Hunger Games: Mocking Jay-Part 1

TAKE 1: One Man’s Opinion

…because film is largely subjective

by Frederick William Springer III

Hunger Games:  Mocking Jay-Part 1

Release Date:  21 November 2014                                                      Runtime:  123 Minutes              

Review Date:  18 December 2014                                                       Rating:  5 (of 6)

      I'm not usually a fan of the corporate greed that leads a company to milk the last novel of a series by making 2 films based on it while every other previous entry is condensed into 1.  It was a complete failure, in my opinion, when done with the Harry Potter series, Part 1 of the Deathly Hallows two and a half hours of completely unnecessary exposition, the important elements capable of being more concise and included in Part 2 for one WHOLE movie. So it was a pleasant discovery to find that Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1 was worthy of its own standalone picture.

     They kept with the same director from the last chapter and, though they hired a new batch of writers for the screenplay, the original author Suzanne Collins did the initial adaptation.  Much to her involvement I'm sure, Mockingjay seems to reasonably follow what happened in the novel.  And while I still would rather watch one supersized movie in one sitting than 2 viewings a year apart, I walked away more than satisfied with the final product.