( EW.com ) -- Last year , in the avidly faithful but ultimately rather flat-footed screen version of `` The Hunger Games , '' we saw Katniss ( Jennifer Lawrence ) triumph in a Survivor-meets-gladiator teen war to the death . How did the stoic archeress from District 12 win the `` Hunger Games '' ? By making herself over into a lethally clever ( but never murderous ) scamp of the woods . Now it 's out of the frying pan and into the even hungrier games . In `` The Hunger Games : Catching Fire , '' Katniss has become a star , a lightning-rod symbol of the early stirrings of a people 's rebellion . But she 's still the superwarrior girl next door ; she wears her rebel impulses lightly , if not politely . EW : 'Hunger Games ' coverage . On a Victory Tour of the 12 districts , she and her fellow champion , Peeta ( Josh Hutcherson ) , have to carry on the charade that they 're in love , and the first sign of Katniss ' insurrectionary fever is that she 's not very good at faking it . ( Or maybe it 's just that Hutcherson , with his captain-of-the-cricket-team geek hunkitude , is n't much of an inspiration . ) As the two speak , rebel miscreants are subdued by stormtroopers , and the crowds just get angrier . So the ruling powers , led by the velvet-voiced fascist President Snow ( Donald Sutherland ) , figure it 's time to nip Katniss — and the rebellion — in the bud with the Quarter Quell , a special , once-every-25-years edition of the Games in which past winners compete against each other . In other words : It 's all badasses . Up on stage with Stanley Tucci 's purple-eyebrowed , gleaming-white-smiled Caesar — the Ryan Seacrest of Oz — Katniss shows off her wedding gown , and the outfit burns down to reveal a stunning black Mockingjay dress . It 's the revolution as fashion statement — a wink to the masses watching her on TV . But in the presidential lair , Plutarch Heavensbee ( Philip Seymour Hoffman ) , the sinister Games designer , predicts that the blood sport to come will squelch her popularity . He smirks , `` Let 's watch her get her hands dirty ! '' EW : Willow Shields talks 'Catching Fire ' Yet Katniss Everdeen does not get her hands dirty . She competes in ruthless kill-or-be-killed contests using her speed and wits , but she never has to do anything too ugly or brutal — or , for my money , too surprising . There 's a ritualistic quality to these films that 's key to their appeal , but it also limits their capacity to truly wow us . `` Catching Fire '' is more energized than the first `` Hunger Games '' movie ; it 's been directed , by Francis Lawrence ( I Am Legend ) , with a darkly sustained verve . The Quarter Quell is more openly a contest between Katniss and the Capitol powers , and in its gimmicky way it 's more gripping — a lethal jungle fun house , with Katniss and her allies facing down a toxic fog , a vicious tribe of baboons , even the arena itself . As newcomer Johanna , Jena Malone delivers her lines with a scene-stealing screw-it-all nastiness , and Sam Claflin nails the role of the wicked-smart former champion Finnick . As for Lawrence , she more than holds her own , turning her face into a dreamy-pale Valkyrie mask . You react to every wave of sadness and fury roiling around inside Katniss , even when Katniss is n't allowed to show it . `` Catching Fire '' is smoothly exciting but a bit of a tease . It gets mileage out of setting up the Quarter Quell as some ultimate Fear Factor version of Deliverance , yet there is n't a moment of real dread in it . The film also sets up Katniss , with her sizzling ( in every way ) costumes and goth-Cleopatra makeup , as the feral face of revolt , but the cliff-hanger finale reveals that she is , thus far , a passive agent in this revolution . Lawrence plays her as a riveting icon of girl power , but I hope that in the upcoming sequels , Katniss gets to show another dimension or two to go along with her precocious , defiant strength . Grade : B . See the original story at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
Katniss has become a star in `` Catching Fire '' Newcomer Jena Malone as Johanna is a scene stealer . The film gets mileage out of setting up the Quarter Quell .