Well, the odds were in my favor.

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2013)

With most sequels, you expect it to be not as good as the first. To tell you the truth, that's what I thought at first when the trailers popped up on IMDb. When I went to see it, I saw it opening day and I played hooky with my mother, older brother, little brother and little sister. My initial reaction was, "It was good" I was really confused about my opinions for about a day or 2 and I then realized, it was better than the first. So then 2 days later me and some friends went to see it (this being my second time). And now my opinions came full circle.
The plot is just like the book, except some things from the book is dropped. The scenery is beautiful and I think because the movie was filmed in 4k H.D. (4k is roughly 4 times better then 1080p H.D.) A lot more emotion was in the movie. A great soundtrack, Lots of thrills, action, suspense and there was a bit more comedic relief in this movie. Which I think helps the overall feel of the movie when you come out of watching it. The only things I thought were negative, some of the characters were still flat, but that doesn't affect the movie for me.
While the movie was great, the book was still better, but this movie I believe was better than the first movie. That's why this installment of the franchise gets 8 out of 10 stars.