Hunger Pains

Rating: 3/10 (25 November 2014)

This film is not recommended.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 is the third installment of this series. And it's getting progressively worse. This Hunger Games 3 is an incomplete complete mess. It should be more accurately called Hunger Games 2½, as it ends abruptly with the sole purpose to rake in more money from its movie-going audience. However, I do agree with the downtrodden in this film: let's start the revolution, but aim it against the Hollywood studios and their greed.
The film starts off immediately from where we ended in Part Two. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) has be taken by rebel forces and her love interest, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), has been left behind at the Capitol, captured by the evil President Snow while her close friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) pines forlornly for her. Katniss discovers that her hometown, District 12 has been destroyed and a new band of fighters have joined forces to overthrow the corrupt government, led by female president elect Coin (Julianne Moore, speaking in a low monotone voice that is suppose to resemble authority) who wants Katniss to become their spokesperson and leader of the uprising, its Mockingjay.
Misdirected by Francis Lawrence, who doesn't build any tension in this part, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 is so S-L-O-W that it appears lifeless. While the other previous films had some spark and wit to them, this one is dreary and sanctimonious. Everyone is way too serious or bland or ready to cry a single tear to show that they are really hurting inside. Believe me, it's the audience that should be crying! A feeling of distress felt by these characters overcame me in the same way as I watched this dreadful film.
The actors, especially Jennifer Lawrence as our heroine and a smirking self-righteous Donald Sutherland, do a yeoman-like job with a script that is filled with filler and lots of talk, but very little action. The script by Peter Craig and Danny Strong plods along with none of the speechifying being credible or interesting. Many of the more colorful characters established in this series are undervalued and underused. Fleeting moments of pleasure are given by Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Sam Clafin, Jeffrey Wright, and the aforementioned Josh Hutcherson. They are mere afterthoughts to the dull sluggish plot. Only the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as a controlling empowered publicist Plutarch Heavensbee and Elizabeth Banks as the vain Effie make an impression, giving the film a hint of comic relief it sorely needs.
For a sci-fi adventure film, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 has very little of both, and no hunger games at all. This is one of the more disappointing sequels ever made, not deserving of one more chapter, let alone two. Teens may enjoy this dumb movie, but I suffered hunger pains watching this insufferable movie. GRADE: C-
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