Disc Reviews

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Blu-ray Review

10th Mar 2014

The Hunger Games continues here with Catching Fire set 6 months after the initial film. Katniss Everdeen has become something of a local hero, and her “paraded” relationship with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) is literally taken on the road across the other districts – each a diverse range of poverty to richness.

It seems though that president Snow (Donald Sutherland) is keen to do what he can to destroy Katniss without causing a civil uproar. First of all are attempts to take her image down a peg or two by disassociating her with her own people, and finally by make some very special arrangements for the next round of the Hunger Games – this time being made up purely of winners from previous contests.

Catching Fire makes vast improvements on the rough edges of the first film, whilst retaining the drama (if not making it all the more compelling) and also a 12 certificate – without seeming like it is being censored.

If there are issues with the world of The Hunger Games then it is that the divisions of society are not fully formed as one might like. It’s fine to have a dystopian future – but this is one that has never made much sense. It is merely presented to us and we are expected to believe it. There has never been sufficient backing of logic behind how the society or societies work.

There are also logic issues with President Snow’s actions. Surely if he didn’t want an uprising then the last thing he’d do is send armed heavies to beat and thrash and execute people on what could be very simple whims. It’s great dramatic license sure, but you can only believe it so far when the film threatens to destroy its own logic and lands it squarely on the shoulders of a teenage girl who at one moment is towing the line to the next hanging effigies in protest.

What Catching Fire does best is build a strong foundation of friendships and alliances. Whilst some of the already established relationships sometimes end tattered by the end, there are many new faces here whom in any thrill-seeking franchise would have crossed, double crossed and fought their way to a bloodied end, instead here unite and start to tie binds that will hopefully thrive in the Mockingjay movies to come. Jena Malone and (in particular) Sam Claflin make for some of the more interesting newcomers to the series.

The 2 disc blue-ray set comes with a commentary from the director and a very impressive 2 ½ hour making off documentary that covers most of the main bases. And this is all on disc 1. Disc 2 curiously contains three short featurettes – that mostly is already covered on the making of on disc one. It’s more curious as to why they didn’t put the making of on the second disc to perhaps enhance the performance of the sound and look of the movie (Not that there is anything really to complain about in those departments) – only that the send disc seems a bit un-needed. But it’s better to have more than less – so this works out to be a fine package indeed for a very fine sequel.