I’m going to start this review with an opener of how biased it is – Battle Royale made the best fight to the death movie ever.

Yep, I watched the first Hunger Games ages ago and I constantly kept thinking how it pretty much stole the main element of Battle Royale and built upon. That and the face it was a slightly more childish film geared to the new market of Twilight fans.

Catching fire continues along with the story of Katniss Everdeen. After winning the last tournament, she is safe back home. Unfortunately the Captiol is getting a bit pissed off with her win and have decided to resort to an old rule to kill her off – the Quarter Quell. This tradition happens every 25 years and marks the anniversary of the districts’ defeat. To rub further salt in the districts’ wounds, past winners of the games have to fight again – even if they are an OAP with a bus pass like Mags.

The film pretty much has the same mechanics of the first one – Katniss whines and screams, does a bit of rebelling here and there, builds up the love interest Peeta who fails to man-up and fights in another Hunger Games Tournament.

I have to admit though I did like the new arena idea. Rather than just fight it out, certain sectors bring more problems from killer baboons to poisonous gas. It adds a bit of change but still nothing spectacular.

Overall Catching Fire is slightly more gruesome movie for teenyboppers who are looking something more grown up than the Twilight series – but seriously, Katniss needs to start ‘fucking shit up’ to get her rebellion going and the series interesting.