No, the film will not rot teenagers’ minds or weaken their moral values, but there is a message embedded within its story that subtly undermines its seemingly subversive qualities. Yet adults have a long history of becoming distressed about each new pastime favored by their children – dime novels, pulp magazines, comic books, monster movies, video games – so some will not be surprised to find an aging reviewer becoming distressed about The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. As in the novel, the film’s climactic iteration of the Hunger Games seems hurried and perfunctory, but the film as a whole could be charitably assessed as harmless, well-made entertainment for America’s youth, who certainly deserve an occasional diversion from the vicissitudes of their stressful lives. They will root for Katniss as she successfully navigates her way through the minefield of perils prepared by Snow’s fiendish minions, and they will leave the theater looking forward to savoring her complete victory over her oppressors in the final two films of the series, scheduled to appear in 20. They are expected to despise the evil President Snow (Donald Sutherland), who will obligingly twirl his handlebar mustache and instigate one atrocity after another in order to ensure that he never, ever becomes even a bit likable. They are expected to bond with plucky heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), whose affections are intriguingly torn between sweet boy-next-door Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) and rugged tall-dark-stranger Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth). Like The Hunger Games (2012) (review here), its wildly successful precursor, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a film that makes few demands on its expected audiences of young viewers.
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