The Quarter Quell is meant to promise spectacle unlike anything the Hunger Games have presented thus far, and the movie, appropriately, replicates that, showcasing the entire arena portion of the movie in stunning IMAX format (if you have the opportunity to see Catching Fire in an IMAX-equipped theater, it’s a must).
People who have read the books were expecting big things from this arena and the people who made the movie had big ambitions with this arena. It retroactively makes the arena from the previous movie seem suitable, since if it was too dazzling, it would be harder to top. There can be no disagreement on this: the arena sequence of Catching Fire is far grander than that of The Hunger Games.
Much of this is due to the imaginative design by Suzanne Collins in the original novel. The IMAX format not only emphasizes the scale of the setting, though; it also magnifies each and every detail. Every bead of sweat becomes noticeable, and in a tropical arena, this really gives you a sense of the heat and dehydration the tributes are experiencing. It has the added bonus of making those blisters from the poisonous fog really pop. Those things are wonderfully hideous.
Expanding the ratio of the film for this sequence also aids in the sense of disorientation, both physical and emotional, that Katniss experiences in this moment. This movie is a much more visceral experience than the first, with the arena serving as viscera central.
Continue reading on the next page…
