The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

I'm surprised to be seeing so many reviews bashing this film because it's "boring" or "it's a copy of Battle Royale 2" , but I'm not here to talk about that. I've read The Hunger Games series multiple times, and reading Mockingjay, I knew it would be the hardest book in the trilogy to adapt into a film. But I am not disappointed. In fact, I want to congratulate Francis Lawrence for being able to create this masterpiece. Watching the movie for the first time, I got immense chills. Especially in the part where Katniss sings "The Hanging Tree". I think it would be an extremely difficult task to split the final part of a movie into two parts and still make part 1 be interesting, but somehow, that feat was accomplished in this film. The acting in this film was phenomenal, especially in Jennifer Lawrence's part. The way Katniss reacted to seeing her home burned and destroyed, was beautiful and gut wrenching. And don't even get me started on Peeta's transformations, it made me so sad, it definitely painted a better picture than the books did! And even Finnick, who we barely got to see, represented the melancholy effect of The Games on people. Mockingjay is the most political, intense, and emotional book in The Hunger Games trilogy, and the way that the essence of the book got transferred into the film was brilliant in my opinion. It was also very intense, but not too much. This movie perfectly guided the way for the final movie. To me, Mockingjay part 1 gave us viewers a pleasing tease of the type of dynamics we can expect in the next film, and the ending surely gripped me to come view part 2 on opening day.

The first movie was fresh and entertaining. I've been dragged by my partner to watch the second one which I actually enjoyed until the end when I realized it was not finished yet. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is simply a jock. I've never been so much bored from a movie and at some point I really considered leaving the theater. The pace is slow, the acting terribly poor and every single scene predictable. Jennifer Lawrence's character has been stretched to the maximum. All she does is crying and pretending all movie long.I will not watch the part 2 in theater nor on TV as we all already know what will happen. This movie is perfect if you want to feel frustrated, disappointed and tricked.

Great acting from the cast; especially Jennifer Lawrence, the characters were as believable and entertaining as they were in previous films, this is pretty much the highlight of the film. The plot however was dull and uneventful, as in nothing really went anywhere. in the majority of the film there was no tension; for the most part it was basically "stuff happens in a bunker for 2 hours: The Movie." which is super disappointing because although I haven't read the books; I'm told by people that have that they skipped a bunch of the action and downplayed the apparent love triangle. If you wanted an action packed flick like the first two or you are the type of fan who doesn't like stuff in the book to be left out, you will be sorely disappointed as this is clearly a filler movie to get some extra $$$ before the series ends. wait for DVD.