The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) * 1/2

Directed by:  Francis Lawrence

Starring:  Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Elizabeth Banks, Jena Malone, Lenny Kravitz, Donald Sutherland

The plot:  Round 2 of The Hunger Games, in which past winners compete with each other in a terrain of traps and monsters, under scrutiny of President Snow, who wishes to use the games as a method of extinguishing any hope from the masses and prevent a revolution.


I swore to myself I wouldn't watch any more Hunger Games movies, but here I am breaking my own vow.     Catching Fire is slightly better, probably because plot developments aren't announced over a loudspeaker.    Plus, if you look quickly enough, you will see some sunshine peeking through (unlike the first movie where skies were gray all day long.)

So here we are in the America of strange names and dictatorship, where the annual Hunger Games are televised to entertain the downtrodden masses.     Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence), co-winner of last year's games, is booked on a nationwide tour with her other co-winner Peeta Mulark (Hutcherson).    They love each other, although they don't fully acknowledge it yet, and are convinced by their handlers to act as if they are in love so the masses will be swayed by their love story.     Considering the condition of the people and their cities, this is a fool's errand.

President Snow (Sutherland) is fearful that Katniss will be seen as a symbol of hope and wants her killed.    His assistant Plutarch Heavensbee (Hoffman-in one of his last performances) thinks otherwise, wanting to discredit her instead of outright killing her and turning her into a martyr.    Or maybe he has other plans for her?    In the meantime, Heavensbee controls the playing field in which the participants hunt each other; including changing weather, unleashing grotesque monsters, etc.   
It can't be a coincidence that he is named "Heavensbee" and plays God with the participants.   

The actual games arrive at about the 90-minute mark and because everything is so dark and there is so much vegetation, the action is hard to follow.     It seems one character is killed, only to find out it was another one.     A screen pops up in the sky every now and then to keep the participants (and us) straight on which characters were killed off.      Also, Katniss' weapon of choice is the bow and arrow.   She shoots arrows liberally, yet never seems to run out.    How does this happen?    Does she grow them?  Or take them out of the dead bodies to recycle them? 

Catching Fire is a long movie, running nearly 2 1/2 hours with enough political subplot to make one think he is watching CNN.     Two more movies are promised, Mocking Jay Parts I and II,     This seems to be the latest development in movie franchises:  Turn the final movie into two parts just to squeeze as much money out of the films as possible.     I won't make any promise that I won't watch these final two films, but the first two have been long, wearying, silly movies.     There is a cast of great actors here who deserve plenty of credit for taking it all seriously.