The highly anticipated movie The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 came out on November 21, 2014.
As The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire combined earned more than $1.5 billion internationally in the box office, Mockingjay Pt. 1 is not expected to disappoint. In fact, the movie has already some success; Mockingjay Pt. 1 sold the most tickets in advance in 2014 just on its first day.
At the end of Catching Fire, main character Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence) finds out that her home, District 12, no longer exists. She is on her way to the strange, unfamiliar, practically unknown District 13 that has operated in secrecy since its creation, and Peeta Mellark (played by Josh Hutcherson) is taken as a hostage by the Capitol.
Mockingjay Pt. 1 follows Katniss as she adapts to living in District 13, becoming the face of a rebellion against the Capitol, and Peeta as he lives in imprisonment. The film also sees the return of Liam Hemsworth as Katniss’s best friend Gale Hawthorne, Woody Harrelson as mentor Haymitch Abernathy, and Donald Sutherland as the ruthless President Snow. The late Phillip Seymour-Hoffman also appears in the movie as Plutarch Heavensbee. Oscar-nominated actress Julianne Moore joins this star-studded cast as President Coin of District 13.
“I’m hoping that the movie is better than the first half of the book. I’m probably going to go see it because I really liked Catching Fire!” says Shreya Rudrapatna ’18.
Although excited to see Mockingjay Pt. 1, Rudrapatna brings up a good point: the movie only covers the first half of the novel. Following in the steps of the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, The Hunger Games franchise has decided to split its last book into two separate movies. If done poorly, there is a possibility that the movie could be dull as most of the action occurs in the second half of the novel. The book and movie have received both positive and negative reviews based on this decision.
Sahiba Madan ’18 states, “In the beginning of the first half of the book, I literally had to stop reading it because it was so boring, so I think the quality of the movie will go down. All the action happens later in the book.”
However, Samantha Highfill of Entertainment Weekly views this decision with a different perspective; according to her, the movie will bring much more attention to the characters and their emotions than the previous two movies. She says that, for the first time, “Gale will be more than just Katniss’ best friend and one third of a love triangle. In the book, he becomes a fighter; he stands on his own two feet; he makes mistakes. He finally plays a real role in the action. Mockingjay gives Prim an opportunity to become something other than Katniss’ younger sister—she’s now a caretaker, of both her sister and the sick members of District 13. Finnick, the Capitol’s pretty boy-turned-ally, is left with emotional scars that expose a much uglier side of him.”
She also claims, “Mockingjay: Pt.1, if done correctly, should make for the best film in the Hunger Games franchise thus far.”