The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)

The film Hunger Games Mockingjay is the third film in the Hunger Games series, directed by Frances Lawrence and starring popular actors such as Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Natalie Dormer. This film is fantastic, with its thrilling twists and breath-taking visuals, it’s hard not to enjoy this film. In this edition of the series, we see Katniss in a new place, a place where she has never been and never knew still existed. She has to grasp for any sign of familiarity and even though her family is there, she still feels lost. When the government there asks her to be the Mockingjay, the face of the revolution, she doesn’t know what to do. Everything she knew is gone, and she must rise up to help guide the revolution, at a huge cost.

I really enjoyed this film, for the music especially, it has an incredibly traditional feel and makes you feel like you’re in a real country or place because it has its own little folksongs and traditions, made up of what sounds like flutes and drums. The storyline picks up directly from the last movie which is amazing if you’re doing a ‘movie marathon’.

Furthermore, in this film you see a feature of Jennifer Lawrence singing a song called ‘Hanging Tree’ which appears to be a nursery rhyme or a folksong from her district.

You can really see the complicated relationship between Katniss, Peeta and Gale as the small thread that connects them all as friends slowly begins to break and tear as deeper relationships begin to form and decay. Furthermore, the CGI really helps to make the districts real and unique. There are also some very emotional scenes which might make you shed a tear as the characters we’ve learned to know and love go through extreme hardships.

However, I wondered throughout the film what was happening with President Snow – why didn’t he just go and bomb where Katniss was, it would prevent the whole revolution, yet he didn’t. It can be debated that it was just because he wanted to mess with her brain and wanted her to think something when the reality was quite the opposite.