2361 ( )

A teenage girl is an unwilling symbol of rebellion against a dystopian government.

It's a bit of a downer, by its nature. And it doesn't have as much action or excitement as the rest of the series. But I don't think they could have done any better adapting this book. My big complaint about the first movie was that once they got in all the necessary plot stuff, there wasn't any room for trauma or character development. Boy howdy is that made up for in this film. They're clearly seeing the character arc as taking place over the course of the entire series, and in retrospect, what they did in the first movie was probably the right way to handle Act I. It's rare that I enjoy a movie based on a book I've read, so for me to feel this strongly positive, about a movie based on a book I loved, is pretty damn impressive.

Concept: A
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: A
Music: C

Enjoyment: A

GPA: 3.4/4 ( )

This film is the second in a wildly popular series based on Suzanne Collins’s best-selling dystopian Hunger Games trilogy. After Katniss and Peeta tour Panem to celebrate their victory in the Hunger Games, it is announced that the tributes for the anniversary edition of the original Games will be chosen from the surviving victors. Katniss is forced back into the arena, and Peeta joins her. They must find a way to survive in an even more hostile environment while trying to make their act of a romance believable for President Snow and teaming up with other victors whom they are not sure they can trust.

This adaptation takes several liberties from the source material, but the changes are largely successful. There is quite a bit of setup for Mockingjay, the final book and films, which helps audience members who may not have read it yet. More setup also means more scenes for President Snow to show just how vast his influence is. Rebellion is more palpable than in the text. The film also manages to take some of the focus away from Katniss (who is still a kick-butt Girl on Fire) and spread it to some of the more compelling characters. Effie Trinket and Johana Mason especially get more attention than they do in the book, at least partly because they are played so well by Elizabeth Banks and Jena Malone, respectively. Some parts of the book could have been treated better (Katniss’s fake pregnancy is forgotten almost as soon as Peeta invents it), but overall the screenwriters kept with the spirit and message of the series and managed to bring some background parts to the foreground.

There is a potential concern about the violence in this film. The first installation in the series was somewhat graphic, but the sequel seems to ramp it up a lot (maybe because this film features adults or near-adults killing adults instead of kids killing kids?). It has a PG-13 rating and it is probably on-par with a lot of other films and what people might see on the news, but it almost seems darker than the book. Some parents may be nervous about sending their young tweens into the theater to watch a man get shot in the head on camera for a brief second, or to see the many gruesome fatalities of tributes. This intensification of the gore may have been used to further emphasize Collins’s societal critiques and to make the film that much more powerful. ( )

Katniss Everdeen vuelve a casa sana y salva después de ganar los 74º Juegos del Hambre anuales junto a su compañero Peeta Mellark. Participar significa dejar atrás familia y amigos y hacer ambos el Tour de la Victoria por los diferentes distritos. A lo largo del camino, Katniss se da cuenta de que se está gestando una rebelión, pero en el Capitolio todo sigue bajo control: el Presidente Snow organiza los 75º Juegos del Hambre, El Vasallaje, una competición especial con una inesperada novedad que cambiará Panem para siempre. (FILMAFFINITY) ( )