Review of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) by Dcedmonds — 14 Jan 2015

"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1" 10 Scale Rating: 4.5 (Mediocre) ...

The Good: For the most part, the cast turns in solid performances. Julianne Moore starts off stiff, but eventually finds her way and does a good job. The late Phillip Seymour Hoffman was excellent, though that is to be expected. Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth are once again adequate and I had no complaints there. Donald Sutherland, however, was hands down the best part of the film. While his scenes were few and far between, he dominated the screen every time he appeared. He seemed to enjoy playing the villainous President Snow and it shows. The last 30 minutes of the film are solid and somewhat entertaining.

The Bad: Sadly, the film is slow and boring to the point that it is difficult to watch. Very little of note actually happens for the 1:30 of the movie and I found myself wanting it to hurry up and just end. Jennifer Lawrence did her best with what she had to work with, but spent the bulk of the film sobbing and crying at every turn. You'd think that a strong character like Katniss, who has seen and been through a LOT at this point, would be able to hold it together. I gave the first two films an 8.0 out of 10.0, so this is a massive letdown and I hope that the final film in the series has much more to offer.