Feature | Lights, Camera, Action! – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (Movie Review)

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (UK Rating: 12A)

Mockingjay Part 1 picks up where Catching Fire left off - Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) has shattered the Hunger Games forever. Her home, District 12, has been destroyed by the Capital, and the other districts, uniting under President Coin (Julianne Moore), are fighting back. They need a figurehead - the Mockingjay - and Katniss is the perfect candidate, given the following she gathered during the Hunger Games. She eventually agrees, but her reason is more personal than she cares to admit: she wants to rescue Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), who survived the Games with her, from the clutches of the evil President Snow (Donald Sutherland).

Those who have seen the first two in the series should be up to speed with events, especially if having read the books as well. Newcomers shouldn't be put off trying The Hunger Games for the first time either, though, because Mockingjay Part 1 has been smartly scripted to fill in just the right number of gaps to explain what's happened in the past. It's seamlessly done and, as the action kicks off right from the very start, they are also useful as reminders for fans whose memories might have faded.

Katniss is a terrific heroine, a great female role model, and Lawrence is excellent in the role - brave to the point of fearless but with weaknesses that make her all too human; strong but young enough to be manipulated by the more canny adults. She's not the only powerful female, however, as she has a woman president in her corner in the shape of ice cool President Coin. They are fire and ice and the president knows it - and she also sees more than a little of herself in the girl; they both know their own minds. President Coin will listen to advice from Plutarch Heavensbee (a delightfully all-knowing Philip Seymour Hoffman) but she doesn't always take it. She comes into her own during the battle sequences, where she's logical and decisive: Heavensbee, on the other hand, winces at every single bump and explosion. He is, as she tells him, totally out of his comfort zone.

The film ends abruptly with a cliff hanger but it's to be expected. This is Part 1 and it's setting the audience up for Part 2, which doesn't arrive until November. It cannot come quickly enough!

8/10

Great - Silver Award

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is big, powerful, exciting, and begs to be watched on the big screen. It's also the original YA (Young Adult) series and stands head and shoulders above its competitors in the genre. The characters are stronger, the ideas have more depth, and the story is more complex and subtle. This isn't a film just for teenagers, it's for everybody.