I saw Hunger Games - Catching Fire on Thanksgiving Day. My friends - who paid my way AND took me to the Diamon Hotel for T-Day Dinner - are huge fans of the Hunger Games franchise. The 17 year old daughter has read all the books, even before the first was made into a movie. Handy to have her along, so she could translate and add to my understanding. We sat much closer to the screen than I usually choose to sit, so the view was quite large. I think it helped me catch most of the action, although *I* felt overwhelmed at times. I recognized Catniss was suffering from PTST/D right away, so I didn't get confused until a bit later. Diva, I also missed presidential grooming.... The graphics were spectacular, although there was one colorful, lizardy creature which slithered up a tree in a suddenly CGI-ish manner. The Training Center holographic cubes scattering as each antagonist was destroyed were less jarring and quite cool, by comparison. The clock face battle arena was pretty darned clever, although the deliberate "Let's see how well they keep track of time now" spinning maneuver made me spend too much analytical effort trying to understand how that could possibly work, and popped me out of the story line for a bit. Still, I would give the movie a three point five score on a five point scale. To me, that's well worth a viewing.
