Saturday, November 22, 2014

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 – review

The third installment of The Hunger Games films is the weakest of the movies. This movie really did not need to be split into two films. The characters that were interesting in past films are almost non-existent in this chapter. Despite that, the actors do bring in good performances, there just isn’t enough to make this a good movie.

After surviving the Quarter Quell, Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, finds herself in District 13. She allies herself with the rebels there and she becomes the face of the resistance. Once she figures out the depth of war atrocities by the current President, she begins convincing the other Districts to rise up and fight against the Capitol.

The acting is very good. They touch on many themes of the horrors of war. Jennifer Lawrence does a fine job portraying Katniss. The characters of Haymitch, Effie, and even Johanna are barely in this movie.  We see some new talent from people like Natalie Dormer as Cressida, but again, she is underused despite how interesting her character seems.

The movie is long and fairly dull. Where the other films had lots of action, this movie has small moments of action surrounded by loads of filler.  The character of Peeta, played by Josh Hutcherson, is painfully annoying because, once again, he must be rescued. He feels like the most useless character in the entire Hunger Games series. The entire government of Panem seems to be incredibly stupid. For example, the President wants to quell a rebellion so he kills nearly everyone in a District. This is the same District that is in charge of mining coal for the whole of Panem. That seems like really poor planning unless they have an alternative energy source immediately lined up.

I cannot recommend this movie. If you are a fan of the rest of the series this would be worth seeing as a rental. It is really weak and they should have just kept the book as one entire film. I am curious as to how this will wrap up, especially with the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. 

1 comment:

  1. Good review Ryan. Though I liked it for the most part, I still can't help but feel incredibly disappointed by how abrupt its ending was.

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