The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

A new hunger game. Obviously, things that were secretly spinning were not really revealed. Filmin was fine. It was very nice in the dramatic events that happened here. The new characters were not bad either. Apart from that, it was nice and fluent.

Jennifer Lawrence's acting was jarring in the extreme. Every time she lost her s**t and her voice cracked like a 9 year old while she shouted her lines, the movie died a little for me. Otherwise I liked the setting and many of the other characters; Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Philip Seymour Hoffman, I could go on.

I enjoyed this movie. I read all the books a long time ago. I hate Katniss. In the books, I only liked Gale. The second book I felt was just trying to keep the hype from the first book. There was no need for a second Hunger Games. She could have went a different way with that. Anyway I thought Lawrence did well like before. Nothing too fancy, but the costumes and locations were good. Above average movie that kept me entertained.

You'd expect a merry-go-round in the sky, almost, the way people are on about Katniss Everdeen. I won the full set in a competition where mine was the winning review, thank you Raru South Africa, I do appreciate, I never would have seen it otherwise, the original box cover artwork of THE HUNGER GAMES reminded me too much of images I have seen of computer- animated Lara Croft and I didn't have this on my list of DVDs to obtain, but when my BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER review took first prize, I was real chuffed for the nifty boxset.Once again though, there's nothing really, really special in here. Come on, people, it's an average performance in a movie coming in well below what it should have been. I hasten to add, in all fairness, that those computer-generated mandrills... Ooh jeepers they made excellent excellent adversaries, the only real high point of the movie. Had the entire flick been that kind of edge-of-your-seat stuff...But Jennifer Lawrence is nothing extra-special in this movie. Do not get me wrong, I am not dissing her, no. But worthy of all this acclaim, for this... This? People, you are seeing way more in this than there actually is. Take another look at it. What it does do, is deliver a theme of televised blood sport, and this is what enthralls you lot. There is bound to be more. Of this (the DIVERGENT series aside) with better performances, and you'll see, though I most likely wouldn't, I prefer other kinds of story lines, I wouldn't be salivating over the blood games to follow.Notice that the poster artwork got recognition. Yeah, where are the days of the great poster artwork, like THE GAUNTLET, and the Roger Moore James Bond movies?In closing, I repeat, I do not mean it is a weak movie/weak performance. It is just, this is the first movie since THE EXORCIST where a movie with an actress headlining the show tops the box office. For this? Weren't there so many, many others so far, far more worthy?