Review of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) by J D — 14 Jul 2015

Katniss Everdeen: TV Personality.

Easily the worst of the series, simply because it's only half of the story you want to see. I don't think it was a good idea to split this into two movies. Make Mockingjay a long movie instead, LOTR-like length, for example. The problem is the movie is all lead in, and virtually no payoff, which just leaves you a bit disappointed.

That being said, what is there is still pretty good. The acting as always is solid, and there's some great suspense and action. The soundtrack is also pretty great, with "The Hanging Tree" in particular being quite memorable. One criticism I have is that the color timing was done poorly. Lots of washed out and tinted black levels, which I always think make the image look bad. It's a trick hollywood has recently used a lot to make their darker scenes easier to see, but I would prefer a better lighting setup on set, or at least better cameras to something like this.

I feel like part 2 is going to be insane and perhaps being a separate movie will allow them to fit in much more that they wouldn't have otherwise, but I still feel like it was a poor choice to split this one into two movies because it leaves us with a movie that just doesn't live up to the Hunger Games name.

74%.