Movies Reviews

Don’t Expect Much From ‘Mockingjay’ And You Might Not Be Disappointed

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom – As a fan of The Hunger Games trilogy, I had long awaited and much anticipated MockingjayPart 1.
A whole year’s worth of anticipation, in fact, but as much as I hate to admit it, the first half of the third installment to the series wasn’t all that great.
The film begins just after where Catching Fire– the previous movie – left off, showing Katniss Everdeen repeating to herself all the basic elements of who she is in a fight to find some stability. Of course I understood what was going on, however someone without much Hunger Games knowledge may find themselves a little confused – perhaps even left out of the loop. I even heard the man behind me whisper ‘did I see the last one?’
Truthfully, I have always thought that Mockingjay was the weakest book of the three, so with that thought in mind the movie adaption could have only been spectacular if the plot line strayed from what Suzanne Collins had written. But that would have been a risky decision, considering that The Hunger Games comes with a large fan base, expecting the films to do justice by the books they love.
What made The Hunger Games and Catching Fire so interesting was that it didn’t take too long before you got into the action – the actual hunger games.
But Mockingjay Part 1 is only half of a full movie – all build up, with nothing to show for it. Maybe if the other two films hadn’t had such a key element of action in them, this one would have seemed a little livelier.
I can’t help but feel that splitting the last book into two movies was an unnecessary money-making scheme. There is no difference in size that would warrant the creation of four films instead of three.
The producers know that fans will buy tickets, and it seems to me that they are taking advantage of that. Splitting the final segment of a franchise into more parts than the writer intended seems to be a theme taking popular book-to-screen adaptations by storm. Just take a look at Harry Potter, or The Hobbit.
Despite there being no doubt in my mind that Mockingjay Part 1 is the worst installment yet, I didn’t hate it. It wasn’t necessarily a bad movie, it just didn’t live up to the hype of those that came before. I think that disappointment shaped my views more than anything else.
Would I recommend Mockingjay Part 1? Maybe, but be sure to go in not expecting too much.
Lauren Pope is a Reporter for Youth Journalism International.
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