I have been a huge fan of The Hunger Games since before the books even got big and even had the pleasure of meeting Suzanne Collins herself a few years ago so you can imagine how excited I was for the release of the Catching Fire movie. I enjoyed the first movie but I felt like it shied away from the violence a bit, but overall it was a good representation of the novel. Catching Fire, however, was a million times better.

It is very rare that a movie follows extremely close to the book it is based on, which is understandable because it is an entirely different way of presenting the story, but Catching Fire managed to accomplish this task beautifully. It stuck very close to the book while at the same time giving the viewer a new way of seeing the story. There were a few things that they left out–very minor things–but they didn’t really change anything drastically so that made it that much more enjoyable for me since Catching Fire was my favorite book in the trilogy.

The casting for this movie couldn’t have been more perfect. Finnick and Johanna were exactly how I pictured them and Mags was wonderfully heartbreaking. Jennifer Lawrence is a fantastic Katniss and she really makes the movie as good as it is. I felt more sparks between Katniss and Peeta in this movie than in the last, which made it more believable because in this movie Katniss is supposed to be starting to feel something for him, too. The costumes and the arena were incredible and one of my favorites scenes had to be when Katniss’s dress transformed her into a mockingjay.

Overall, Catching Fire was a fantastic movie that stuck very close to the book and the phenomenal cast just added to the excellent directing. I hope they keep the same director for the next film because he really did a wonderful job.

Catching Fire was released in theaters on November 22, 2013.