The most interesting part of seeing this movie was knowing the plot in advance, but not where in the plot the film would end. Normally, when I watch a movie based on a book, I use where in the plot I am to determine how much runtime is left. Here, I know the plot, but not the point where it's cut in two. So, since I couldn't look at my phone in the theater, I was wondering the whole time when it would end, right up until "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part I" appeared on the screen.
I wasn't really expecting Peeta to look so malnourished after he was rescued. He looked perfectly healthy on TV, but he clearly lost a lot of weight. He couldn't have lost it all in the few days between the attack and his rescue, so I'm guessing it was down to Capital make up and his suit. Hospital gowns are very revealing and there was no one on hand to make him look his best.
I'm glad they put the crazy cat game in there. By that, I'm referring to Katniss' name for the flashlight game she and Prim played with Buttercup. In the book, they rationed extra batteries for it because people were enjoying it. I just found it entertaining and true to the nature of cats.
Did anyone else notice Snow's foreshadowing of Peeta? Katniss didn't. Gale mentioned that the Capital let them fly out, even though their weapons were back online. President Snow must have ordered that so Katniss could see what happened to Peeta. Snow wanted her to know that he still had enough control to hurt her friends. He didn't just want to end the rebellion, he wanted to break her.
I seem to recall
The Hunger Games mentioning that the tribute building was only 13 floors high. There was one floor for each district, plus common areas and an underground training center. It was certainly not a towering skyscraper. I'm sure the Capital would find some way to fill a 100-story building designed to train teenagers, but that's not how it was in the book. I can't remember whether they included the rooftop scene in the first movie, but it'd be interesting to see if they got the height wrong there, too.
They definitely changed Effie's role in the movie. In the book, Katniss found her in a District 13 prison with the rest of the prep team. I forget how far through the book that was (whether it would've been in Part 1 or 2). The writers were very careful to counteract that part of the book by giving Plutarch a line where he tells Effie that she's not a prisoner. I also remember one of the cast saying in an interview that Effie replaces one of Plutarch's assistants in the film.
It looks like
Part 2 is going to be most of the fight scenes and the conclusion. President Coin said at the end that the next day (or sometime soon) they were going to storm the Nut in District 2. After that comes the fighting in the Capital, President Snow's execution, and Katniss' recovery. The next part is definitely going to be the more action-packed half of the finale. Hopefully, it will be longer, too. The first two films were both around 2.5 hours long, while this one was only 2 hours, 3 minutes. If not for Peeta's rescue, it would have been even shorter, since that wasn't in the original book.
