Review of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) by Shufflesnuffle — 30 Nov 2014

If you feel like you were left hanging after Catching Fire, then you need to see Mockingjay, but don’t be in any rush. I would give the movie a 4/10, compared to the first two movies Mockingjay Part I was a disappointment. I was impressed by the acting done by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, and most of the acting done by Jennifer Lawrence was great, but it didn’t match her performance in the first two films. Hopefully part two will make up for part one.

To catch you up, after Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) was taken up into the aircraft at the end of Catching Fire you learn that there is a plan to spark a rebellion in Panem. Rebel President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) plan to use Katniss as the vehicle to fuel the rebellion. As you learn in Catching Fire, Peeta (Josh Hucherson) has been taken by the Capitol to threaten those who go against them and torture Katniss.

The first 45 minutes of the movie are boring and depressing to say the least. I felt like the whole movie was basically the Rebels’ creating propaganda videos to try and rally the troops, and Katniss going through various states of emotion. One second she would be sad the next scared and the next happy. The thing that bothered me the most about the movie was how long it took to reach the climax. You don’t have any feeling of suspense or anticipation until the last fifteen minutes of the movie. The creators also expect us to care about characters like Katniss’ family and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) when they only get like ten minutes on the screen. Also, I believe the whole part one and part two setup they decided to do to the film is a desperate cash grab to try and get people to come spend money to see the ending next year.

One thing I thought the movie did a good job of is creating the dystopian/revolution mood. It felt like the whole movie was in dark lighting which set a gloomy atmosphere. Also the settings of many of the scenes took place in areas destroyed or in shambles, giving it the dystopian mood. One more thing I thought was done well was the placement of action scenes spread around the movie, they were all well placed throughout the movie.

To conclude, there were things done well such as the settings and mood as well as the acting done by Philip Seymour Hoffman, and most of the acting done by Jennifer Lawrence. Despite the few good things, the movie was still bad. The lack of climatic events during most of the movie, the vapidity, and lack of character development made this movie bad. So in my opinion if you’re planning to go see it, save your money, and wait until it’s on Netflix.