Mockingjay part 1 a build up for finale

Rating: 7/10 (1 December 2014)

The Mockingjay is out of the Hunger Games arena but she is not done fighting. The third installment of the Hunger Games series diverges from the first two in that things have gotten a lot more serious. No longer is Katniss Everdeen simply trying to stay alive, she is now leading a cause, a revolution.
This is one of the main reasons I didn't like this movie as much. The root of it all is the book of course, which I read; so the book is a lot to blame. To be fair, I didn't really like book three as much as the first two, so it is quite possible that I was biased going into the movie. Be that as it is, Katniss was more likable as the girl on fire just trying to survive. Now she is the Mockingjay trying to incite and invigorate the people to action. Along with this character shift the movie was slow.
Mockingjay Part 1 was a build up movie in my opinion. The entire movie is setting the stage for the eventual battle between the rebels and the Capital. Not that they haven't been fighting already, but the stage is being set for an all out offensive. So, as a build up movie it was slow as to be expected. There were some exciting and active moments sprinkled in here and there, but the majority of the movie was very chess like. Like President Snow said, "Moves and counter-moves."