A Surprisingly Good Film!

Rating: 7/10 (27 November 2014)

First things first, I would not label myself as a huge Hunger Games fan by any means, and I have also never read the book series, but I went to see this film with a friend, in which I also saw the first film with him as well. It should also be mentioned, though, that this film takes place directly after the events of the last film in the series, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" unto which I'll admit that I did not see, but was rather filled in by my friend as to what happened in between the first Hunger Games film and this one. While I initially expected to see the usual heavy battle sequences and so forth, I was pleasantly surprised to see something quite different from the previous films. Gone were the usual moderate action sequences of Katniss and her crew incessantly fighting and killing others from rival Districts in order to survive and advance. In my opinion, that got sorely repetitive in the first installment, which also seemed to go along slowly, but since this is the Hunger Games, they were probably just trying to stay true to the book. In any case, with this film, the Director somehow managed (and succeeded) in compensating less action for more intense dialogue and a gripping story plot that has Katniss deemed the "Mockingjay" of her District, while acting in defiance against the Capitol, led by a very ruthless President Snow who dares Katniss to try and stop him. At the same time, Katniss also attempts to rescue Peeta, who exhibits a different demeanor toward her, from the clutches of a rival District, only to find him strapped to a hospital gurney at the end of the film, thrashing about like a wild animal. My only compliant of this film, however, is that they shouldn't have broken it up into two parts. Granted, if they didn't, I'm sure the film would have had an impressively long running time. Moreover, I know some of these filmmakers love to string their audiences along with cliffhangers, but this film felt rather incomplete in that sense. Oh well, I guess that's what Part 2 is for. Hats off to the cast and crew on this one, though, for you now have my interest on the next and final film in this series.