Review of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

I have been wanting to check this out for awhile now, but I wasn't able to for the longest time. Francis Lawrence returns to direct the 3rd installation to the ever popular series. The second one felt a lot like the first one. So the first half of that had been boring where the second half was where the fun happened. I'm hoping this has action throughout it's entirety. It's pretty cool to see that this is written by Danny Strong who was on Buffy. I do hear a lot how this is the worse of the series so far, but it's mostly likely due to them splitting this and putting the bigger chunk of carnage in the second part. I always find it funny when a decent actor has to pretend like they can't act. Elizabeth Banks without all the crazy makeup and stuff looks much more attractive and interesting in my opinion. As I sit here watching this I realize even more similarities with Battle Royal. The leads start a revolution that is against the violent "games" after winning in their first tournament. Oh well I still love the brutal concept. The only think that I wish they did like the Battle Royal films is that they don't take too long to get to the middle of things. Anyways back to the movie. It's good to see that they bring the action sooner than the previous films although I had begun to wonder. It had a few pretty good twists and turns. It could of had a bit more action, but I was satisfied enough with what we got. I sure do hate cliffhanger movie endings though. Anyhow I actually really liked this one from start to finish.

Pros:
-It pulls the action in quicker
-Better than the previous film (in my opinion)
-All the returning characters of course
-Some pretty good and somewhat brutal action scenes
-Natalie Dormer and Robert Knepper are in it!

Cons:
-Not a big fan of Julianne Moore or Mahershala Ali
-Cliffhanger ending obviously
-Character deaths off-screen before the film
-It's the shortest by 20 minutes (which is silly since it's a 2 parter I would have expected a bit longer)

It was a good entry into the saga. I'm looking forward in anticipation to see how everything pulls together in the next one. I'm also hoping to see quite a few important albeit truly heart-wrenching death scenes.