Film review: Hunger Games: Catching Fire
When The Hunger Games was released about 18 months ago, everyone knew it was going to shatter a few records. Based on the novel series by Suzanne Collins, the film eventually went on to make more than $680 million at the box office. The only other films with greater earnings that year were The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers, both of which had budgets nearly three times as big as that of The Hunger Games.
Hunger Games: Catching Fire is the second in a projected four-film series based on Collins’ trilogy — as was the case with the film adaptation of the Harry Potter series, the final Hunger Games novel, Mockingjay, will be split into two films, to be released toward the end of 2014 and 2015, respectively.
Drawing heavily on the influence of reality television on our lives, which pretends to epitomize the evolutionary race to the top with programs named Survivor or The Apprentice, the first film centered around the titular life-and-death competition. The Hunger Games is a contest in which 24 individuals, “Tributes,” from the world’s less-fortunate districts take part for the benefit of those living in the decadent Capitol, for whom this game in which people kill each other off until only one remains is the television event of the year.
To read the full review, visit The Prague Post. Hunger Games: Catching Fire goes on wide release in Bulgaria on November 22.
(Still of Woody Harrelson, Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Photo by Murray Close – © 2013 – Lionsgate)
