The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (November 22, 2013) PG-13

Starring:

Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games, Winter's Bone, X-Men: First Class)

Woody Harrelson (The Hunger Games, Zombieland, Out of the Furnace)

Elizabeth Banks (W., Invincible, The 40-Year-Old Virgin)

Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games, Red Dawn) 

Donald Sutherland (The Hunger Games, Reign Over Me)

Philip Seymour Hoffman (Mission: Impossible III, Twister)

Sam Claflin (Snow White and the Huntsman, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides)

Loved the book, LOVED the movie.  This movie had no notable flaws.  I thought hard about that last sentence; it's staying.

(Left to right) Effie Trinket, Cinna, Katniss, Haymitch,
and Caeser Flickerman
(Photo taken from sciencefiction.com)

The true supporting actor in this movie, if I could only pick one, was Sam Claflin's character Finnick Odair.  He was perfect for the part.  I wanna see Claflin in more movies.  I'm more excited to see Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2 because he's going to be in them.

The story stayed true to the book to a T.  It kept all of the parts I wanted to see, sped thru parts that it could afford to, and even added the background conversations between President Snow and Plutarch that we never read in the book, but must have surely happened for events to unfold the way they did.  Philip Seymour Hoffman is excellent in his new role, in the few scenes he is in.

Finnick and Mags, the tributes of District 4
(Photo taken from dontforgetatowel.com)

I remembered my ONE complaint, and that is at the very end it concludes on this PERFECT note and mood and Jennifer Lawrence basically lets us know that "It's on" for the next two movies... but then after that perfect mood-setter they show this computer-animated Mockingjay pin that Katnis wears and it transforms into the different logos from the books...?  I could understand that being after the credits, but not when the mood had just been perfectly established by Lawrence.  I found the animation off-puting.

Factoid: Catching Fire was the first film with a sole female lead to top the annual box office since The Exorcist in 1973.