The Good, Bad, and Ugly of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Rating: 7/10 (23 November 2014)

After seeing the movie last night, I left with the following set of things on the Good, Bad, and Ugly lists:
The Good: -Excellent acting on Jennifer Lawrence, Donald Sutherland, and Julianne Moore's parts (and everyone else, too; they're just the ones who stood out the most). -Great visuals (the lighting emphasizes the movie's overall darker tone, plus the exploding hovercraft was pretty awesome). -The additions of two scenes that weren't in the book that gave a deeper look into how the revolution was unfolding in the districts. -The expansion of the victors' rescue from the Capitol. -Accurate to the book, for the most part.
The Bad: -The plot COULD NOT gotten any slower. Seriously, a slightly longer one- movie finale could have been plausible albeit probably a little rushed plot-wise. -Slightly unhappy with how it ended, but I respect the screenwriters' choice. -The lighting, while helping the mood/tone, made parts of the movie harder to follow.
The Ugly: -The strangulation scene from the book goes in full-stop, and gets quite disturbing. If the majority of readers weren't still too young to watch R-rated movies, this scene (and one or two others) might have bumped the rating up. For any parents thinking of taking a tween (10-12 year old) to see this, just keep this in mind.
Overall, the Bad and Ugly didn't detract too much from the movie, and it would have received an 8/10 in my book had the ending been different.