Review of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) by Happythug — 29 Nov 2014

The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay, was very close to a perfect movie. Jennifer Lawrence delivers an emotionally intense, but believable Katniss Everdeen. The Characters portrayed were intelligent and believable. At no point did they make choices that would seem illogical or out of place, simply to drive the plot forward... (with one small exception) like in so many movies these days.

The movie was genuinely inspiring, and generally unpredictable. Leaving the audience squirming in their seats as they try to anticipate the coming scenes. Certainly I am glad to have never read the books, because knowing how things would have played out would have ruined so much of the suspense and intensity. At no point was I bored, choosing to hold my bladder for the final half our, so as not to miss a moment.

EXTREME SPOILERS AHEAD, only for those that have already seen the movie:

My only small gripe, the only thing that makes this movie not completely perfect, (and this is certainly a subjective opinion) is President snow's choice to allow the rescue-team to recover the tributes from the capitol. Sure, one of them had a small chance to kill Katnis, sure she would feel emotional trauma at the pain inflicted on Peta, but I imagine it would have been a lot more effective to execute them, than to give them such a moral boosting victory and allowing them to save more important figure-heads of the rebellion. This decision did not seem as smart, nor as sociopathic as I imagine President Snow to be. I can live with writing this off as President snow being rather demented and therefor somewhat unpredictable, but not without a little reservation.