Movie Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Release Date: November 21nd 2014

Director: Francis Lawrence

Writers: Peter Craig (screenplay), Danny Strong (screenplay), Suzanne Collins (novel & adaptation)

Main Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, with Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland

Genres: Adventure | Sci-Fi

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images and thematic material

Studios: Color Force | Lionsgate 

Official Sites: Web | Facebook | IMDb | Twitter

The worldwide phenomenon of The Hunger Games continues to set the world on fire with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, which finds Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) in District 13 after she literally shatters the games forever. Under the leadership of President Coin (Julianne Moore) and the advice of her trusted friends, Katniss spreads her wings as she fights to save Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and a nation moved by her courage. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 is directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Danny Strong and Peter Craig and produced by Nina Jacobson's Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik. The novel on which the film is based is the third in a trilogy written by Suzanne Collins that has over 65 million copies in print in the U.S. alone.

Lionsgate presents, a Color Force / Lionsgate production, a Francis Lawrence film.

The worldwide phenomenon of The Hunger Games continues to set the world on fire with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1, which finds Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) in District 13 after she literally shatters the games forever. Under the leadership of President Coin (Julianne Moore) and the advice of her trusted friends, Katniss spreads her wings as she fights to save Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and a nation moved by her courage. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 is directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Danny Strong and Peter Craig and produced by Nina Jacobson's Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik. The novel on which the film is based is the third in a trilogy written by Suzanne Collins that has over 65 million copies in print in the U.S. alone.



Lionsgate presents, a Color Force / Lionsgate production, a Francis Lawrence film.

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is the highly anticipated sequel to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. At the end of Catching Fire we left Katniss after she had just done the most rebellious act to date-shot an arrow at the quarter quells arena, blowing it to pieces. We also leave knowing that Peeta is now in the hands of the capital-what will befall him? Mockingjay starts with Katniss in District 13, with one goal on her mind. Getting Peeta back to safety.

I had my doubts when it came to Mockingjay, to me it is the weakest book in the series and I wasn't completely sure that they needed to split it into two films. I thought they could cut down most of the first part-what I call the boring half-and give us more action from the second half of the book. Oh my gosh am I thankful that they are splitting it into two movies. They somehow made the first half of the book really entertaining. I was on the edge of my seat from the start of the film. Halfway through I was glad that they had made it two films because they were able to show us parts of the story that we miss in the book. As a fan of the book and the story that is The Hunger Games I was very pleased with everything that they put into the movie.

Francis Lawrence--be still my heart. He is one of my all time favorite directors and his work with The Hunger Games series has only made me love him even more. He has such precise camera angles-he makes you feel everything the characters feel. If they are uncomfortable he gets the camera right up in the actors space so the audience feels uncomfortable. There are multiple times when he uses this technique-and not to just make you feel uncomfortable; to also make you feel sadness, anger, despair and excitement. One of my favorite things about this film is the editing, don't judge. I want to be an editor one day and so I take notice in the way a scene gets put together. The tiny details not many people notice. The sound editing within this movie was phenomenal. There were multiple times when I wanted to applaud the work of the audio editors because the sound was always on point. From my own personal experience sound editing is one of the most difficult tasks to take on, and for me that was not an issue within this film.

A lot of talk has been going around about Jennifer Lawrence and how she is a horrible singer. This is mainly coming from her. And once you see this movie you will realize that she is a liar. Her singing was beautiful and it was perfect for the feeling of the scene. When she sang "The Hanging Tree" I got chills and almost cried. This to me was one of the most powerful parts of the whole film, it brought every aspect of the film together and, to me, made me realize the enormity of what was really happening. Of course I am a crybaby while watching films, and this one was no different. I cried three or four times just because of how perfect it was, how similar to the book it was, and just the performances from the actors alone. I could bore you with all the perfect performances within this film, from Jennifer to Julianne Moore, but I would rather you experience their performances for yourself.

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