“Are you, are you coming to the tree? Where they strung up a man they say murdered three.”  This is the song of rebellion. And it’s the only thing that made watching Mockingjay worthwhile. By the time I left the theater, the only thing that I remembered (and probably the only thing worth remembering) was this soulful tune first sung by Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) in her fight against the Capitol.
I thought I was lucky that night of the film premiere to get the very last seat. Instead, the film lumbered along, with only a handful of mildly engaging scenes to justify the blatantly financial decision to split the novel into two films. Can’t wait for Mockingjay Part 2! Yeah…totally.
In short, the film adaptation of Suzanne Collin’s Mockingjay, the third book in The Hunger Games trilogy, is a great  disappointment. The plot, if the film has one, continues the story of Katniss Everdeen who escaped to District 13 after District 12 was destroyed.
Under the leadership of President Coin (Julianne Moore), Katniss agrees to unify the districts of Panem to fight against the tyrannical Capitol. The movie gives us a lecture on propaganda, and what a proper “propo” film should look like, with Katniss all dressed up as the “mockingjay,” the symbol of rebellion, and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) all suited up to fight along with her. Then the entire movie turns into a filmmaking tutorial.
The film’s attempts at humor also failed miserably. When Katniss bargains with President Snow and lays out her last condition: Prim can keep the cat- a lame attempt to evoke laughter – there is was no response from the audience. The humor just seemed forced and out of context.
But alright, the film does end with a bang that jolted me as I was dozing off. The dead silence. Peeta’s writhing body. And Katniss’s bewildered expression which marked a big transformation from the stony expression we’d faced since scene one…This, my dear Hunger Games fans, is the highlight of the movie. RIP.