The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)

Seriously, i was waiting for some action or story development throughout the movie but i didnt get one. 2 hours of dull drama in the sci-fi set.

For a better experience skip the movie (and the books) and read instead The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K Le Guin, both of whom took on the theme of society's need for scapegoats decades earlier and succeeded far, far better than did Ms Collins. Or read the Greek myths Ms Collins claims inspired her Mockingjay series of books.

Katnis Everdine is really, really starting to rub me up the wrong way. Sure, she is really good with a bow (and also seems to have the ability to magically bring arrows back into her quiver after firing all of them at a bunch a ravenous apes), but she also seems to be very prim, proper, and nothing like the rebel that everybody makes her out to be. Okay, I guess the whole idea is that she is supposed to be the reluctant hero, but as far as I'm concerned she really doesn't come across to me as being all that heroic. In fact after finishing this movie I had literally become sick of the sight of her, which is disappointing because she does play Mystique in the X-men really, really well.Anyway, this film follows on from the previous one, after the rather annoying cliff hanger where it turned out that half of the people in Capital, including one of John Snow's closest confidants, turned out to be rebels, and that there has been a rebel movement building for quite a while. However, the mysterious district Thirteen, which was only mentioned once in the previous films, and was said to have been destroyed, turns out to be the rebel base. Mind you, as soon as you are introduced to this place, and their leader Coin, you, or at least I, raised the question as to what was so different here than there was elsewhere. Particularly since the so called rebels had this habit of kidnapping people that Katnis trusted.So, what we have are the rebels wanting to use Katnis, the reluctant face of the rebellion, to film a number of propaganda videos – tell me again how these rebels differ from the rest of Panem? The problem is that Katnis turns out not to be all that good an actor, which was strange because she was a really good actor when it came to pretending to be in love with Peter, but then again we sort of wonder whether she actually is in love with him or not. So, they decide to go out to the war zone where she can be herself, and then use this as an opportunity to film the videos.Oh, I should also mention that Peter, and some others, were captured by the Capital and are being used in propaganda videos of their own, so the rebels send in an elite strike force – of which Katnis isn't allowed to participate because, well, she actually isn't a warrior, she is just the human face of the rebellion. I am sort of wondering whether I should say anymore, but I won't because, well, I can't be bothered.

The real-life lessons: well there was not a particular point or idea that I picked on. There wasn't anything that I thought 'well this could be used in real life as well'. Plausibility: because of the gender of the movie talking about plausibility is not what one would expect but there are two things that I would emphasise-what they did good and what they did bad. What they did good in my opinion was the plausibility in terms of how you can motivate others to follow you-real emotion, past experience that they remember and a song (strangely quite powerful), i think they were right into believing that you need a person to be a symbol. What they did wrong is that it takes more than a show (marketing)-yes the song, the symbol, the speeches- to start a revolution. As I said those are necessary to get attention and followers but to start a revolution you need to do much more than that. Its not a reality show or marketing campaign. But maybe that's left for the second part. Acting: I have never seen an actress that transmits emotions that truly touch you as strongly as Jennifer Lawrence. I loved her performance.