Ed's Review Dot Com

Color Force, Lionsgate,

Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman

At the end of Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) brought the special games, with all the former champions, to a sudden halt when she shot an arrow into the force field. The last we saw them, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) was missing and presumed dead, and Katniss had been rescued by the rebels and taken to their secret hideaway. This is where this story begins. Katniss is now being persuaded to become “The Mockingjay” who is the image of the revolution. The capitol has hit the area’s very hard, and District 13 was completely destroyed as punishment. The government has no qualms with killing innocent women and children. But when they find out that Peeta is alive, and seems to have turned his back on the revolution, now acting as a pawn for President Snow (Donald Sutherland), Katniss agrees to be the Mockingjay under the condition that somehow at the first available window, they will rescue Peeta.

As all the major adventure stories have done, Lionsgate has determined to split this film into two separate movies. I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t do that considering that they’ll double the income by breaking into two movies. This really irked a lot of people, and brought a lot of criticism, but I think it was a good choice. I wish they could have filmed it all at once, though, since it is a guaranteed hit, so that they didn’t have to wait a whole year for Part 2! Many have criticized this film as dull and boring, but I found that not to be true. There is some decent action sequences here, although, of course, there are no more hunger games. Now it’s a real life fight for survival. But there is a lot of background info and story building here, and a lot of effort is put into developing Katniss’ commitment to the revolution, and her and Peeta’s relationship. She is learning a lot about herself as well. I found the film to be very well done, and the settings are spectacular looking. The character’s are well developed by now, and we get to further refine their character. I totally enjoyed this film, and am anxious for the finale.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog