Get your head in the game, or lose your life in it

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire English (U/A) ****Director: Gary RossCast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks

Dystopian fiction, like Orwell’s novel 1984 or British TV show Black Mirror, can be terrifyingly exhilirating. 

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, plays on that emotion of terror and excitement, on a greater level than its prequel.

To watch this movie, the concept behind “the hunger games” and the terminology must be understood.

From the first movie in the series, based on Suzanne Collin’s book with the same name, a viewer learns about Panem, the America of the future, with 12 districts in poverty and Capitol, a place of opulence. 

From each of the 12 districts, controlled by the “Capitol”, every year, a boy and a girl (victors) are chosen at the reaping, to fight to the death with each other until a lone victor remains. The hunger games, the government dictates, is an offering for those that have fallen in the uprising by the districts. 

It is obvious that this is the government’s way of keeping the virtually enslaved people of the districts in check. 

To people in the capitol, that seem to swim in money and sleep in the lap of luxury, the hunger games season is like Christmas. 

From 1984, the motto of Panem may as well be: “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.”

At the end of The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), survived the games and emerged as two victors, in an unprecedented “gift” from the Capitol.

In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, victors from all the past hunger games are to come together and fight to the death in a “quarterly quell”, an event that takes place every 25 years.

Yet again, trauma-struck Katniss and Peeta make their way to the arena with their competition fiercer than ever, and with enraged victors, a rebellion is imminent.A viewer’s emotions run deep with Jennifer Lawrence’s compelling performance and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack. 

Gary Ross has directed the movie in a manner that forces one to keep their eyes glued to the big screen.

Although this movie has come out in IMAX, the movie can be watched to its fullest on a regular movie screen. 

For fans of the Hunger games series, you oughtn’t be disappointed. For the oblivious, it’s not too late to get into the game. Watch the prequel before visiting theatres. Oh, and happy hunger games!