Krishna
When it comes to movies based on books, my, and I guess most other people’s, preferences will be to the book. This is especially true if you read the book before you see the movie, because then you are not biased by the movie depiction. You can never create the kind of experience in a movie that you get in a book, reading at your own pace and letting your imagination bring this to life, and interpreting the detailed descriptions of the author in your own way. The movie presents a defined picture with a defined speed, both of which are not under your control.
However, there are some movies that are way better than the books. What comes to mind is The Constant Gardner, The Lord of the Rings, The Jurassic Park, just to name a few. I will add Catching Fire to the same category.
In case you are wondering, yes, this is the review of the book, not the movie, though the movie is a really faithful reproduction of the book.
Let us look at the story. The story continues from book 1 seamlessly.
Katniss finds that her little ploy of ‘love struck young couple’ that helped her win the sympathy during the Hunger Games is now a liability. Katniss is force locked into “eternal love” with Peeta by the wily President Snow. Snow hates her for “insulting” him publicly by doing the stunt with the berries in Hunger Games.
Katniss now is the rallying symbol for the people oppressed under the Capital’s hegemony. She, of course, is clueless. When district 8 goes into open rebellion, Katniss watches, shocked.
She sees no way out from the web she has spun around herself, especially when Snow reveals that he knows her kiss she thought she shared in secret with Gale. Her solution is to run away. When Gale is whipped due to a change in Chief (he was caught trying to sell squirrels from the forest), she knows there is no escape, she abandons plans to run. She meets Willow in the woods who is going to “nonexistent” District 13. Even now she is not ready to openly lead the rebellion, who is looking at her as a star who defied Snow and lived.
Snow knows that she is a threat and has to be eliminated. He comes up with a new twist. When the time for Quarter Quell comes, which traditionally has a twist in selecting the new participants for Hunger Games, he decides that the contenders should be chosen from the winners of past games in each district. Since District 12 has only Katniss as the female winner, he knows that she will be in!
Now she has been again chosen with Peeta to compete in a Winner’s cup and knows that this time, her life and Peeta’s may be lost. She also knows that Snow has arranged it somehow. Again Cynna creates an amazing dress for her tournament. Defiance of Snow in the dress design earns his arrest and presumable death.
When the games begin, she enters into a secret alliance with Haymitch to protect Peeta against all costs. When the games begin they form an alliance with Finnik, who saves Petra many times. Also in the alliance is old Mags. A killer fog takes Mags and they find themselves with just sea water and nothing else at all.
They come up with new threats this time, with murderous monkeys, jabberbirds that reflect sounds of their dear ones being tortured, lightning, lots more.
When they figure out the system due to the ‘ticktock’ clue given by half crazy Wiress before she died, the game makers spin the centre so that they become disoriented again.
Katniss knows something is weird when all the competitors except the careers seem to be bent on protecting her and Peeta, even at the xost of their lives.
Then the thing goes haywire. They have the plan from Beetee to have a wire to electricute every other competitor but then it kind of turns into the supposedly surprise ending, and does not work out as planned.
The book takes an abrupt twist at the end, which, if I reveal, will be a spoiler.
The problem is this. The juvenile tone of the book we found in Book One intensifies here and it is like reading a book for teens. Not a problem if it is meant for the teens but as adult fiction, it seems too light.
The twist I mentioned also comes in the last three pages with insufficient introduction. It is almost as if the author did not know how to finish this book and suddenly said, well, enough of that. Let me write the ending I planned and be done with this.
Not as good as the hype indicates.
Let us say 5/10
– – Krishna