A nice little build up before the ultimate end game

Rating: 6/10 (26 December 2014)

Why at the moment and for the past few years have film studios, directors and marketing companies decided to turn the one film into the many? Why have they turned those great novels into a two or three part mini-series? You most likely have heard or even created your own theories as to why they keep doing this to us. For me it comes down to the cash income, the money they can not only make but save, it costs so many millions of dollars to make a movie so if you can make two films at once wouldn't it be rather absurd or perhaps even rude not to take that opportunity? I've heard a lot of people get quite aggressive when one film is split into two but just take a second and reflect as to why. Mockingjay Part One begins quite abruptly in fact I will say this, ensure you have seen the two earlier films "The Hunger Games" and "The Hunger Games Catching Fire" otherwise you will be left with a WTF is happening face for a good 30mins into this film. It almost feels it needed a "Previously on the Hunger Games" voice over just so we can recap what we may have forgotten, after all it's been a good twelve months since Catching Fire. It begins with Katniss Evergreen played by Jennifer Lawrence waking up after being rescued and in an underground bunker in District 13, there she meets President Alma Coin the Rebel leader played by Julianne Moore, she informs Katniss of the uprising against Central City and Panam's President Snow played by Donald Sutherland and how she want's Katniss to become the face behind the revolution. Katniss decides for her to become the face she needs to see for herself what has become of the districts while she has been away. She soon discovers that Peeta played by Josh Hutcherson her partner throughout the games so far is in Captiol City and has become the voice of President Snow and his mounting war against the rebels, in fact he has become the enemy Mockingjay is one of these films where they made two separate films at the one time, Mockingjay Part one and Mockingjay Part two. The tragic story behind this one though is the unexpected death of one very talented actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, I think one of the things a lot of people will go into the film is to see where or more to the point what scenes the late Mr. Hoffman wasn't around to finalise. Without giving anything away, you will not notice, for the simple reason he had one bit of dialogue left for Part One which they gave to another fine actor Elizabeth Banks who plays Effie Trinket one of my favourite characters throughout all the films so far and the very underutilised (in part one anyway) Woody Harrelson who plays Haymitch Abernathy for his one left over scene in part two. Mockingjay part one is very much the buildup needed for the big and what will hopefully be massive conclusion that will come In part two, so in saying that the film itself lacks a lot of the action the previous two films had there is a lot of dialogue and build up in this movie, a little more character development for the main characters but not a lot else. There is a very heavy underlining good vs evil to the film for those who think way too much I'm sure you'll put the current world's crisis into the positions of the two parties rather than just enjoying what the film has to offer. It doesn't hold back though, the atrocities caused and the thousands murdered will only make you think about the "what ifs." I loved the way the director Francis Lawrence ( Constantine, I Am Legend, Catching Fire) created his two very separate worlds, when dealing with the citizens of Capitol City the colours where clean, bright, white, the lights the same, the surroundings rich and filled with stuff and things. Then when he is focusing on the districts the colour palate is dark, the people are brooding, they have flickering lights, gray walls, gray clothing, no makeup no hairstyling and nothing of any great importance but what keepsakes the individuals can carry. I thought that was a great way to tell the two different sides of the story. I enjoyed Mockingjay part one and if being completely honest I really wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did knowing there was Part two to come still and would no doubt be left with some silly cliffhanger for the next year. If you're a fan of the series so far I'd say be sure to see it, just watch the previous films sometime before hand. If you're not a fan get the first two films first and watch them before seeing this one, it is a pretty good series so far and you're only missing out.