【电影简介】

凯特尼斯和皮塔以优胜者的姿态回到家乡，两人都获得了丰厚的奖金，从此不需要再为衣食忧虑。凯特尼斯原以为生活就此安定了，却没想到都城的总统会突然现身，告诉她必须和皮塔继续扮演相爱的情侣，甚至必须在所有人的关注下步入婚姻。原来凯妮丝在饥饿游戏的最后关头，迫使都城改变游戏规则的举动，被许多凯匹特的百姓视为反抗都城暴政的象征，除了让都城脸上无光外，更激起许多人的造反情绪。都城总统虽然对凯特妮丝恨之入骨，但是又不能让这个万人瞩目的人物凭空消失或死亡，否则所有人都会知道都城总统害怕百姓造反。

相反的，凯特尼斯和皮塔必须要继续待在聚光灯下，以显示都城将一切都控制在手心。 凯特尼斯动了念头要逃跑，甚至着手寻找逃跑的方式。可惜事情的发展超出她所预想的。第八特区率先发生暴乱了。都城立刻在所有特区都增派大批的维安人员，可能的逃脱路线都被围堵住。凯特尼斯放弃了抗争的念头，与皮塔公开准备结婚事宜时。

尽管每年都会举办一次饥饿游戏，但每隔二十五年会扩大规模，以不同于以往的方式举办这被特别称为“大旬祭”的活动。第一次的大旬祭是将规则改为由各特区投票选出贡品人选，第二次将贡品的数目改为每个特区抽出一男一女，换言之，将牺牲者的数目从二十三人增加为四十七人。凯特尼斯和比皮塔加的是第七十四届饥饿游戏，因此紧接着就是第三次的大旬祭。透过电视，都城总统宣布了第三次大旬祭的规则：从各特区的优胜者中选出贡品。可悲的是，第十二特区历年来只出过3个优胜者，二男一女。因此，凯特尼斯是女性签箱中唯一的候选人。男性候选人虽然有两位，皮塔和他们的战术指导黑密斯，但皮塔是绝对会自愿参加，以保护凯特尼斯安危的。于是，凯塔尼斯和皮塔又被送回都城去参加饥饿游戏了。只是不同于上次，所有人都知道凯特尼斯这次是必死无疑。 凯特尼斯被逼入更危险的竞技场，承受着更大的压力。所有参赛者以前都曾赢得比赛，凯特尼斯需要应付的对手都拥有极高的生存技巧和丰富经验，她和皮塔这一次更懂得结盟的重要性，只是他们必须设法想通谁能信任、谁不能信任。凯特尼斯要掌控自己的命运，不能做别人布局中的棋子，她深感要成为一个英雄必须经历磨难与挣扎，而她心中的最大愿望就是回家。

【音频文本】

When I was young and ignorant, I could never figure out why adults so often failed to understand their younglings. I mean, they've all had their youthful years and must surely be able to recall how their own adolescent minds once worked. But the truth is, as years pass, I find myself losing the ability to process teenage fun. This revelation dawned on me after the screening of "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire."

It was a Friday night in a fully packed cineplex. As the closing credits emerged, half a dozen teenage girls behind me burst out with frenetic exclamation. I was totally startled because, although director Francis Lawrence's sequel is a great improvement from the first installment, it still carries pretty obvious defects. All I could remember at that point was the frequent exchange of looks of impatience with my friend.

The story in Catching Fire is pretty predictable even for those who haven't read the original work by Suzanne Collins. Of course, the lead characters will eventually end up in the arena of another Hunger Games, after some twists and turns. But it is exactly those twists and turns in the new piece that my friends and I found difficult to digest.

The movie begins with the winners at home coping with their love triangle. Then, all of a sudden, they aresent on a tour around the 12 districts. In the place of a preparation for the audience to warm up to the plot, we have the President paying Everdeen a visit and dropping some menacing words to confuse things up even further. Then, during the tour, the audience is finally allowed to catch a glimpse on the Capitol's totalitarian reign and the signs of resistance: a backgrounder, which could totally have been laid in the first installment.

Now, due to the failure of the first piece, this transitional episode has to devote most of its screen time to complete what was missing in its forerunner; consequently, the actual Hunger Game lasts too briefly before the movie comes to an abrupt end.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is an intellectually challenging films, not in the sense that it is smart,but because viewers needs to make a conscious effort to connect the dots and fill in the gaps with imagination. Any thoughtful adults in their right mind would be annoyed by that process, but the teenagers probably love it because they haven't developed the habit of examining their own thoughts and the costumes are cool enough as a distraction.

Despite Jennifer Lawrence's improved acting skills, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire deserves a three out of ten.

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