Watched on Blu-Ray

When "The Hunger Games" opened in 2012, no one would have expected it to be such a huge success: The film adaptation of Suzanne Collins' novel grossed around 700 million worldwide, and more than two million viewers flocked to theaters in Germany alone. It was clear that this would soon be followed by a sequel. And as expected, it didn't take long for the second part, "Catching Fire," to hit theaters at the end of 2013, followed by the filming of the third novel, "Mockingjay" - which was divided into two films for the sake of higher revenues - in 2014 and 2015.

So the big surprise is not that a sequel came, but what it looked like. Bigger, faster, more bombastic? That's "Catching Fire" only to a certain extent. Sure, the budget of 80 million was increased by another 50 million, but that is only partly reflected in the visuals. The fact that the pictures are once again a bit prettier, more polished, could also be due to the change of director, because this time Francis Lawrence was in charge. In addition to films like "Constantine" and "I Am Legend," Lawrence has made a name for himself as a director of music videos.

His penchant for clip aesthetics, however, stands in stark contrast to the content of the film. Katniss Everdeen is no longer the tough fighting Amazon of the first part, but a traumatized victim of the Hunger Games herself. So this time the action part is again combined with social criticism. We already know the scolding of the media and its cynical mechanisms from "The Hunger Games. But in the sequel, it also becomes political when a government is pilloried that only abuses its war heroes for its own benefit, but leaves them alone with their mental and physical mutilations.

On the other hand, the action part got a bit sidetracked. The first part was already a bit heavy on the gas pedal, so you could hardly keep up with who died when and how. This time you don't even need to try to build up a bond, since everything is over very quickly. For fans of thrilling manhunts this might be a disappointment, but it didn't hurt the film. In fact, "Catching Fire " is even superior to its predecessor, which did too little in the second half to stand out from comparable deadly games à la Battle Royale. By focusing more on the background and ending with a surprising cliffhanger, the audience looks forward to the third part all the more.

Acting-wise, everything has remained the same: Still Jennifer Lawrence, Hollywood's new "it" girl after several hit films and her Oscar win, was the film's linchpin, handling both the action-packed and more character-driven scenes flawlessly. And the rest of the illustrious ensemble is at it again. A bitter aftertaste is that Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died in early 2013, made one of his last appearances here. The Oscar winner performs convincingly as usual, but I would have wished for a more interesting role for the great character actor as a farewell.