Book to Movie: Catching Fire
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Francis Lawrence, adapted from Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
So just like almost every person in the world I watched Catching Fire last week. It came as a huge surprise that the showing me and my boyfriend visited was fully sold out – a sold out showing almost never happens. And we didn’t even go on opening day, but two days after.
In my mind the Hunger Games franchise is still something that only my fellow bookish people know about, not a global phenomenon that has even touched the stoic Dutch people. I’m having a hard time adapting, but I do think it’s a good thing so many people are enjoying this series. Katniss is one of the very few heroines that can really take care of herself – it’s actually usually her taking care of Peeta instead of the other way around. Usually YA heroines sit behind meekly while their boyfriends fix all problems for them. It’s terrible, but this is still the kind of heroine that prevails. Even heralded strong heroines like Tris from Divergent could take a lesson from Katniss. Self-sacrifice is all good and well, but at least make it worthwhile.
So, moving on to the Catching Fire book and movie. To be honest it has been a very long while ago since I last read Catching Fire. My review of it dates back to 2011, and since then I haven’t even glimpsed its insides again. I was quite fuzzy on what happened outside the arena, so most of the beginning felt pretty new to me. When we finally came to the big plot twist, I was in familiar territory and I remembered what was happening.
As most of you know by now, I have a heart of stone. I don’t cry at movies or books, or to be honest any kind of fictional work. Ever. So no, Catching Fire was not emotional to me or caused me to have “all the feels” because apparently the person that assembled me forgot to add a feels antenna. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the roller coaster that is Catching Fire. Visually it’s very pleasing and I think they did a better job at it than they did in The Hunger Games. The camera work felt more fluid and natural and was a pleasure to watch. I also want to give HUGE props to the costume department – all of the outfits, even the less sparkly ones, seemed perfect. Just look at Katniss in the picture above. Isn’t that something she would wear in a heartbeat?
To be honest part of the suspense is gone if you know how the story’s going to end. For as far as I could tell the movie stayed very close to the book in spirit. The producers did a lovely job to keeping the story gritty instead of making it more Hollywood and shiny (as I feel they’re currently doing to Divergent – yuck). Although I’m a bit annoyed Mockingjay is being released in two parts (what the hell is up with that lately?) I think these movie adaptations are wonderful. Catching Fire fixed a lot of the small annoyances I had when watching The Hunger Games, and promises great things for the next two movies.
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