Babble Spoiler Review: 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1'

After the events of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1  reunites us with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) shortly following the conclusion of the last Hunger Games. Katniss finds herself struggling with having lost her entire district and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) to the hands of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and the Capitol, all while the rest of the districts look to her to lead the rebellion.

I will start by saying I enjoyed the film, more than the first installment but not more than the second film. I enjoyed the performances, with those of Lawrence and Hutcherson standing out the most to me. The emotional struggle of Katniss was really presented up front and we could see her being torn about being in this place of leadership that she never wanted to be in, being worried about her friends and family, and wanting to take down the Capitol. I was pleasantly surprised from the performance of Hutcherson, I felt the times we got to see him the performance was powerful and gave out that feeling of him being a prisoner of war, not to mention that twist at the end from him which was great and I wasn't expecting (I haven't read the books). I liked the tone and scale of the film, and like many people have said this is surely a very different film from the other two. This was very much a film about war, the Hunger Games are gone and this story is now about people rising up against an oppressive government, and it that sense I believe the film succeeded and was able to deliver that message effectively.

But now that I have said what I enjoyed from the film, there are also things I wasn't happy with. I had heard it before and shared the concern, that the film was unnecessarily being split into two parts and would suffer from it, and in my opinion it did. The first half of the film felt quite slow to me, I think the build up was too long and I found myself waiting for things to get exciting (for that I blame the trailers because they made me go in expecting a war to start and not just being set up for one), and it wasn't until the Capitol attacked that I got the feeling that the fun began. I didn't mind the cliffhanger ending, and it should be expected of any film with "Part 1" on the title. Although, they made me believe for a second that the film would end with Peeta chocking Katniss, and if that would have been the case I would have left somewhat annoyed.

In general, I did enjoy the film and had fun watching it, I highly recommend it. If you are reading this review and haven't seen the film you should do so, and if you have seen it tell me what you thought about it. I am very much looking forward to the next one to see the actual war that I wasn't able to see on The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.

Babble Rating: 7/10