Sooo...Catching Fire, You Guys

      Oh. My. Goodness. I have one word to describe The Hunger Games:Catching Fire: intense. Maybe it's the new director, Francis Lawrence, maybe it's the natural course of the trilogy itself, or maybe it's just my own personal opinion, but I gotta say, Catching Fire was quite possibly better than the first movie. Perhaps this can be accredited to the amazing arena graphics (that poisonous fog! those boils! the muttation monkeys!) or the presence of not one, not two, but three totally hunky main guy characters, but in all honesty, a huge contribution to the success of Catching Fire is Jennifer Lawrence's impeccable acting skills. She brought to the screen all the fire and brimstone I remember Katniss Everdeen having in the books, all the while portraying the most important thing about Katniss: the fact that she's still human. You can rag on Katniss all you want for totally friendzoning both Gale and Peeta, but if you had been forced to fight to the death in that arena two years in a row, I think romance would probably not be the highest thing on your list of priorities.
     That being said, can we all just take a moment to dwell on those THREE kisses between Gale and Katniss? That's one more kiss than they shared in the book, I remind you, but I surely ain't complaining! I'm totally on Team Gale, and while I enjoyed the Peeta/Katniss smooches too, I think we can all agree that Lawrence and Hemsworth had some pretty good onscreen chemistry. And I think our hearts all wrenched a little when the screen panned back to Gale in the mines after one of Peeta's and Katniss's cute, couple-y moments and he was all ashy faced and stoney jawed. Poor dude.
     Anyway, aside from that, the only word I can think to encompass every aspect of the flick is simply "amazing". The casting was amazing, the effects were amazing, the costumes were AH-mazing, everything was totally and thoroughly amazing. The movie had me on the edge of my comfy VIP recliner the whole time, and there's nothing like clutching ABElizabeth's hand for like five whole minutes to prove the awesomeness of the film.
     I walked out of that theatre feeling completely overwhelmed and giddy, and I honestly don't think I can wait a whole year to see Mockingjay Part 1. Catching Fire certainly caught me.

Best scenes:

¤ When Effie Trinket chooses the Quarter Quell tributes from District Twelve: definitely some major tearing up from me during that scene.

¤ The bloody visit to District 11 was pretty extreme.

¤ Katniss walked into the room to do her private session with the Gamekeepers, and there was a painting of Rue on the floor that Peeta created. That was quite touching.

¤ Johanna undressing in the elevator and Katniss's eyes are about to roll out of her head. I laughed.

¤ The fog! The poisonous fog!!

¤ The whole rest of the movie, actually. It's hard to settle on just a few extraordinary scenes when they were all so pivitol.

 

    People, if you haven't seen Catching Fire yet, you must do so. A few words of advice, order your tickets ahead of time so you don't have to wait in one of those overrated line thingies, and totally style it up with a Katniss braid or Mockingjay pin for an extra fan wow factor. Don't forget to bring someone to hold hands with during the scary parts, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

                                                                                                                -VaughnDL