Hunger Games-Catching Fire didn't quite live up to my expectations. I thought it would rush out of the starting gate fast and furious. Rather it seemed to limp from one political machination to another. Along with the frequent admonition to Katniss that she needed to try much harder to convince the public that she truly was in love with Peeta, it bored me.
"Catching Fire ',didn't until the quarter quell games began. Thankfully that pushed it's rating with me to 3 stars. The performance of the main characters has improved greatly. Rather than duking it out in an arena this time, the tributes found themselves in more a rain forest setting. The surroundings were so dark it was hard to tell the bad guys from the good allies. Apart from dodging mayhem from competing tributes, they had huge, aggressive monkeys , poisonous fog, drenching rain and unusually nasty lightning to contend with.
I haven't read any of the books so I was unprepared for a twist near the end. I wonder if there were clues leading up to that, and hadn't noticed.
I caught an invterview on line, this morning where the character "President Snow (Donald Sutherland) said it was obvious that Katniss was the one he was grooming to take over the presidency. That was why he was relentlessly hard on her. That was something else I missed. I thought he was just determined to kill her.
The last movie, in the series, "The Mocking Jay " will be in two parts- the better to squeeze extra $$$$ from fans.
To fully enjoy Catching Fire, please get enough sleep and be clear headed- I'm sure you will comprehend more than I did.
But yes, you should definitely see it. 
