The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Movie Review

Major Spoilers are included in this movie review. Please read with caution.

On August 19, 2020, I rewatched The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 for the first time in a long time. After reading the original trilogy books and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, I decided to give the movies another try too. After I finished the Part 1 movie though, I thought to myself, “There really wasn’t a reason to split the third book into two parts except for box-office revenue—cash grab—purposes”. As a result, the movie stumbled into a few glaring issues that are hard to ignore.

Taking place after The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) was taken to District 13’s underground society while she recuperated from her injuries and trauma. While dealing with Katniss’s physical and mental issues is indeed important, the movie is forced to pretend Katniss’s inability to do anything is more important than the actual rebellion she’s supposed to lead. This character arc made the movie feel “actionless” too, needing to save the book’s real action sequences for their Part 2 movie. However, Katniss’s speech about “fire catching” is powerful and relevant to what’s been happening in 2020.

President Snow (Donald Sutherland) was heavily underused throughout this movie too. He appeared in a few scenes to show how he’s staying ahead of our protagonists, but he doesn’t have any other scenes beyond that. Part 2 will make up for that, I think.

Overall, Mockingjay Part 1 spun their wheels a good amount throughout the film. I already considered the book version the weakest one in the trilogy, so the glaring issues weren’t entirely the actors or filmmakers’ fault, but splitting the book into two parts wasn’t doing them any favors either. I would still recommend The Hunger Games for a good watch though. Thanks for reading my movie review, everyone! I’m looking forward to seeing how Part 2 movie works out for me.