The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1 Review

Rating: 2/10 (7 September 2016)

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1(2014) Starring:Jennifer Lawerence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Robert Knepper, Sam Claflin, Lily Rabe, Evan Ross, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Donald Sutherland, and Elizabeth Banks Directed By: Francis Lawrence Review FIRE BURNS BRIGHTER IN THE DARKNESS The Biggest problem with the new Hunger Games film is right there in the title:Part 1 Mockingjay, the final installment in Suzane Collins dystopian trilogy wasn't conceived in two parts. That was a decsion made in Hollywood by a studio looking to double and milk every last dime out of its blockbuster franchise. The suits probably thought "Hey it worked out well for Twilight and Harry Potter, so why not us?" You can't blame them for wanting to keep the good times rolling. But it's a pretty cynical business plan, and it's led to a film that feels needlessly padded. Mockingjay Part 1 is like someone in my school doing a paper and there is a limit you need to get too and they just want too jack it up. This is very disappointing because the previous chapter Catching fire, I thought exceeded the first film and helped the franchise, cause I did not like the first film it's a battle royal rip off. Catching Fire though gave the main character Katniss played excellently by Jennifer Lawerence into a brainy badass. Now she is become passive. The film picks up after the incendiary conclusion of catching Fire's Quarter Quell, when Katniss was rescued and brought to the rebels, underground fortress in District 13. Here, the anti-capital leaders plot their next strike against president Snow(Donald Sutherland), hatching a plan to turn Katniss into fiery symbol of the resistance in a propaganda war as their secret weapon known as the mockingjay. The film is interesting, the suffering this film has is that to me I felt bored while watching this latest entire in the hunger games series. The performances are ultimately what kept me me invested and interested in what was going on, but the script feels like such a jumbled mess that I didn't care what was going on. I suppose director Francis Lawerence and writers Peter Craig and Danny Strong deserve some credit for daring to sneak any political cheekiness into a movie that's as big and corporate as this. But overall their hands are tied too tightly. While the series' second film had better character development, Mockingjay is mostly bound to the bleak and claustrophobic bowels of a bunker. It suffocates the film. And when the story does get interesting and you know something important is about to happen the movie ends. That's not a cliff-hanger that's a tease. I give The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 a two and a half out of five.