The Hunger Games: Catching Fire Review Round-Up

While The Hunger Games: Catching Fire doesn't premiere in the United States until November 22, the film had it's world premiere in London on Monday night, so reviews have already started hitting the Internet. For the most part, the reviews seem to be overwhelming positive. In fact, at the time of this article, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has a 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a lot higher than many other recent high-profile movie. Here's a round-up of all the early reviews. According to Time Out London, "Catching Fire looks and feels epic. Hands down it's one of the most entertaining films of the year. But there's also something here-and-now about it – it taps the zeitgeist with its them-and-us society and the feeling that when money is in the hands of so few, the odds are never in our favour." According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Serving up everything from Suzanne Collins' eventful second installment in her trilogy about teenage warrior and rebel Katniss Everdeen that fans could possibly want to see, this is a safe, serviceable, carefully crafted action drama in which the subversive seeds planted in the first story take welcome root. As before, Jennifer Lawrence is the superb center of it all and the massive success of this Lionsgate release is as certain as the turning of the Earth." According to Variety, "Though technically just the bridge between the lower-budget original and the two-part finale still to come, in director Francis Lawrence's steady hands (gone are the previous film's needlessly spastic camera moves), "Catching Fire" makes for rousing entertainment in its own right, leaving fans riled and ready to storm the castle." According to TheWrap, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire serves up food for thought and jolts of adrenaline in equal doses, which is more than most YA adaptations have managed to deliver. Dismiss it as a popcorn movie if you must, but at least they've bothered to serve it with real butter and truffle salt." According to Total Film, "Following the unwritten lore of movie trilogies, the middle chapter of Katniss Everdeen's sci-fi survival story is darker, moodier, meaner and, yes, better than Part 1." According to CinemaBlend, "Without giving anything away, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire does suffer from a severe case of what I'm going to call "Part Two Syndrome," as the movie comes to a sharp and abrupt end that makes the story feel incomplete and leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Still, the sequel solidifies what was already a solid trajectory for the franchise, and I look forward to seeing where the story goes from here." While most of the early reviews follow the same theme and pattern of the reviews above, there is one negative review so far to show up  on Rotten Tomatoes. According to Screen Daily, "Despite a gripping performance from Jennifer Lawrence as the conflicted, resourceful heroine Katniss Everdeen, Catching Fire is only sporadically combustible — a ho-hum sequel that mostly sets the stage for hopefully more scintillating future chapters."