Satisfyingly Surprising!

Rating: 6/10 (21 November 2014)

First off I'd like to say that I have long been a fan of the hunger games books. I have read all three of them, and after reading this book, I despised it! The book just didn't have a satisfying plot for me and no real suspense. But enough about book reviews, this is a movie review. I mention my disgust for the book because I went into the theater ready to hate the movie. I thought it was going to be the same plot with the same old characters, and I was going to be disappointed plus out 18 dollars for paying for my other critiquing buddy.
I am glad to say that I was wrong! Wow! I'm not going to lie, but this movie blew me away! Usually books based off of the movie have a lot of details left out of the final product. I guess you can say that the book is always better than the movie. This movie disproves that rule! There is actually more detail and more feelings in this movie than what was in the book.
Now obviously they can't keep every detail the same as the book, but they did a great job compensating for what they couldn't do, for they could do. In the book you are just thrown into district 12 ruins and you don't have a clue why Katniss is even there in the first place. In this movie, she wakes up in the hospital and is suffering from her recurrent nightmares again. She hasn't seen the ruins of district 12 or doesn't have any idea how many people died. This gives her the fuel to become the mocking jay for the rebellion. In the book she just does because she wants to get peeta back. Jennifer Lawrence does a stupendous job of giving the feeling of being petrified when she sees the ruins in district 12. You feel the exact way Katniss would if you saw what she saw!
For the first time ever, the writers are giving the people who actually read the books a treat when they watch this movie. The first being something small, but still satisfying. The cat! You never really get the vibe of how much she hates that Cat in the previous two movies. In the book she hates the cat to death and she wanted it to die. Half of the audience laughed when they saw the cat, and half didn't. The second treat you get from the producers is the hanging tree song. In the movie it is just a song that she sang from the top of her head and all the districts sang it but not the capital. In the book, it goes so much further than that. People who don't read the book don't know that her father was a great singer and that her dad would sing that song to her. The song gave you chills when you heard it and it made you honk so harshly about her dad.
The movie does a great job with staying true to the book while adding adjustments to make the story better. The book is from Katniss' perspective making what happens in the other districts unknown unless she is told. There is a lot of boring talking that happens in the book before any real action goes on because of this. This goes for the rebellion at the dam, the forest, or even the tribute rescue mission. Katniss simply doesn't know what goes on. The producers got to cheat with this and show you what really happens alleviating a lot of the boring filler pain from the book. There was true suspense and even boom readers didn't know what was going to happen at times!
This isn't something that I can really use to promote seeing this movie, but I will say that my perception and image in my mind was damn near identical to what the film crew put together. I was amazed on how the hospital looked! I figured it was like they were taking my mind and putting it on screen!
I will say that they fell short on making peeta look different after every time you see him on TV. Katniss kept saying his voice sounded different and that he looked different, and she was worried what they were doing to him. He didn't look any different. And I didn't see why she was flipping out.
This is either Juliane Moore's fault or the directors fault, but the character of Coin was not the same as it was supposed to be. Coin is more sinister, and not fully understood in the book, while in the movie, she is very well respected and she's kind of a badass! You can't help but like her. I don't want to like her because of what she does to.... I guess I'll save that :)
The movie does a great job of creating this feeling of helplessness and suspense. The best example is when the capital bombs district 13. You panic just as much as the citizens do when you see the citizens, and when the shot changes to Coin, you are pretty much begging them to do something about it. You feel so helpless when they realize that all they can do is wait it out.
Overall I give it a 9/10 for how good a movie this is! The acting was great, the cgi was great, the the music was great, and it's loyalty to the boom was great! I take one star off to the mess up with the makeup on peeta, and the wrong portrayal of Coin. Other than that this is by far the best hunger games movie to date, and I would recommend this movie to anyone!