Before we get into Catching Fire, I want to say a few words about Paul Walker.
I unironically love the Fast & the Furious movies. I think they are tremendously entertaining films that know exactly what they're offering, and they do what they do very, very well. The chemistry between the actors has always been strong, and while they aren't the best examples of solid plots or coherent writing around, they are fun, exciting, and have a shitload of replayability. Paul Walker was a big part of that - while he wasn't the best actor around, he was solid and reliable, and always came across as charming and likable. Going back to that chemistry, he was great fun to watch with Vin Diesel and Jordana Brewster, and he made a good anchor for the films.
I didn't know much about him outside of that franchise, but reading about him postmortem has been enlightening. Apparently he was involved in marine conservation projects, and he drove actual race cars, and he has a young daughter. The fact that these things were never widely splashed on the tabloids, and the fact that I never had his personal life shoved in my face, tells me that he was a private, classy guy for Hollywood.
The death of anyone at age 40 is tragic. I mourn Walker, and Roger Rodas, the driver of the car. I'm sad we won't get to see Walker on screen again, and my heart goes out to his friends and family.
Now. The Girl on Fire.
I've been trying to start this review for a few days now, and I don't know why it's been so difficult - I liked the movie quite a bit. It's a very similar story to the first one (which was why Catching Fire was my least favorite of the HG trilogy), but the good parts are better and the bad parts have been mostly expunged. The shaky cam filming is gone (thank GOD), because this is not a story that needs to emphasize the tension. It's more brutal, more emotional, the new characters are better and the old ones get more to do.
One of the strengths of the novel that really gets emphasized here is that we spend more time with the other Tributes. In my review of The Hunger Games, I believe I mentioned the strength of the acting - that's a trend that continues, with Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair and Jena Malone as Joanna Mason as particular standouts. I was skeptical about Claflin, but he gets Finnick's smarm and sleazy smile while ALSO getting the good heart and strong emotional current under all the act. He makes Finnick's grief as real as his charm. Malone as Joanna is everything I ever wanted: tough, sarcastic, shoving her middle finger in the face of the Capitol and rolling her eyes through the whole thing. Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, and Woody Harrelson are all back with bigger, better rolls and impress just as much as last time.
Visually, you can tell that the studio got a bigger budget after the success of The Hunger Games. Everything looks better, including the rehashed fire effect on Katniss and Peeta's clothes at the opening ceremonies. The arena is more detailed, the violence is harsher, the costuming is better. If I had one nitpick about the cinematography, it would be that I wish we got to see more of the Capitol with an increased budget - there is a scene set in the President's mansion that hints at the extreme opulence, and I wish they'd really pushed the lavishness there.
The movie's biggest problem is that it's clearly there as set-up for the Mockingjay two-parter. It has the unenviable task of being the middle link in the story, where the backdrop has already been established but we're not to the payoff yet. Some trilogies handle this better than others (The Two Towers springs immediately to mind) and The Hunger Games struggles with this, especially because the movie doesn't linger too much on the rising rebellion in the districts. We have to hear about most of that secondhand, which makes the ending feel more inevitable and less like the big reveal they're clearly going for. But they squeeze in more than the novel did (there's a bit when Katniss and Peeta are on a train and see graffiti of her mockingjay pin fly by), and at the end of the day, I'm still looking forward to the story's conclusion.
Even if it is, completely unnecessarily, going to be two movies.
I unironically love the Fast & the Furious movies. I think they are tremendously entertaining films that know exactly what they're offering, and they do what they do very, very well. The chemistry between the actors has always been strong, and while they aren't the best examples of solid plots or coherent writing around, they are fun, exciting, and have a shitload of replayability. Paul Walker was a big part of that - while he wasn't the best actor around, he was solid and reliable, and always came across as charming and likable. Going back to that chemistry, he was great fun to watch with Vin Diesel and Jordana Brewster, and he made a good anchor for the films.
I didn't know much about him outside of that franchise, but reading about him postmortem has been enlightening. Apparently he was involved in marine conservation projects, and he drove actual race cars, and he has a young daughter. The fact that these things were never widely splashed on the tabloids, and the fact that I never had his personal life shoved in my face, tells me that he was a private, classy guy for Hollywood.
The death of anyone at age 40 is tragic. I mourn Walker, and Roger Rodas, the driver of the car. I'm sad we won't get to see Walker on screen again, and my heart goes out to his friends and family.
Now. The Girl on Fire.
I've been trying to start this review for a few days now, and I don't know why it's been so difficult - I liked the movie quite a bit. It's a very similar story to the first one (which was why Catching Fire was my least favorite of the HG trilogy), but the good parts are better and the bad parts have been mostly expunged. The shaky cam filming is gone (thank GOD), because this is not a story that needs to emphasize the tension. It's more brutal, more emotional, the new characters are better and the old ones get more to do.
One of the strengths of the novel that really gets emphasized here is that we spend more time with the other Tributes. In my review of The Hunger Games, I believe I mentioned the strength of the acting - that's a trend that continues, with Sam Claflin as Finnick Odair and Jena Malone as Joanna Mason as particular standouts. I was skeptical about Claflin, but he gets Finnick's smarm and sleazy smile while ALSO getting the good heart and strong emotional current under all the act. He makes Finnick's grief as real as his charm. Malone as Joanna is everything I ever wanted: tough, sarcastic, shoving her middle finger in the face of the Capitol and rolling her eyes through the whole thing. Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, and Woody Harrelson are all back with bigger, better rolls and impress just as much as last time.
Visually, you can tell that the studio got a bigger budget after the success of The Hunger Games. Everything looks better, including the rehashed fire effect on Katniss and Peeta's clothes at the opening ceremonies. The arena is more detailed, the violence is harsher, the costuming is better. If I had one nitpick about the cinematography, it would be that I wish we got to see more of the Capitol with an increased budget - there is a scene set in the President's mansion that hints at the extreme opulence, and I wish they'd really pushed the lavishness there.
The movie's biggest problem is that it's clearly there as set-up for the Mockingjay two-parter. It has the unenviable task of being the middle link in the story, where the backdrop has already been established but we're not to the payoff yet. Some trilogies handle this better than others (The Two Towers springs immediately to mind) and The Hunger Games struggles with this, especially because the movie doesn't linger too much on the rising rebellion in the districts. We have to hear about most of that secondhand, which makes the ending feel more inevitable and less like the big reveal they're clearly going for. But they squeeze in more than the novel did (there's a bit when Katniss and Peeta are on a train and see graffiti of her mockingjay pin fly by), and at the end of the day, I'm still looking forward to the story's conclusion.
Even if it is, completely unnecessarily, going to be two movies.
