Catching Fire Review

I've never reviewed something based directly on a book before, so I'll give it my best shot.

I feel like they didn't introduce District 13 properly. I know they mentioned that it had been destroyed, but they didn't introduce the idea that it's still out there. So it's just, all of a sudden, "we're going to District 13." They could have at least showed someone communicating with District 13, either Haymitch planning with them or Snow warning them not to intervene in the rebellion.

They cut out one of my favorite scenes from the book. That was the scene where Katniss and Peeta looked back over the videotapes from past Hunger Games. I wanted to watch Haymitch in the arena and see his plan about using the force-field. I also just wanted to see how the other games were portrayed.

The hovercraft appear to be quite roomy inside. Most modern aircraft have one large compartment for cargo and a forward section for the pilot. These have a passenger area, a room in front of that, as well as compartments off to the side, and that's not even counting the cockpit.

I feel like they could have spent more of the movie inside the arena. As far as I can tell, only about an hour of the movie was inside the arena. That's 40%, the book had to have been at least that much. Even though they deleted stuff from the time back in District 12 (including the original reason why Gale was arrested and the scenes with the electric fence and Bonnie and Twill) it still feels like they spent too much time there.

I forget whether this was in The Hunger Games or Catching Fire, but either way, I'm pretty sure they left it out. That is, the bit where Katniss can tell when a hovercraft is about to appear by the way the birds call out. They all go silent, and then a single one calls out when a hovercraft decloaks.