YMMV / The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

• Award Snub:
  • After being nominated at the Golden Globes for Best Original Song, Coldplay's "Atlas" was severely overlooked at the Academy Awards. Making the snub even more egregious is the fact that the nomination for the titular song from Alone Yet Not Alone had its nomination rescinded due to unfair campaigning by Bruce Broughton and a replacement song was not nominated instead. This being often considered the most visually pleasing spectacle of the films also makes the lack of technical noms probably post palpable here too.
  • Jena Malone (Johanna Mason) was not nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
  • A glaring omission at the MTV Movie Awards was Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson not being nominated for Best Kiss—especially when they won it for this movie at the Teen Choice Awards that summer and had been sure to win it here too. Donald Sutherland while winning Choice: Movie Villain at Teen Choice also lost the Best Villain Movie Award to Mila Kunis for Oz the Great and Powerful as well.
• Awesome Music:
  • The Panem Anthem, "Horn of Plenty." It's really amped up for the Quarter Quell.
  • Points also for Howard's by turns reflective and exciting scoring. A lot of the score is on-target.
  • The song-based soundtrack ain't half bad either, what with Coldplay's soaring "Atlas," The National's Tear Jerker "Lean," and Sia's "Elastic Heart." It's more poppy than the first one, but by no means does that mean it's bad. (Incidentally, "Atlas" is the only one of these songs to actually be in the movie!) "Atlas" deserves special attention for how perfectly it ties into the movie's theme of baring the massive wait of responsibility in your duty and having the full willingness to exert that power.
  • The Weeknd's emotionally tragic "Devil May Cry" is a fitting narration to the tale.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Maybe not the entire movie, but one of the most remembered scenes is Johanna stripping off in an elevator in front of Peeta, Katniss and Haymitch.
• Common Knowledge: Minor example, but the unnamed woman representing Rue's family in District 11 isn't actually her mother; the script refers to her as an aunt.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Johanna Mason, the Deadpan Snarker, borderline Ax-Crazy Action Girl. Her rant during her interview and the scene with her in the elevator have pretty much secured her as "the best thing about the film". As one commenter put it "The next Hunger Games movie could just be Johanna axing a bitch and I'd still love it."
  • Finnick as well, but no surprises there.
• Even Better Sequel: While the first film is good, the sequel improves on it in every way. A new director, no more Jitter Cam, better performances from everyone, spot-on pacing, much improved effects, a darker and more mature story that remains completely faithful to the book... and of course to top it all off, a special edition of the Hunger Games featuring past winners, filmed in IMAX no less, with a shocking and sudden Cliffhanger ending.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Don't even think about calling it Hunger Games 2 or referring to a certain character as Peter Mellark.
• Fan Nickname: The appearance of the white-haired, bearded Donald Sutherland in winter scenes has now led to fans referring to Snow as President Santa Claus, or Evil Santa.
• Fanon: Many fans take the comment of "What if we set your backyard on fire?" from Johanna's rant in the arena to mean Snow had her family (ergo, those she loved) burned to death as a result of her refusing to be the Capitol's sex slave. After all, Johanna is from the lumber district, so fires would be common there and not too suspicious.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • When talking with Finnick, Katniss's snarky quip about "what people pay for the pleasure of your company" seems just that, snarky and funny. However, it kind of stings when one finds out that Finnick was forced to be a prostitute after his victory, and many did indeed "pay for the pleasure of his company." Of course, the scene is nearly word-for-word as it is in the book, even "How do people pay for the pleasure of your company?"
  • The first third of the movie also deals with Katniss having to watch her every move because Snow is filming her private moments. Jennifer Lawrence would infamously become a victim of revenge porn a couple of years later, with nude photos being stolen and circulated online.
  • Katniss is briefly tricked with Jabberjays thinking the Capital has captured Prim, and gets some relief when she hears that Prim has made it out of District 12 by the end. This puts her into the clutches of Alma Coin, who ends up being responsible for the girl's death near the end of Mockingjay.
• He Really Can Act: Josh Hutcherson had been considered something of a weak link by some fans of the first film, but his performance here won over a lot of his detractors. People who had seen Bridge to Terabithia however already knew he had it in him.
• Iron Woobie: While all the champions count, once again it's Katniss and Peeta in particular. Both of their mindsets going into the game was to make sure that the other live.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • President Snow's Narm line about the Victors holding hands. See here.
  • This fancomic◊ spawned the highly memetic phrase "What the frick frack diddly dack patty wack snick snack crack pack slack mack quarterback crackerjack biofeedback backtrack thumbtack sidetrack tic-tac does she think she is doin'?"
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • When the movie came out, a number of companies tried to capitalize on the popularity of the franchise, including Subway ("Where victors eat!") and Covergirl with their Hunger Games makeup line ("Soon, you can look a little bit more like Katniss or your fave Capitol citizen!"). Remember that Katniss was made famous because she killed other teenagers in a sadistic gladiatorial game for the entertainment of a corrupt upper class. Ironically, the in-universe Capitol might have put out ads just like these, given the amount of popularity the victors had.
  • The Hunger Games makeup line from Covergirl was especially misaimed, given that Katniss never wore makeup on her own and hated wearing it in the Capitol since it was another opulent luxury (in her homeland of District 12, the people could barely afford food). Plus Catching Fire was about Katniss helping to start a rebellion against the society wearing this sort of makeup.
• Narm: Has its own page.
• One-Scene Wonder: Patrick St. Espirit as Romulus Thread. Chewing the Scenery, and terrifying as heck.
• Retroactive Recognition: Alan Ritchson has a small role as Gloss and, while he would have been known for playing Aquaman on Smallville but he would become far more famous for Titans (2018) and Reacher.
• Ship Tease:
  • The movie may have implied that Johanna has and/or had one-sided feelings for Finnick.
    Johanna: Love is weird.
  • There was already some Haymitch/Effie in the first movie, but the "we are a team" scene, where Effie and Haymitch briefly hold hands along with Katniss and Peeta, without Haymitch saying anything snarky, probably pleased quite a few Hayffie shippers.
  • Considering that Katniss never develops romantic feelings for Gale in the book and the scene where she kisses him before the Games was invented for the movie many fans have complained about adding this for the Galeniss ship.
• Signature Line: "If it weren't for the baby." Both for being a Wham Line for the In-Universe Capitol audience, and for showcasing the best of Peeta's Guile Hero status. Many fans point to this as being one of the most awesome moments in the entire series.