Katniss Everdeen, the Girl On Fire, survives The Hunger Games twice and wakes up to  find herself in District 13, scared, confused and without the so-called love of her life, Peeta Mellark. The Hunger Games is a trilogy of books that everyone has heard of at least once. Famous and idolized, its breathtaking storyline has swept across the nation. The third book of the series is being made into two movies. The first installment, Mockingjay - Part 1 came out November 21, 2014. In my opinion, it was a success. 

I found that a lot of people did not share this opinion with me. A website devoted to film reviews and news, Rotten Tomatoes, gave it a 66%. Pretty average ratings for what I think of as an above average movie. Due to the rapid success of the two movies preceding Mockingjay Part 1, people swarmed theaters on its release date. In many theaters, they did a Hunger Games marathon and then premiered Mockingjay at midnight.  Costing Lionsgate $125 million to produce, it was on the more expensive side of Hollywood films. There was a domestic total of $324,301,247 made in America alone so the company definitely earned back what they spent in
the making of this film. I’m sure some of the reason people enjoy these movies is due to the fact that the cast clicks so well together.

Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen. She became extremely popular from these very movies and has been a role model for people everywhere. Her personality is fun-loving in real life, but she can change into someone so serious while acting. That just shows she was meant to be an actress. Josh Hutcherson plays the part of another main character, Peeta Mellark. He’s an attractive twenty two year old and plays the part of Peeta very well. Born in Union, Kentucky, Hutcherson began his acting career in commercials and really started succeeding in the acting business after the movie Little Manhattan came out. Along with Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, there is Liam Hemsworth. He is Gale Hawthorne, Katniss’ best friend back in District 12. Other actors in the film include Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Willow Shields, Donald Sutherland and Elizabeth Banks. I think all of these actors fit the film perfectly and they play their parts very nicely. 

What’s better in this case, the book or the movie?  My answer is usually the book. It’s hard for me to read a book and then watch the movie because I already have a picture painted in my head. With Mockingjay - Part 1, I couldn’t pick a favorite.  The movie was better than I thought it would be and the book didn’t live up to The Hunger Games and Catching Fire books. The author of this successful series, Suzanne Collins, did a wonderful job wrapping things up in the Mockingjay book as well. The soundtrack in this film added so much to it. The intense music had me on the edge of my seat at all times. 

All in all, Mockingjay - Part 1 was a good film. It captured close to all, maybe even more, if possible, of the elements from the book. The actors conducted themselves well and played their parts better than anyone else could have. The whole movie had admirable audio and special effects. I would recommend this movie, even for people who haven’t read the book. Be sure to watch the first two movies first though! Last, but not least, would I see this movie again? Most definitely.