American science fiction thriller "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1" will hit Indian theatres on 28 November, a week after its worldwide release.
The film has received mixed reviews from the critics. Though they have appreciated the performances of the cast members, the lagging plot has received a negative feedback.
The third instalment from the "The Hunger Games" saga, directed by Francis Lawrence and scripted by Peter Craig and Danny Strong, revolves around the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, (Jennifer Lawrence), who fights for her lover Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson).
Mockingjay – Part 1, which is based on the Suzanne Collins' final book from the trilogy, also stars Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland.
Check out the critical reviews of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1" below:
"Mockingjay" is a rare bird in its genre, an action adventure with an interesting mind and a resonant spirit. Woody Harrelson brings his own simplicity to the ever more canny Haymitch Abernathy. Liam Hemsworth is ever more appealing as Katniss's companion in arms Gale Hawthorne, while Josh Hutcherson's Peeta Mellark remains a strong presence in the plot, even though Peeta is, during much of the action, President Snow's prisoner, and prize hostage.
"Mockingjay Part 1" is indisputably a war movie, from tearful start to unsettling end. Its director is Francis Lawrence, who did the honors in the second one, and he does a serviceable job again of pulling the parts together. The script for "Mockingjay Part 1," credited to Peter Craig and Danny Strong, gets the job done, but the performers matter far more than the words they deliver.
Directed by Francis Lawrence from a script by Peter Craig and Danny Strong, "Mockingjay" gains steam as it goes. Its retro-futuristic aesthetic lacks the flamboyance of past installments, but possesses its own grim integrity, and even contains one authentically shocking reversal that bears more than a whiff of a "Manchurian Candidate"-like menace. It's a joyless, surpassingly dour enterprise, but one that fulfills its mission with Katniss's own eagle-eyed efficiency and unsentimental somberness. "Mockingjay" sets up the end Game with a grim sense of purpose.
Mockingjay – Part 1 is all queue, no roller-coaster. The third of four films in the successful and admirable Hunger Games series is any number of good things: intense, stylish, topical, well-acted. But the one thing it could never be called is satisfying. This blockbuster series' greatest special effect has always been the way it encourages its young target audience to engage sceptically with the uneasy love triangle between truth, power and entertainment. But Mockingjay – Part 1 feels a little short of all three.
Director Francis Lawrence ekes a paltry story out. The special effects are limp and the script a little creaky, although somehow it still manages to thrill. Part 1 is a likable preamble, a moment to let the flames die down before adding more fuel. The film lacks a solid structure. Katniss spends much of the film finding her strength after the abduction of her boyfriend, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). The rebels admire her anger and defiance, they're probably not so keen on her boy-centric fretting.
Mockingjay—Part 1 is like a term paper with the margins enlarged and the font size jacked up to reach the assigned number of pages. While the series' first two films captured the grandeur of the outdoors during the kill-or-be-killed competitions, Mockingjay is mostly bound to the bleak and claustrophobic bowels of a bunker. It suffocates the film. And when the story finally does manage to get interesting toward the end, it just screeches to a halt and cuts off, leaving fans wriggling on the hook for a finale they won't get to see for another 12 months. That's not a cliff-hanger, that's just a tease.
