By Taylor Boggs ’16, Sports Editor

“Catching Fire” opens with its heroine, Katniss Everdeen, crouching in a forest at the edge of the area outside of her impoverished home—District 12.  She lives in the last district of Panem, an authoritarian state that was built over the ruins of North America after a catastrophic war and a rebellion from the thirteenth district (which proceeded to be wiped out).  Here in the woods Katniss hunts to feed her family and learned to hunt with the weapon that kept her alive in the horrific Hunger Games

“Catching Fire” is the sequel to “The Hunger Games” and is the second of what is going to be four movies based on the teen series written by Suzanne Collins.  The movie is loaded with new and improved special effects and some new characters were introduced, such as Finnick Odair (Sam Claffin) and Johanna Mason (Jena Malone).  The series was also introduced to a new director: Francis Lawrence.

In the first “Hunger Games,” Katniss and Peeta won the brutal contest that is held annually for the capitol’s amusement and as a reminder of the rebellion: a boy and a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 are selected from each of the 12 districts to fight in the arena until there is one person left alive.  Over the course of the movie Katniss has to try to convince not only the people of Panem, but also the President himself that she was going to eat the berries from the first movie out of love, and not out of defiance.

The movie begins with the post-game tour that the victors go on half a year after they have won the game.  They have to visit and make speeches at each of the twelve districts and then finish at the capitol.  As they are traveling, they notice forbidden graffiti of Katniss’ mockingjay pin and other evidence of the beginnings of a rebellion.  To their despair, their nightmares have only begun.  The main event of the show is the announcement of the third Quarter Quell.  The Quells were supposedly written when the rebellion ended 75 years ago, but this quell seems to be made for Katniss: all of the tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors.  This means that Katniss and Peeta are going back into the games.

During the games, they are on a simulated island that was created by the new head gamemaker after the old one was killed for displeasing the President.  Katniss and Peeta try to form allies as they battle poisonous mists, blood rain, mimicry birds, giant floods, and shrieking monkeys.  While in the arena, Katniss and Peeta become closer, despite her newfound love for Gale (Liam Hemsworth).  When Peeta says that nobody needs him so it was better that he died, Katniss disagrees and declares that she needs him—this is the first time that they show true affection for one another in the series.

The rest of the movie proceeds with bloody battles and confusion.  Katniss and Peeta are out of a big loop that many are a part of—even their mentor Haymitch doesn’t keep them informed.  He promises them both different things and ends up enduring Katniss’ wrath at the end of the show.

“Catching Fire” isn’t an incredible or terribly artistic movie, but it is about as close to the book as a movie can get.  The character development was very good and the adventure was exciting.  It does something that a lot of good movies fail to do: it is extremely accurate for its place in time.  The director did a good job of renewing some of the lost parts of the first movie such as Buttercup, Prim’s cat who was supposed to be orange, but was black in the first movie.  Of course movies can’t show every detail that the book possess and there will always be things that are missed, but overall “Catching Fire” was an entertaining movie and I recommend it to all that enjoyed “The Hunger Games.”