So far, both fans of the first film and book fan purists that I have spoken to agree in favor of Catching Fire.
No spoilers here. You’ll have to see it for yourself. Avoid bringing kids. The violence is overwhelming and the storyline intense.
Finally heroism is about sacrifice. Finally mercy trumps judgement.
Finally a film allows its heroes to fight for a cause bigger than personal survival.
The build up intensifies to climax AND payoff.
Jennifer Lawrence inhabits our Katniss as bow dragging, ugly crying, Liam kissing arena queen.
Welcome new characters. Fall hard for the old. Find yourself trying to choose between team Peeta or Gale. Enjoy the fancy friend to popular book-to-film adaptations, Jena Malone.
For a while, it seems that film writers hit a dry spell and the best writing went to television. If films keep this up, there just might be a revolution, a new dawn for good films with solid characters in the writing. I like it.
Splatter: on FILM 
I’ve watched Hunger Games: Catching Fire and I have read the book. Multiple times over. My dad watched it with me and he said he didn’t like it and he didn’t understand the storyline and what it was about. I told him that if you didn’t read the first book or watched the first hunger Games Movie, you can’t really watch/ read the second movie/book. Anyways, sorry if this comment is like a post:P Awesome review~! I agree about the whole deciding whether to support Peeta or Gale:)
I actually haven’t read the books yet, but I’ve seen both films. And I thought they were both overwhelming! I’m a fan!