Let the seventy sixth Hunger Games begin. And may the odds be ever in your favor. Maybe this is what you thought you would hear when you watched The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1. But then you remember: there’s not going to be a seventy sixth Hunger Games. Watching The Hunger Games: Catching Fire took you on a thrilling ride with action at every turn. It felt as if you were right there as Katniss shot the fated arrow which collapsed the arena and was lifted to safety by a hovercraft. Then just minutes after that you learned that District 12 had been destroyed and that Katniss had all of a sudden become the figurehead of a revolution. After this breathtaking experience, inevitably you are left asking yourself: Now what? That is the question that the producers had to answer in the Mockingjay movie, and it was not an easy one.

In this movie, you are taken outside the Hunger Games arena and exposed to more of this dystopian world raging with revolution. For a lot of people, though, it was a bit of a disappointment after the amazing success of the first two movies. Instead of struggling to survive in the arena, Katniss is going around filming propaganda videos. It just wasn’t as exciting and had a slower plot. If you were expecting something exactly like the first two, it would leave you a little disappointed. However, looking beyond the narrow scope of an action film, you see that this movie has much to offer through the characters, plot, and themes.

Mockingjay Part 1 helps you to understand the whole story. It has moments of combat, but overall it was more of a developmental movie which exposes you to larger issues and themes  in the series.In think in that sense the movie did an excellent job of continuing the plot of the series. As usual, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, and the rest of the superstar cast did a superior acting job which helped to boost what could have been seen as a boring plot.

It may not have been an edge-of-your-seat thriller action movie like a lot of people expected. But it really wasn’t meant to be that kind of movie. Most people who criticize Mockingjay Part 1 only point out how different it was from the first two, but in reality it was supposed to be somewhat different. It’s like someone biting into an apple and being upset because it doesn’t taste like an orange. You can’t judge this movie solely based on the success of the previous two.

I also think that it was a smart decision to make the Mockingjay book into two movies instead of one. Having read the books, I think that Mockingjay was the worst of the three for several reasons. The main one is that it felt far too rushed, with little action in the beginning and an ending that could have been explained better. I think that making the movie in two parts will help to remedy some of the book’s failures. People may say it is just the greedy producers wanting to make more money, but regardless I think it improves the series and will help to explain things better than the book did. I also feel that the ending of this movie was the perfect spot to leave off: a shocking cliffhanger which makes you want to see what happens next.

Although it was not necessarily the best of the series, Mockingjay Part 1 was a great movie. I would give it a rating, but its hard to simplify it to just a number. Mockingjay- Part 1 fell a little short of the first two incredible movies. However, I feel that the producers did a great job with what they had, especially considering the movie’s content was only the first half of a somewhat disappointing book. It was a decent movie that is part of an exemplary series. In that sense it reached all my expectations. It’s not the best in the series—and will probably end up being the worst—but it’s still a quality movie which sets the stage for an even better one to complete the story next fall.