Film Review - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

The teen sensation series is back, but not as you might expect (if you haven't read the books). In the third of four films, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) has been rescued from the Hunger Games, where she was forced to kill other teens in a television game show, to help prop up the Capitol’s tyrannical government. Now. she is thrown into the revolutionary war that she and love interest Peeta Mellark (Joel Hutchinson) have inspired.

While others fight for her, Katniss is manipulated by her rescuers, the rebel government of District 13, into fronting war propaganda adverts. All while watching Peeta doing the same, as a captive of the capitol.  

Yes, they split this film in two as a cynical ploy for money; the score’s sometimes cheesy and some early scenes lag. And yes, it’s much better if you’ve read the books. It’s not high art. But it’s not tacky teen fiction either. What should be a film about teenagers shooting adverts manages to be a smart politics movie, and a gripping ride with tension that builds right to the last shot. It’s visceral, violent (without any blood) and very, very dark.

The star-studded support cast, including the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, is excellent and even the previously wooden Liam Hensworth is good as Gale Hawthorne. But Lawrence and Hutchinson steal the show with outstanding performances in an emotional and unexpected film about the power of propaganda.

Coming up to Christmas it seems appropriate to have a film about finding meaning in a sea of propaganda and an unexpected hero, who walks with us in our pain to bring a revolution.

Review by Robin Raymond

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Genre: Adventure/Action
Director: Francis Lawrence
Rating: M (Violence)
Run time: Run time 2 hrs 3mins