SPLICED MOVIES /
REVIEW / THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE
strengths of each gladiator in play, but
the deaths are quick and seemingly
irrelevant in comparison to the
grandeur of the new arena.
The arena itself is created to be
the most vicious of the contenders,
working solely at the whims of its
master (Hoffman) at the instruction
of his master, President Snow, who’s
seemingly hellbent on demolishing the
tributes entirely. Each power player
here has agendas of their own, made
a little too clear from the start, which
robs a little of the mystery from all
the back-stabbing at play, though
I did doubt these at times with the
ferocity of the challenges. The CGI is
impressive, even more so considering
the technology behind it, with a
specialist IMAX team shooting the
expansive Hawaiian jungle locations
154
ISSUE 02
" The escalation of the storyline
makes this sequel more compelling
in that it takes a larger view on the
politics behind the games instead of
simply re-hashing the same plot."
while the technobrains under FX
supervisor Janek Sirrs (Avengers,
Iron Man 2) fill in the challenges,
the Cornucopia and Panem with
photorealistic detail. As with a
lot of adventure movies with the
focus on CG, the plot is sometimes
overshadowed by the graphics, with
more attention paid to the execution
than the plausibility - but we’re not here