Well, I finally went to see Catching Fire. It’s…well, pretty much like Hunger Games was, most of the objectionable bits cut out either intentionally or because they were dross getting in the way of a streamlined tale.
Before we begin, let’s talk about the trailers at the start.
1) About guys and hustling. There were at least two female characters in it, but only in relation to men.
2) 47 samurai thing. Shouldn’t even need to explain.
3) What seemed to be a guy romcom. I think this may fail reverse bechdel depending on how liberally you interpret “about a women”, actually.
4) The thing about the guy who has no life and gets one and also the girl.
5) A female voiceover! It’s Maleficent, and involved the princess and Maleficent as the only speakers.
6) Hobbit. It’s good they added a female character, but it doesn’t change much.
7) Frankenstein (wtf) which has female characters who don’t talk to each other and are defined in relation to men and I think one of them was doing the pretty but secretly ugly monster thing.
8) More female characters talking! Lots of them, in fact! It’s Divergence, reminding us that YA may be terrible but it’s that or movies about guys having their guy problems and nothing else.
So with that in mind, I was feeling particularly favorable toward Catching Fire, and indeed, it opens with Katniss, in the woods, being herself! Then she tries to shoot a turkey only for her to think she’s shooting a person and freak out. PSTD about harming others and not just being afraid for herself! Katniss goes on to exhibit more self-loathing that’s about her and how upset she is about what she did, not about how much better than her Peeta is and how she should just die for not being good enough for him already. (more…)