Utter mediocrity, dull and disappointing.

Rating: 3/10 (24 November 2014)

Although I am not a particularly huge fan of this franchise, I have enjoyed the movies up to this point. The first was highly flawed but mostly enjoyable, and the second a large improvement, actually among the better blockbusters of that year. This third entry takes the franchise into a dull, predictable and hugely underwhelming direction however.
The first thing to note here is the acting. It is generally subpar. Lawrence gives the least interesting performance of her career, clearly either tired with the franchise or not engaged by the weak script. The supporting cast is generally filled with talented actors, Harrelson, Hoffman, Moore, Sutherland and Dormer. However they are almost all wasted, given little to do and often spend time filling the screen with no real purpose. The is most glaringly obvious with Harrelson, who spends the majority of the film wandering around in the background with zero purpose. All of these great actors are shelved in favour of the dull mediocrity that is Liam Hemsworth, who is given a huge amount of screen time here. His presence is comparable with a small moist stone in your sock, irritating and uncomfortable without arousing much of a direct reaction from the victim. The only good performance of note is Natalie Dormer, who is given a passable amount of screen time and appears to be the only actor enjoying themselves.
The cinematography, CGI, lighting and set design are all dull and forgettable, not worthy of description or discussion. As is the predictable and horrendously repetitive script, which features around four separate scenes wherein Lawrence's character cries whilst surrounded by rubble and debris.
Finally, I will look at the film from the perspective of somebody who has in fact read the trilogy. Mockingjay is a bad book. It has some of the most rushed pacing I have ever seen, and has no character of emotional depth to it. However this film is bad in a totally different, if equally offensive way. It is bland, personality free and lazy to witness. The action is tacked on and boring, the characters are as dull as in the book, and the pacing non-existent. This is a massive disappointment, and a sad collapse of an otherwise decent film series. I would say I have hopes for Part 2, however the second half of the book is a hilarious disaster already, so I am very sceptical.