The Civil War- behind the scenes

Rating: 8/10 (23 November 2014)

(No major plot spoilers, but if cautious, skip it)
For Katniss Everdeen Dog days are over. The Games seem like a distant past, an easy aspect, now the hard part- leading a revolution and winning it.
The uprisings in Ukraine, Ferguson and other Eastern countries- it seems quite coincidental such movie came out when many countries are in similar state of insurgency. There's death, there's blood, there's chaos, there's hope.
New scriptwriter changes formula of previous two completely, it's not YA dystopia Romance, it is a political thriller.
Districts cluster together to overthrow the ruling power, and previously-believed-dead 13 is head of it all. Battle of propaganda begins- when Capitol threatens death when ceasefire is disturbed, Katniss overtakes the screen adding fire to the conflict. Like a tennis game, each side tries to overthrow other one using means of media and persuasion.
There was yo-yo effect when I was wondering whenever to go this one, or not. All points balanced negatively: Catching Fire was a tedious watch, the book was awful, it is a stretched continuity (due to it being split in half); but, after seeing it on big screen- I have to say money was not wasted, as presumably, this is the best installment yet.
The movie is like the book, but it managed to repair all faults the novel had. In meaning- clumsy dialog was replaced with much stronger, consistent. It was hard to imagine characters talk in the novel, their voices barely differed and sounded odd to be said out loud. The actors and new scriptwriter manages to change given material into powerful, at times humors pieces of text. J. Law. was at her greatest (is it just me or the new A-listers get better with age- like wine!). Whilst the book couldn't balance thoughts of Katniss (which ran for good half of the book, mourning on how poor she is, how stupid everyone is, and her pointless dilemma of Peeta and Gale), here the given time is spend on speeches, behind-the-scenes working of the ruling powers and action sequences from other districts (which in books were casual remarks).
I even jumped back to my original review of Mockingjay, to see what I found wrong with the source two years ago (and upon re-reading still seeing them)
"(Katniss)starts to act like Bella, oh no!" She's strong and independent, because we leave her head her inner romantic struggle is just a low key note in the movie.
"District 13 is boring, vicious and Grey, like everything in world of Panem, but reading about Seam or Capitol seemed interesting, while 13, not." The improved graphics add sleek touch to the grim surrounding, although I have to agree- there's four similar scenes, which become less effective with usage, Katniss climbs the rubble to find destruction. Also, we barley leave few locations, which may annoy some. ( I am mildly insulted for not including the hummingbird room, it would splash a color for a contrast)
" Katniss is mortal, we know it, but why does Collin make her suffer so much? She had survived fire, water, knives and guns; in Mockingjay she gets injured and faints a lot, I really mean it, good 70% of book is about Katniss sitting in hospital and recovering from attack. So, book is: 2 pages of mare action, 10 pages of pointless talking, page for character development and 20 pages for sitting in hospital (divide it by five to get entire book)." There are 3 brief hospital scenes, and Katniss is more readily jumping into action without anyone shielding her. Also, many scenes which were just referenced or skimmed over without explanation are developed here- we see action, how it influences the politics and human nature aspect of it. Making it a deep, meaningful series of scenes.
"Collins ends them, concludes new stuff, but what about old stuff, Districts and Capitol, Gale and Peeta, the answers for events we were waiting for since first book! Well, Collins seemed to forgot about them, and started to conclude (the new) boring stuff." Unlike original books movies from start to end have a running continuity, such as Snow drinking from cup and spilling blood, this is mainly gained by leaving single POV, and returning to old characters (Effie was a highlight, I am glad she didn't disappear like she did in the book!). The film producers have better insight of reality and know what will happen from start to finish, something Collins didn't do.
"Did she have forgotten that this book is about Hunger Games, and we want to see how actual games end? But here we have, nothing about districts, about life after games. Also Finnick, Collins treats him as a background character, while new character like Boggs gets more attention." No, all characters have fair proportion of time, there's no casual mention, there's screen time and carefully balanced.
(Possible spoiler alert)
Only negativity is the aftertaste, as closing 20 minutes are a drag (while rest of the movie is not). There's a series of speeches repeating the same notion and over-the-top reunion with Peeta is the thing that makes you leave cinema with snoopy face. They could've cut it quicker.
(Fin)
While I gave the book 35/100, the movie gets 80/100 For strong acing, visuals, direction, depth, emotional drama, realism and message.
I cannot believe I say it- the movie is better than the book!
Fun notes:

the hanging tree song and scene is a highlight -Haymitch/Effie are still my favorites, I did like Cressida too. -Soundtrack from first movies makes a wonderful comeback -P.S.Hoffmans swan song