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    The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

    Reviewed by
    goosebumps84@

    I had very low expectations for this Mockingjay Part 1. I hated the book that it's based on and it received pretty mediocre reviews. However, I loved Catching Fire, so I was curious to see if they could make this awful book in to a good movie. Well, though it was nowhere close to as good as Catching Fire was, Mockingjay Part 1 is a fun and satisfying movie that actually exceeds the book!

    Since this movie picks up right after the ending of Catching Fire, I will be spoiling that movie. So if you haven't seen or read Catching Fire, please see it and then come back. Now, where were we? Oh yeah, the story follows Katniss as she struggles with being the "mockingjay" for the revolution and films propaganda ads. The story was very slow and quite uneventful until the final 20 minutes. Though it's almost always interesting, the plot makes this movie seem like a very long trailer for the next film.

    The acting is phenomenal. Jennifer Lawrence gives another great performance as Katniss. Woody Harrelson, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth and Elizabeth Banks all return in fine form and newcomers Julianne Moore and Willow Shields do great jobs. I would say that Donald Sutherland is the standout in this film, but then I would be ignoring the fantastic final performance from Phillip Seymour Hoffman (RIP) He added much needed humour to the film and gave it a lighter touch.

    Even though it was often slow and not much happened, I couldn't help myself from being constantly interested in the film. It was slow, but not too boring. This is mainly because of the writing, which is actually pretty great. The special effects and cinematography were very good and made the world of Pan-Em seem dark and dry.

    The musical score is excellent, the editing is great and the lighting is perfect. You may be asking yourself by now why I didn't give this movie a higher grade? I mean, so far the only problem I've mentioned is that the movie's slow. Well, unfortunately the direction isn't that good. One of my main gripes about the first Hunger Games movie was the awful shaky cam and dumb shots. I was thankful that Catching Fire didn't have these garbage shots, thanks to director Francis Lawrence. When he was announced to film Mockingjay, I didn't expect MORE SHAKY CAM AND BAD CAMERA ANGLES! But, that's what I got. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't as horrible as the first film, but it was pretty bad. Another minor problem I had was the last five minutes. I thought the movie ended on a very mediocre note.

    Overall, The Hunger Games: Mockinjay Part 1 is much better than I expected. It had great acting, great cinematography and sets up the sequel pretty well. Unfortunately, it is very slow, badly directed and has a mediocre ending. See it if you are a fan of the movies/books.

    RATING: 7.5/10.

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    goosebumps84@  29.11.2014 age: 13-17 420 reviews

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