By Jillian Drummy

Despite being out for over a month now, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is still making its way through theaters throughout the country and the world. It has now had close to six weeks in the box office, and has been a commercial success- truly living up to the greatness of the first Hunger Games film. A change to the second film of the series was the loss of the director Gary Ross, who directed the first film. Under the pressure to create theatrical work just as great, new director Francis Lawrence did just so. The film follows many of the book’s most unique details, and the setting of the film was completely accurate to the vast and imaginative world fans pictured in their minds. Many dedicated fans to any series will say that the movie is never as good as the book, and however true this may be, Catching Fire did come very close. Today, after six weeks, it currently holds the place of the 36th highest grossing film of all time, trailing behind some of the most famous movies of all time.

Seeing the midnight premiere was a personal highlight for me as a fan, to have a first viewing and finally end the very long wait. To add even more to an already great film, the large amount of additional cast members that were added on to this film were excellent. In Catching Fire, many new characters are introduced and play strong roles through the book, and the movie as well, and continue to be present within the remainder of the trilogy. Jennifer Lawrence, reprising her role as Katniss and a recent winner of an Oscar, came back even strong. Not only did Catching Fire personally impress me greatly, but with the evidence from its box-office success and critical reactions, it left other viewers feeling just as satisfied.