The second installment of the franchise certainly had more positives for me than the first one. The scale of things just seemed much more bigger as compared to the first one and it felt that there was a global war brewing. The performances of all the major casts in the movie was fantastic and you could feel the emotion they were feeling at the moment. I do wonder, especially for these book-to-movie translations that the way a character is written and the depth it has been provided in the novel makes an actors job easier or more difficult. For a great actor, I think it could be a bit easy since they already have all the skills and the actors in this movie (Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, Phillip Seymor Hoffman etc.) definitely are really good. Their skills provide the needed depth to bring those already well written characters to the big screen. I did not particularly like the first movie (it could be because I haven't read the books). I have come to understand that if you do like a novel or a book, you tend to b a bit more lenient towards the movie and minor flaws would be ignored. This happened to me with Harry Potter (don't get me wrong, most of the movies were good and I am a Potter fan). But yeah, the first Hunger Games was a bit shallow to me and it was a bit strange to watch all the people in funny dresses and weird makeup with the backdrop of children fighting for their lives in a bloody battle. The second one felt more like a movie (the dresses were still strange but I am used to them by now). I am planning to read the final book now. I hope I can get back the Potter charm.The second installment of the franchise certainly had more positives for me than the first one. The scale of things just seemed much more bigger as compared to the first one and it felt that there was a global war brewing. The performances of all the major casts in the movie was fantastic and you could feel the emotion they were feeling at the moment. I do wonder, especially for these book-to-movie translations that the way a character is written and the depth it has been provided in the novel makes an actors job easier or more difficult. For a great actor, I think it could be a bit easy since they already have all the skills and the actors in this movie (Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, Phillip Seymor Hoffman etc.) definitely are really good. Their skills provide the needed depth to bring those already well written characters to the big screen. I did not particularly like the first movie (it could be because I haven't read the books). I have come to understand that if you do like a novel or a book, you tend to b a bit more lenient towards the movie and minor flaws would be ignored. This happened to me with Harry Potter (don't get me wrong, most of the movies were good and I am a Potter fan). But yeah, the first Hunger Games was a bit shallow to me and it was a bit strange to watch all the people in funny dresses and weird makeup with the backdrop of children fighting for their lives in a bloody battle. The second one felt more like a movie (the dresses were still strange but I am used to them by now). I am planning to read the final book now. I hope I can get back the Potter charm.