12. Is Mags The Same Character From Sex & The City?
Ridiculous Conspiracy Theory Alert: Catching Fire has an elderly, nurturing maternal type, who doesn't speak, called Mags. Sex & The City has an elderly, nurturing maternal type, who rarely speaks called Magda. Is this a coincidence? Definitely.
11. Who Is That Guy? No Wait, It Literally Doesn't Matter At All
There are 24 tributes in the 75th Hunger Games, and yet we only get to see a small fraction of that number on screen for any length of time. Less than half of that number even speak a line, and some aren't even seen apart from in the briefest of flashes (usually when their dead faces are emblazoned in the sky.) The over-riding result is that it is painfully obvious who the red shirts of the film are: anyone introduced who doesn't have any profile to their name, or any lines (or important character exchanges in the case of Mags) are pretty much cannon fodder, and we're encouraged not really to care. That unfortunately is somewhat catastrophic for the film's agenda to explore the heinous devaluing of life, since it ironically reinforces it through indifference.
10. The Whole thing Is Signposted To A Frankly Ridiculous Degree
There is literally no subtext in Catching Fire, despite its aspirations to transmit important, politicised messages. Rather than suggesting these concepts in a subtle manner, and letting the audience put the pieces together, every message is hammered home with blunt and major force. The inhabitants of the Capitol might as well be actual fat cats pouring money down the drain, police officers might as well have horns, and even worse, everything that's going to happen is massive sign-posted earlier in the film. It's obvious that Heavensbee is the key to the twist, because he tells Katniss so, and the impact of every twist is dulled somewhat in retrospective when you realise just how obvious the hints were.