It's mainstream entertainment, but it succeeds at being riveting and deeply unsettling mainstream entertainment that casts a critical light on our current systems.

Full Review | Jan 20, 2021

Vivid, visceral filmmaking, twisty and entertaining, with startlingly good turns by Jennifer Lawrence and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Full Review | Jun 18, 2016

The movies (gratefully) violently counteract any attempt we might make to see them as fun escapism.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 13, 2016

Gary Ross did the hype justice by kicking off the series with a highly effective adaptation and now Francis Lawrence builds upon that success by taking the budget boost and funneling it into top talent, stunning visuals and an all-consuming experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 31, 2013

It is heartening to find a teen-oriented movie franchise as gritty as The Hunger Games. Even so, Catching Fire remains contradictory, caught in some nether world between nightmarish political allegory and adolescent escapism.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 17, 2013

This is Empire Strikes Back stuff. It has that second Star Wars movie's kick of confidence.

Full Review | Dec 10, 2013

Director Francis Lawrence's film runs nearly two-and-a-half hours but it concludes so abruptly and tantalizingly, it leaves you wanting more.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 24, 2013

Like Katniss, Lawrence has become bigger than the Games themselves, something that makes her very powerful, very dangerous and rather inspirational.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 24, 2013

The budget is nearly twice the original, and it shows. Great work from the A-list cast, amazing set designs and costumes.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 22, 2013

This follow-up to the 2012 hit based on Suzanne Collins' novel, represents commendable storytelling that ought to please the book's many fans

Full Review | Nov 22, 2013

Now the violence is not merely physical, but existential. Far from having won her freedom as promised, Katniss is now imprisoned in a false public narrative-supporter of the Capitol, lover of Peeta-from which she may never escape.

Full Review | Nov 22, 2013

Far from being a mere holding pattern, Catching Fire feels like an advance and an improvement. Let the games continue.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 22, 2013

Catching Fire delivers on the grim, roiling promises of the original.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 22, 2013

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire takes the narrative and thematic liberties traditionally granted the middle chapter in a trilogy and drives the stakes up sharply.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 22, 2013

The one truly fresh invention-and the one that matters most-is Katniss herself. With each on-screen chapter, the poor girl from District 12 continues to fulfill her destiny as an inspiration and a rebel fighter.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 22, 2013

Given the strength of this installment, I'd say the box-office odds continue to be, in that Hunger Games catchphrase, "ever in its favor."

Full Review | Nov 21, 2013

This second in the Hunger Games trilogy, directed by Francis Lawrence, has many of the virtues and somewhat fewer defects as its predecessor.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Nov 21, 2013

Though some of the chases and escapes are thrillingly filmed, this last section of the film feels indistinguishable from plenty of other video-game-style avoid-the-obstacle action climaxes.

Full Review | Nov 21, 2013

The grand climax, whose elements include a long piece of wire, a lightning bolt, and an electronic force field, is an incoherent, rapid blur that will send the audience scurrying back to the book to find out what's supposed to be going on.

Full Review | Nov 21, 2013

None of it would work -- not the action, the adventure, the political subtext or the humor -- without the strength and beauty that Ms. Lawrence brings to the central role.

Full Review | Nov 21, 2013