MYST POST #2: Hunger Games Mockingjay - Part 1

Scrambling to get my MYST posts done, I had no other option but to venture into the oh-so disappointing "On Demand" movie selection. Once I got there, they had the newest Hunger Games movie featured on the front page. I watched the first two, and have read the first book, so I decided to watch it, even though I didn't really want to. I was pretty turned off by the fact that they split the third book into 2 movies, seemingly doing it to try to squeeze every last penny out of the Hunger games series that they can. I didn't really have that high of expectations for it, because I assumed it was going to be slow and dragged out like the "Part 1" in its title suggests. Unfortunately, the movie did feel really slow at some points and yes, even dragged on too, however I will admit that I'd be wrong to call it a "bad movie" - I did like the first two movies in the series after all.



Mockingjay - Part 1 depicts the beginning of the uprising against the Capitol amongst the districts that Katniss evidently started following the events from the previous two movies. The movie begins with Katniss awaking in the secret District 13, who have also been secretly spearheading a revolution. They employ Katniss to be their "Mockingjay" - the face of the rebellion and symbol for hope among all the districts. As the Mockingjay, Katniss must shoot a variety of propaganda "commercials" encouraging the other districts to join the rebellion. The whole movie revolves around the shooting of these propoganda clips, which seemingly angers Katniss who just wants to help her friends escape the Capitol.

As I said, the movie felt really slow and dragged on at times, which can probably be credited to its 2 part structure. It has very little action and was boring at times, but I feel as if "Part 2" is going to be really good just because they pretty much spent this whole entire movie setting the scene for it. The whole "propoganda commercial" plot line bothered me because I thought it was kind of stupid and the story could of gone in a lot of of different but better directions. However, I felt the movie did a good job of portraying what the author envisioned in the book, and the acting was pretty good throughout the whole movie. And, although it is boring, it has a lot of clever political subtext, which I can respect in a major blockbluster movie.

All in all, the movie wasn't bad, just a little disappointing compared to the first two. I feel like the only goals for this movie were to make a lot of money and set the scene for Part 2, which I think will turn out to be pretty good after seeing this.

I give it a 3 out of 5 stars on my scale.