Four improvements

‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’

Must make to be exceptional

Reviewed by Brandi Delhagen. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is the highly anticipated

upcoming sequel to the 2012 box office hit, The Hunger Games. It had many great qualities about

it, but like every other film, it had a few flaws, too.

Those flaws do, however, have the opportunity to be improved in the next instalment. Here are

four improvements The Hunger Games: Catching Fire needs to make:

1. Character Development

The Hunger Games has

received some criticism for not

developing the characters

enough. Rue’s death scene

was a direct result of this; it felt

only slightly sad, but was quite

forced in my opinion. I was not

as emotional during that scene

as I thought I would be, and this

is coming from a guy who cried

during Marley and Me. Peeta

was another character who was

not very developed either. Even

though he received a lot of

screen time, we didn’t learn

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much about him. A friend of

mine, who hadn’t read the

book before he saw the

movie, was wondering how

old Katniss and Peeta were

and why he had the

motivation to give her the

bread. Catching Fire needs

to expand the characters. If

you have only seen the

film, you know very little

about Haymitch. You could

argue that in the first book

we know little about him,

but his character was still

well developed

In the book. Haymitch has

Post Traumatic Stress

Disorder (PTSD) which

could make for excellent

character exploration in

Catching Fire. What do

people who have only seen

the film know about Effie?

Nothing, they don’t even

know her name for crying

out loud! Catching Fire

could use some character

development because the

only character who I

established an emotional

connection with is Katniss.

2. Explain important plot points

This will be short and sweet,

Catching Fire needs

explanation. Many people had

no idea what the heck was

going on when Peeta

threw Katniss the bread due

to the fact that you couldn’t

tell that Katniss was

starving. Why did Peeta join

the Careers?

Why was Gale’s name in

the drawing 42 times?

Catching Fire needs to take

time to explain everything.

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3. No shaky camera

Another criticism of The

Hunger Games film is Gary

Ross’s decision to use the

Shakycam technique in

order to “show the urgency

inside of

Katniss’s head.” That is a

bunch of baloney. It wasn’t

artistic at all; it was a thinly

veiled and unsophisticated

attempt at masking up the

violence. Then for good

measure, he shook the

camera an exorbitant

amount in the beginning of

the film to make it look

unsuspicious.

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All the Shakycam did for me

was give me a migraine. In

films like Cloverfield, the

technique works, because in

Cloverfield we are supposed

to believe that the entire film

is being

shot with a guy’s camcorder.

I highly doubt that fans and

people interested in

Catching Fire would want to

pay eight to ten dollars to

end up with nausea. Based

on what we

have seen from the trailer of

Catching Fire it looks as if

this time around we are

being blessed with a steady

cam, but there could be a

surprise in store for us.

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4. Take more chances

The Hunger Games took

quite a few chances, but in

the wrong direction. The

filmmakers decided to break

the 180 degree rule causing

disruption in the flow of the

film, use awkward cuts and

uneven shots, and force

intimidation in an

uncomfortable manor.

The Hunger Games did

come across as genuinely

unnerving in several scenes,

but was forced in others.

Cato slicing the dummies

seems so forced to me that I

find it kind of comical.

Catching Fire needs to come

out and say, “because our

government and society got

careless, this happened.”

That would be a successful

risk and a dig at both our

government and society

today.

I also felt like The Hunger

Games was holding out on

the violence. We saw very

little combat and only a small

amount of gore in the film.

Catching Fire will need to

show us more and to make

us feel uncomfortable and

set a dark and urgent tone.

Perhaps it would be ideal if

Catching Fire was rated R

so they could establish the

doom that awaits the victors

in a concise and

elaborate way. However,

many fans, like me who are

only 13, wouldn’t be able to

see the film if it was rated R.

So Lionsgate is probably

willing to cut down as much

as they need, to receive the

PG-13 rating in order to

make more money.

If The Hunger Games:

Catching Fire makes these

improvements, it is sure to

be successful with fans and

critics alike. Do you think

there are any other

improvements that could be

made? N o n o n no o no o

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