'Catching Fire' trailer hints at dark times ahead

Posted Monday, April 15, 2013 at 9:55 AM Central
Last updated Monday, April 15, 2013 at 10:12 AM Central

by John Couture

God, I love me some Philip Seymour Hoffman. As much as I knew that I would enjoy Catching Fire when it comes out later this year, my expectations just went through the roof.

Last night during the MTV Movie Awards, they debuted the first trailer for Catching Fire and while they called it a "teaser trailer," it was anything but. No, a better description would be a warning shot over the bow of all of the other films opening up at theaters in the fourth quarter: you better start fighting for second place.

While The Hunger Games may have caught people off-guard last year, and it surely caught many more unaware that it could hit such a high box office number ($408 million), there's no mistaking their plan this time around. Flush with the money that The Hunger Games earned, Lionsgate spared no expense in their casting choices and from the first look at the film, they also bumped up their special effects budget as well.

While this is all great news for the franchise, I'm particularly more interested in how they adapt the books to the big screen. That's one area I thought they actually improved upon the books in The Hunger Games. Since the books are all in the first person narrative from Katniss' perspective, we aren't directly privy to a lot of the behind the scenes makeup of her world.

And to be honest, those political undertones and shaping of the story is what separates The Hunger Games franchise from the likes of the Twilights out there. In the movies, we aren't stuck in an emo girl's head and it gives the filmmakers great swaths of new material to play with.

The best example of this comes in the trailer below for Catching Fire. The trailer is dominated by a single conversation between Hoffman's Plutarch Heavensbee, the newly elected Head Gamemaker for the 75th Hunger Games, and Donald Sutherland's President Snow. It's a conversation that we know had to occur at some point in order for the book's events to take place, but to finally see it and to enjoy these two fine actors planning for Katniss' demise is delicious and already has me salivating for November 22.

It's funny because I always got the feeling that Plutarch was intentionally written as a submissive character in this book (perhaps to contrast with events that occur later on in the series), but it seems that filmmakers have gone for conspiring and manipulative which just sets up the film's climax perfectly.

Speaking of climax, the trailer sort of reminds me of The Empire Strikes Back with its dark tone and violent imagery. I'm sort of surprised that they included the Gale whipping scene in the trailer, but hey, it's not like the story gets any cheerier from here. I think it does a pretty good job of getting the audience prepared for the dark times that lie ahead.

I better stop and let the trailer speak for itself for fear that I'll ruin what lies ahead. Are you as excited about this sequel as I am?