Jennifer Lawrence was fantastic, but the film itself was rather dull

Rating: 4/10 (29 March 2015)

Having successfully completed the games, Katniss Everdeen is back and under the supervision of District 13's President Coin (Julianne Moore), Katniss becomes the Mockingjay and is intent on rescuing Peta (Josh Hutcherson) from the evil clutches of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and The Capitol. In the interim period, she rallies round the various districts to let them know that she is back and also to drum up as much support as possible in order to take on The Capitol.
If I'm totally honest I'm not a massive fan of The Hunger Games - I thought that the first film was OK and thought that the second film was a slight improvement over the first film. I went in with positive expectations hoping that this film would be a slight notch up on the second film (or equally as good at worst), but unfortunately it isn't and it's definitely the weakest offering so far.
There is a REALLY long and slow build up where we essentially see Katniss visiting the various districts making several propaganda type videos in order to try to unite the districts and get her help to take on The Capitol. It's an interesting change of direction from the first 2 films, but the problem is the propaganda aspect is all that there really is to the film. Considering Katniss & the districts are meant to be at war with The Capitol it might have been nice to have a bit more action, a few fights, more confrontation etc. It really did just feel like 2 hours of talking and not much else.
I was also a little disappointed with some of the characters in the third film; Elizabeth Banks and Woody Harrelson were real standouts in the previous films whereas in this film there were merely shadows of themselves. Harrelson was an alcoholic in the previous films and his character being sober in this film made his character a lot less fun. I'm not criticising Banks & Harrelson's acting, but merely felt that their characters were a little more flat in this film.
The star of the show here is Lawrence and the more films that I see her in the more I like her as an actress. As this franchise has progressed, I think that her performance has got better with every passing film (she's been excellent elsewhere too). The likes of Snow and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman offer good support, but aren't really given much to do. This is Lawrence's show and she shined brightly amidst all the tedium.
Aside from the strong performances by the cast there's little else to recommend here. It was basically a long, repetitive and boring film with very little action, tension, conflict or excitement.