Similarities Between Catching Fire And The Hunger Games

The two movies which were assigned to me have many differences as well as many similarities in the way they were made and in the settings, themes, lighting, etc. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, is all about the adventures of Katniss Everdeen who is targeted by the Capitol and sparks a rebellion in the districts. The Hobbit 2: Desolation of Smaug, is all about the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and his companions as they continue east towards the fearsome dragon, Smaug. In this essay I will discuss the similarities and differences in the settings, themes, lighting and colour used in each movie.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is set in the made up country of Panem which is a country that pretty much rose from the ashes of North America and is said to be a fairly post apocalyptic country. One of the main areas is in District 12 which is where the protagonist, Katniss, was born and raised. District 12 is a very poor coal

mining district. Katniss and her family live in the poor section of the district which is known as the seam. Another prominent area is the Capital which is a shining city of wealth which Katniss despises. The people in the Capital view the games as television entertainment.
The Hobbit is set in the Shire, and follows Bilbo Baggins and his companions on a journey through many locations to their destination of the Lonely Mountain in Erebor. The journey takes them through many locations such as the dark, dangerous Mirkwood forest, the wood elf prison, the city of Lake-Town and many other areas.
Lighting is used in very similar ways in the two films. In the Hobbit the director uses light to make the scene look very natural and uses a lot of natural light, although he does use bright lighting in parts that he wants to make us feel joyful and happy, and dark depressing light in parts that he wants us to feel confused or worried. One example of this would be in the forest of mirkwood, where the lighting is very cold and dark and this gives us a feeling of impending danger and doom in the forest.
In the Hunger Games we see much of the same although the lighting changes really fast and is different depending on the location.

For example in the districts we see very soft moody lighting which gives us the feeling of depression, and pain which the residents are feeling. Another example of the lighting in this movie is at the end of the movie where Katniss is saved from the arena and the lighting suddenly gets very warm and bright which shows us the hope that they have which will come from the revolution.
In the Hunger Games the Director made good use of colours to invoke a mood in the audience. An example of when he did this is when we are in the districts and no bright colours are used whatsoever so that we have a taste of the depression of the citizens. Although in the joyful scenes filled with hope in the movie we see many bright colours used. This is the same in the Hobbit, and we see this same phenomenon in scenes such as the dark colourless mirkwood forest and the bright happy view of the lonely mountain from above the canopy of the

forest.

In the Hobbit one of the main themes is loyalty we see this in the hobbit movies when Thorin’s nephews die beside him because he is their uncle. From this we can see that loyalty plays a big part in the film, people in the film were loyal because of family, race and even friendship. Another theme is the constant fight between good and evil as well as other themes like courage and exploration.
In the Hunger Games we see some great similarities in the themes, we can also see some conflicting themes. We can see themes such as power which is slightly similar to the above theme of wealth. The theme of classes in society can be compared to the loyalty between people of the same race in the Hobbit although the themes of identity and love are nowhere to be found in the Hobbit.
I think we can now see that these two movies are very similar in very ways even though they are so different. From the settings of the Shire and Panem to what we saw when discussing the themes of Power and Wealth. From the similarities in lighting to the differences in the colours used by the two directors. We can see that these are two complex movies which at first glance appear to be unrelated but turn out to have many similarities.