The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Was doing a two parts movie for one book really necessary?

Interesting:

If you stay until the end credits, you will realize that the Mockingjay logo will change, first we see the one from Hunger Games, than it turns into The Hunger Games Catching Fire, to finally transform into the logo of the Mockingjay Part 1.

While filming:

Liam Hemsworth injured himself while shooting, he had a hairline fracture between his ankle joints. He said in an interview “I heard a big crack and just went down”.

Should I see it?

If you are expecting many action scenes, forget it, unlike the other two priors movies, this one has more talking scenes than anything else.

Metascore: 64/100
RottenTomatoes: 66%

Directed by Francis Lawrence
Released on November 20, 2014
Running Time: 123 minutes
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Sam Claflin, Donald Sutherland

Review – 6.8/10

Hunger Games is back as Katniss Everdeen officially becomes the new symbol of the rebellion after having been rescued from the arena of the Quarter Quell.

The movie follows exactly where we’ve been left of with Catching Fire. Katniss is once again back from the arena and struggling to get pass all the flashbacks of the deaths. Now that District 12 is destroyed, she must adjust to live underground of District 13. As the time goes by, she becomes the mockingjay symbol, the new face of the rebellion by shooting promo that will be send on the television of all the District to promote the rebellion organized by President Coin.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is more of a drama in my opinion than an action movie, the only actions scene we see are mostly showed in the preview. It has more of a political turn, the way a rebellion is prepare when the people are tired of the way the government is ruling, the manipulation games the rebels and the government play with each other to prove who is better than the other one. What they do to try to create panic in each and every one minds, we see how Katniss and Finnick are dealing with Peeta and Annie capture by the Capitol, how Gale is doing with the fact that Katniss seems to always have Peeta in the back of her mind. Overall, it’s more a preparation of the final act that we got served, it just wasn’t necessarily what we had in mind…

Many says or would say that Hunger Games is such a popularity because of Jennifer Lawrence good acting, but in this one, I give a big round of applause to Josh Hutcherson who plays Peeta. He isn’t often seen on screen, that will be more the case in the Part 2, but when he is there, he is incredible, he makes us want to see how the last one will turn out. It’s not that Jennifer Lawrence or the others weren’t good, on the contrary they gave me the feeling that they are more comfortable with their characters and that is greatly showed on screen, but the one that stands out the most from the rest is no other than Josh Hutcherson. Many new characters in this one; President Coin who rules District 13 played by Julianne Moore who did good job to represent what we had in mind from the book, the camera crew that follows Katniss to shoot her promo. Many old ones as well, Woody Harrelson who plays a great Haymitch that must be sober for the first time in years! Liam Hemsworth, playing Gale, has more mature as an actor in this one, Donald Sutherland is back and great as the villain President Snow. Finnick Odair is no other than Sam Claflin, great casting on that part, just like I imagined him while reading the books. And let’s not forget someone who deserves a great thump up, not only for his great acting in Hunger Games, but in all his movies, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who will appear in the last one, but we won’t know when it’s him on screen or a digital effects because he died one week before the Part 2 movie was done shooting.

For those how have read the book, the movie was well represented. Like always there are some parts that we would have like to see that they didn’t put in the movie but overall there was no problem on that part.

The problem came from my question in the title: was doing a two movie part for one book really necessary? For now I’ll say no, the movie is 2h, which is less than the other two, and a good thing because even then there was some long parts that could have been cut or less describe. Doing 1h15 to describe how the rebellion would take place and 1h45 for the final act would have been great in my opinion, yes it would have been a 3h movie, but much more worth it. But I’ll keep my final answer after seeing Part 2, who knows, maybe it will be so incredible that it will make us think that doing the last book in two parts was really worth it in the end. And yes, I have big expectation for the final act…

Still The Hunger Games: Mockingkay – Part 1 wasn’t a bad movie, it was good, but do not expect action if you don’t want to be disappointed, it just maybe didn’t need to be shown in two parts.

Personal Commentary:

I really think that Josh Hutcherson saved a great deal out of that movie, he plays Peeta exactly like we imagined he would act in the book, and just that it makes it worth it to see in my opinion. For those who loves political debates, you will appreciate it more than those who just wants action. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 is supposed to come out in theaters on November 20 2015, a shame in my opinion seeing as the movie is already done filming.