The Hunger Games film series continues to set the world on fire with the third installment, Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1.  Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) finds herself in District 13, an underground city where she is reunited with her family, Effie, Haymitch, Gale, and Finnick Odair. As the nation is on the verge of a revolution against the capital, Katniss finds the courage to lead the districts in revolt against the capital and save Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) who is being held hostage by the capital. The movie is directed by Francis Lawrence, and written by Danny Strong and Peter Craig. The novel on which the movie is based is a trilogy written by Suzanne Collins that has sold 65 million print copies in the US alone.

The movie was very well directed and the actors were spot on. However, the plot could have been better in a lot of ways. Anyone who read or watched the previous Hunger Games series knows that Katniss has been through a lot, and has a burning hate for the capital, especially president Snow (Donald Sutherland). However, throughout most of the movie, Katniss was either drugged or sedated. When she was whisked away to district 13, she was in extremely poor physical and mental health. This caused her to be a rather poor leader. On top of that, the story is told through Katniss’ eyes, and since she is sedated most of the time, it leaves us with gaps in the story line, which confuses the viewer. Speaking of Katniss, the movie further adds depth and develops Katniss’ character. In the first Hunger Games movie, she was a teenage girl from District 12 who volunteered as tribute for her little sister Prim. Not knowing what she was getting into, she became a favorite of the tributes and inspired many young people across Panam, which began to spark a rebellion. In Catching fire, she became a symbol of courage and a rebellion slowly started brewing against the capital. However, the worst part is Hollywood’s decision to split the movie into 2 parts. To them, it was a way of making more money… and just teasing the audience, forcing them to wait a grueling 12 months before seeing the second part, especially after a cliffhanger. That is just plain rude!

Overall, the movie had great pictures, a great soundtrack and an interesting plot. Like I mentioned before, there were a few gaps in the plot due to the fact that we saw the movie from Katniss’ point of view, and since she was drugged and is mentally ruined, she is not a very reliable narrator.

I give it a B+