'The Hunger Games 2 Catching Fire' Review: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson Film is Moderately Pleasing According To Critics [TRAILER]
The highly anticipated sequel to The Hunger Games hit theaters on Friday, but critics are only moderately pleased with Catching Fire.
"Catching Fire is smoothly exciting but a bit of a tease. It gets mileage out of setting up the Quarter Quell as some ultimate Fear Factor version of Deliverance, yet there isn't a moment of real dread in it," Entertainment Weekly wrote in its Friday review.
The publication, which gave the film a B rating, also expressed some disappointment with the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, played by Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence.
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"The film also sets up Katniss, with her sizzling (in every way) costumes and goth-Cleopatra makeup, as the feral face of revolt, but the cliff-hanger finale reveals that she is, thus far, a passive agent in this revolution," EW also wrote.
Although the movie is filled with action, other critics say that Catching Fire leaves viewers hanging and wanting more.
"There are empty action sequences that contain no suspense at all: When Jennifer Lawrence is attacked by a pack of orangutans, does anyone worry that the orangutans might win?" the San Francisco Chronicle wrote in its Thursday review.
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In its balanced Thursday review, The New York Times wrote, "Catching Fire isn't a great work of art but it's a competent, at times exciting movie and it does something that better, more artistically notable movies often fail to do: It speaks to its moment in time."
Catching Fire, directed by Francis Lawrence, is the follow-up to The Hunger Games and the second of four movie adaptations of Suzanne Collins' trilogy. The film is predicted to collect over $173 million at the box office this weekend. The first installment opened with $152.5 million in March 2012 and garnered nearly $700 million worldwide.
The new movie follows Katniss and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), who become targets of the Capitol, after the duo's victory in the 74th Hunger Games creates conflict in the Districts of Panem.
