Product Description
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)(#ad)
Rating: Pg-13
Running Time: 146 minutes
Director: Francis Lawrence
Cast:
Elizabeth Banks
Woody Harrelson
Liam Hemsworth
Josh Hutcherson
Lenny Kravitz
Jennifer Lawrence
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Donald Sutherland
Stanley Tucci
Jeffrey Wright
Stars: 3.5/5 stars
Overview
This 2013 American science fiction/dystopian film is based on the novel Catching Fire (2009) and is the second movie in The Hunger Games trilogy. It’s also the sequel to The Hunger Games (2012). The movie was distributed by Lionsgate and directed by Francis Lawrence.
Filming of the movie started in September 2012 in Atlanta then moved to Hawaii. The movie takes place a couple months after the first movie when Katniss and Peeta have returned home after winning the Hunger Games contest. Katniss believes that a rebellion against the Capitol is growing among the various districts.
The movie was released in November in the US. It set various records including the largest opening weekend in November and the largest 3/5 day box office totals during the Thanksgiving holiday. The movie also earned the highest US box office totals in 2013.
It went on to earn more than $865 million internationally and was the highest-grossing film in the trilogy. The amazon prime video received mostly positive reviews and was generally considered better than the series’ original film. It was nominated for various awards.
Plot Summary
Before you watch movies online it’s important to know the plot of films like Catching Fire. Katniss and Peetra return home to district 12 after they win the 74th edition of the Hunger Games. President Snow visits Katniss and tells her that her actions have resulted in rebellions taking place.
He then requires her to use her future “victory tour” to explain that her actions were based on her love for Peeta amd not openly rebelling against the Capitol. She’s warned that if she doesn’t take that action her District and her loved ones will both be destroyed like District 13 was. The two promise not to lie to each other.
Haymitch then tells Katniss and Peeta that for the rest of their lives they must put on a show about their relationship. Katniss has the idea that they should announce their engagement, which President Snow agrees to. Katniss informs Gale that Snow plans to kill their families. Then Gale is punished for attacking the district’s new Head Peacekeeper.
Snow then announces that the next Hunger Games will include tributes from some past winners. The names of Katniss and Haymitch are drawn but Peeta volunteers to be a substitute for Haymitch.
Haymitch explains that the tributes were upset that they had to return to the Hunger Games. Katniss sports a wedding dress at the pre-Games interview after required by Snow but it was designed to look like a mockingjay.
While on air Peeta announced that he had married Katniss then the Capitol citizens ask for the Hunger Games to be stopped. Ainna is beaten before Katniss walks into the arena.
Then during the Games Katniss teams up with Finnick and his mentor Mags. The group escapes to a beach that surrounds a central lake.
The plan of the group is to lure the Careers to the beach, then electrocuting them with a wire from a tree to the lake. Every 12 hours the tree is hit by lightning. Then when lightning strikes a portion of the dome goes offline and stops surveillance by Capitol.
When Katniss wakes up she’s in a hovercraft while Bettee is still unconscious. It’s discovered that the head Gamemaker Plutarch is a rebel versus Snow.
He explains they’re going to District 13, which is the rebellion’s headquarters. She’s also told that half the tributes were recruited so Katniss could escape since she’s the rebellion's symbol. Katniss later learns that District 12 was destroyed but her family is safe.
Director/Cast
This is one of the amazon prime videos you should not miss out. It was directed by Francis Lawrence who has worked on movies, TV shows, and music videos. He is most famous for directing ¾ of the movies in the Hunger Games franchise.
Background
The production of the movie makes it one of the best options of amazon movies to see. Lionsgate announced the title The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in November 2013.
In April 2012 it was announced that Lawrence was offered the directing job and that the filming must be done by December 2012. Some of the cast members trained for the arena scenes including archery lessons.
Production of Catching Fire started in September 2012 and shooting ended for some of the cast members in late December. Filming continued for 2 weeks during January for part of the main cast.
Shooting continued after the awards season and ended in March 2013. It was also announced that some scenes in the film would be captured using IMAX cameras.
A big change in the shooting was that cameras were mounted to prevent the shaky-cam effects during the first movie. The director also explained that the Arena scenes were shot using IMAX cameras, which reportedly included about 50 minutes of the movie.
Release/Reception
Catching Fire premiered in London in November 2013 and was released about 2 weeks later in the US. That included traditional and IMAX theaters. Some international theaters also showed the movie in 4DX format. The movie was released in over 4,100 in the US.
The movie’s DVD/Blu-ray release date in the US was in March 2014. Two actresses of the movie promoted the midnight release of the DVD in a Walmart located in New Jersey.
The movie received mostly positive reviews from film critics. It earned an average 89% approval rating from over 250 professionals on Rotten Tomatoes.
Catching Fire earned the highest marks for a science fiction movie that year. Meanwhile, the movie earned an average score of 76/100 at Metacritic. It was also nominated for several awards.
Meanwhile, the movie was one of the top-10 grossing movies in the US during 2013. It also was the highest-grossing film in the series. The movie earned over $424.6 million North America and over $440.3 million other countries for a total of over $865 million worldwide. It’s also one of the all-time top-grossing movies.
