"Some people just want to watch the world burn"

Rating: 9/10 (30 November 2014)

The Hunger Games, when it first arrived I bet everyone thought it would just another "Twilight" genre film. Oh how wrong they were, instead of sparkly vampires we are given necks being snapped and poisoned foliage. So I suppose the reel question is with this being Part 1 will it be a Desolation of Lawrence or a Battle of 13 Districts? Mockingjay has something so much deeper locked inside of it's run time than what is produced. Considering the film now after watching it and having time to think, it has so many ideas and themes. It articulates them so precisely and so subtly that it's only with distance can we truly understand how measured a movie this is. Here is a film that comments on every single major issue in our society simultaneously. The film talks about fashion and our own personal image, racism and decimation, oppression and slavery and so much more. For that alone, it deserves to be seen by all, for it's cultural significance in our world, but that's not it's only success.
The film also succeeds as a film. It's true that a film that's all comment and no action would be a documentary, and Monckingjay isn't that, Monckingjay is a film that feels like a grand sceptical, it knows how important it is to fan. It has clearly learnt from Harry Potter, which is the benchmark for adaption fandom, and it just about reaches it. This is from a director who hasn't really had a good success rate with adaptions from other mediums, his previous work includes Constantine and I Am Legend, however it looks as if Francis Lawrence has became stronger over time and I can honestly say that Mockingjay is one of the strongest films I have seen all year.
See the problem with Mockingjay (and in fact any 2 part film) is that you have to split the movie in two, and you have to give people a reason to come back for more. Mockingjay does this perfectly. Having read the books I would have split the film exactly where the film does, and the final movements are nothing short of spectacular. It leaves the stakes high and many questions hanging in the air, as soon as the credits roll you only want to know one thing, what happens next? (and let me reassure you the best is yet to come) I should say that Mockingjay is probably more of a drama in comparison to the other 2 films which were more action, but this is how the book is, and at no point feels forced, but more like a logical evolutionary step in what would happen after the events in Catching Fire.
I could list of all the cast and explain how they now inhabit those roles, but what would be the point? We all know it anyway, however it should be said that the stand out cast members are Elizabeth Banks and Josh Hutcherson, both of who's stark contrast in previous movies are what brings the reality of the message of the film home to us.
Mockingjay is violent, and savage, it is brutal and nasty. It is also gripping and beautiful and one of the best films I have seen this year. It is superior to other films in it's genre in just about every way that could matter.