When the metal’s hot

I have a very special place in my heart for movies (and books) like Hunger Games. But after the first book, the movie took over my life and I have not gone back to the second book yet. Perhaps I will.

Catching Fire comes after the first movie Hunger Games. Mocking Jay is next and the revolution is simmering. Hunger Games ended on a note of ominous intent and happiness of sorts as Katniss (Lawrence) and Peeta (Hutcherson) won the Hunger Games together. Catching Fire picks up from there. The two have shifted to the victor’s village in District 12 and for the rest of Panem, they must keep up their love story and go on the victor’s tour. But if threats President Snow (Sutherland) piles on are not enough, Katniss and Peeta are pulled into the Quarter Quell for the mother of all games, designed by gamemaker Plutarch Hevensbee (Hoffman). Here all the victors fight it out.

I refuse to give the story away. I picked Catching Fire over R...Rajkumar and for excellent measure that too. Catching Fire will disappoint you if you compare it to Hunger Games. It doesn’t have the constant energy of the first movie. What it does have however is this exponentially mounting tension, like a wire being wound tighter and tighter. Revolution is brewing and bloodshed is inevitable. By refusing to kill the other at the end of the first movie, Peeta and Katniss set fire to a massive powder keg but it just is that the fuse leading to it is a little too long. And that is THE problem with

Catching Fire.

The movie introduces us to some brilliant characters who will definitely be back in Mocking Jay but it leaves you terribly dissatisfied. Failed sexual gratification, almost, for the want of a better analogy. The tempo mounts, mounts some more and then all of a sudden there’s this silence that you cannot do anything with. Except make sure you return for part three.

Lawrence seems to have internailsed Katniss, though I loved her in Silver Linings, she is brilliant here. Hutcherson plays an excellent Peeta Mellark and there’s the brooding Gayle (Hemsworth), the fiery Johanna (Jena Malone) who will have you rooting for them from the beginning. Hoffman is a revelation in character, but we have seen him and Sutherland, both, acing other roles better.

Watch Catching Fire, but only if you have seen Hunger Games. Otherwise - stay at home or watch R...Rajkumar as punishment for not having watched Hunger Games.