Color Me Surprised....

Rating: 9/10 (29 March 2012)

At how much I liked this movie... and how terrible the reviews on this site are.
I honestly liked this movie - its the best I've seen so far this year, and better than most of the hogs-wash that came out last year.
I did not read the books before seeing this movie, I didn't have the time or the interest. I've decided to give them a shot now. I loved the emotions this flick brought out in me. There were many times that I wanted to turn to my companion (who had read the books) and beg to find out if my favorite character was going to die in front of my eyes, the child/teen actors were that inspiring.
But I would like to address two things: If you go into any movie expecting it to be EXACTLY like the books (or how you picture them in your mind), I frankly don't see how you can like any movie adapted from a book. LOTR was the only one to ever pull it (mostly)off and there were still things left out. Learn to see it as a different take on the same thing. With this movie, the screen writer was the author (Did you scroll up to check?) and that is very obvious from how much I've read of the book. Anyway, after fuming over the earlier Harry Potter movies due to book inaccuracies I've learned to see movies as themselves rather than rips off a novel - I've come to like them better.
In comparison to HP movies, this movie was very understandable if you pay attention to what is said - I was not left confused at all. I was interested to find out more. The HP ones seemed to leave a lot of lose ends - I went with people who had not read the books and they were confused by things that were detailed in the books.
For those comparing it to battle Royale - even if it is like that movie, does that mean it was really so terrible to rate 1 and 3 stars? I saw Battle Royale a year ago and loved it. Frankly after leaving this movie I felt this one to be pretty good for what you could call a spiritual successor to that foreign film. But... most of the people I've tried to describe this movie to compare it to running man. So what if this plot has been used before? If they do it well, who cares? Pot Lids or Bows, I don't care; when the movies are this thought provoking.
I rate this nine stars - One star off due to the abundance of shaky cam running and super close ups, though I understand why they was used. Honestly when ever it was extremely close up I feared for what the main characters and I couldn't see. On the plus side, shaky cam during some of the battle seems probably helped to keep the movie PG-13, which was the demographic the book was aimed for. Helpful that.
I hope this is the lead in for a year of good movies - if they are this top notch then we are in for a pretty good year! :D