheery promo tour of the nation’s districts, all home to fellow “tributes” who were slain in the games. Or else President Snow (Donald Sutherland, silken and poisonous) will have her family killed.
Fans of the trilogy of books and the first movie – that is to say, the vast majority of this movie’s audience – will be happy to find their expectations met with great fanfare in this bigger and louder follow-up, which hews closely to the book while making the most of the novel’s visual possibilities. Yes, it’s the middle chapter and feels like it, but it’s never dull.
First, there are romantic complications: a kiss from best friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) throws Katniss into turmoil just as she’s set to head off with Peeta and their garish handler Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks). Katniss dreams of running away with Gale, but he’s a burgeoning radical: he wants to stay and fight with the insurgents, who are inspired by Katniss’ defiant gesture in the last film’s games (“The odds are NEVER in our favor,” reads one scrawl of graffiti in a neighboring district.) Director Francis Lawrence, taking over from Gary Ross, brings a nightmarish severity to the downtrodden district visits, particularly a scene in which an old man in a crowd is executed by the Capitol’s stormtrooper-like cops for making the three-fingered gesture of solidarity as Katniss and Peeta are addressing the crowd. Similarly, the cops’ raid on Katniss’ home district, which sees Gale being publicly flogged, is visceral and harsh.
In contrast, scenes of the Capitol – can we just call it Rome 2.0? – are even more delightfully over-the-top. Effie’s costumes become progressively insane – a dress and headpiece made entirely from monarch butterflies stands out – while Stanley Tucci’s talk-show host, Caesar Flickerman, now sports purple eyebrows and a maniacal, tooth-whitened laugh. Lenny Kravitz makes a welcome return as low-key stylist Cinna, who’s got more sartorial subversion up his sleeve.
In the midst of all this froth, it’s amusing to see Philip Seymour Hoffman appear, looking as if he’d insisted in his contract that there would be no funny business with his costumes or facial hair. As Plutarch Heavensbee, the new gamemaker, he’s got a blunt take on the Gatsby-like party at which he meets Katniss: “It’s appalling,” he says. “Still, if you abandon your moral judgment it can be fun.”
He’s the one who’ll run the “Quarter Quell,” a competition in which the winners of previous Hunger Games will battle one another – to the death, how else? – to celebrate the country’s bloody 75th anniversary. It’s the Hunger Games all over again, only in wetsuits and with more notable contestants: Jena Malone as a saucy malcontent named Joanna, who casually disrobes in an elevator with Katniss and Peeta; Jeffrey Wright and Amanda Plummer as a nerdy duo the other players dub “Nuts and Volts;” and Sam Claflin’s Finnick Odair, a hunky trident-thrower who ends up becoming a valuable ally.
Ironically, it’s when the games start that the action bogs down a bit, as one adversity after another is thrown at Katniss, Peeta and their allies – poisonous fog! Evil monkeys! Birds that sound like your relatives being tortured! – yet the violence between contestants is racheted way down from the first film, which really drove home the horrifying nature of young people being forced to murder one another for the nation’s entertainment.
Overall, though, it commendably continues this fable about the decline of a society built on the subjugation of the poor. Subtle it ain’t, but you may find yourself thinking queasily about your “Real Housewives” addiction when Woody Harrelson’s drunken Haymitch mutters, to a heavily made-up Katniss, “Your job is to be a distraction, so people forget what the real problems are.”