Review: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

hunger games catching fire---MAJOR SPOILER FREE, minor spoilers after the warning

parking was a nightmare, even with a handicapped tag. as i arrived a teenage girl bounded out in front of my car and i almost hit her as her friend yelled at her to stop acting like an idiot and get out of the road. she looked sheepish and was wearing a hunger games tshirt so i flashed her the three-fingers and she smiled and ran off. us nerds gotta stick together, girlfriend. and thats the new universal geek gesture that means "we cool."

in the theater during snows "uh.. whats happening" the entire theater started applauding, lol. and then again at the end when the mockingjay logo popped up.

and then on the way out some elderly people were walking ahead of me and this guy says, "are you okay walking?" and the woman says back "yeah, i can make it." and he goes "i can carry you on my back til the fog comes." im not sure what movie they saw of course but i have a hunch. lol

okay onto the review.

im sure some of these will change with future re-watchings, but here's my (and bonus: j's!) basic first reactions to catching fire. no major spoilers for those who haven't read the books, but if you want to go into the movie totally not knowing anything, dont read any further.
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[semi spoiler alert]
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my first-run reactions:
- the popcorn sucked.
- too much time in the district, wayyy too much time in the capitol, not enough in the arena. (i felt this way about the first movie too.)
- too much exposition. bo-ring. and a waste of woody harrelson.
- granddaughter wtf? unneccessary scenes in an already epically long movie
- finnick could have been hotter
- mags could have been older she was basically 156 in the books come on now.
- johanna was not at all how i pictured her and i didnt like her at first but she's growing on me (and i like jena malone so its odd that i didnt like johanna but then shes supposed to be pretty unlikeable so.. win?)
- beetee was way off base from the picture in my head too
- willow shields is awesome and needs more scenes
- jlaw is perfection embodied as always
- really why would you leave out plutarchs watch. thats kind of a big point to miss. js.
- the arena was perfect. a cinematic masterpiece.
- katniss' mom needs to learn how to have an emotion or two. i mean, she sent her child off into the hunger games twice without making a facial expression. im starting to wonder about her.
- "oh mahogany!" i died
- sugar cube scene felt awkward rather than UST-y mostly because finnick could have been hotter
- "all the girls at school wear their hair like this" thx for the shoutout to us fangirls
my rating: 8/10

overall right now, in the throes of severe sensory overload and extremely sleepy and medicated, i give it an 8/10. jennifer was absolute perfection. her emotions, her facial expressions. when snow was talking to her, you could SEE her swallowing hard, she's really just a master of emotions. im really looking forward to the rest of her career cause the girl has got game.

j's first-run reactions: (bearing in mind that she is not a geek and has not read the books and mostly went for me. these are straight from her.)
- the woman next to me had the worst BO on the planet.
- this is the first movie with different hideous outfits.
- katniss is a manipulative whore. shit or get off the pot and pick one of them already, and stop toying with their feelings. (me: STOP LOOKING AT THE LOVE STORY YOU CAPITOL SLAVE. her: there's popcorn on your shirt.)
- finnick could have been hotter.
- "what the fuck happened at the end?"
her rating: "you're a geek."