A Movie Review. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1.  Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is broken and in shock.  The last time we saw Katniss, she was getting extracted from the Hunger Games via a covert operation led by District 13.  Having to compete in two straight Hunger Games along with the fact that Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) was left behind, is just too much for Katniss.  Even being surrounded by her family, mother (Paula Malcomson) and sister Primrose (Willow Shields), doesn't do much for her psyche.

She eventually gets it together via some shock treatment from District 13's President Alma Coin (Julianne More) and the covert operation's strategist Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman).  They send her to the now destroyed District 12.

An agreement is made.  Katniss becomes the face of the rebellion and in return District 13 will attempt at some point a rescue of Peeta.

I have to admit I wasn't enthusiastic about the first two movies.  I went to the first one largely because it became a phenomena and I wanted to see what the fuss was about.  I then re-watched both movies on cable television.  I don't think any of the movies are awful.  They just are okay.

Here's my problems (spoilers) with this movie and perhaps the books provide more detail (or maybe there are clues within the movie itself that I just didn't pick up on):

1.  Why would the Capital wait years to finally attempt to bomb District 13 to pieces?  And when you finally did start to bomb, why not put some boots on the ground?

2.  Why is it that Katniss is the only contestant that appears to be psychologically broken?  I'll exclude Peeta from this discussion as he was tortured.  The other contestants may not be looking cheery, but they definitely aren't broken.

3.  Even ISIS wasn't willing to blow up a major dam.  I wonder how many people died downstream of that major dam break?  Hmm, is District 13 all that much better than the Capital?  Wouldn't the destruction of a major dam that provides electricity and probably even fresh water to civilians be considered a war crime?

4.  So when Peeta's commando team started to return to District 13, they noticed that the defense systems were back on line.  The Capital; however, did not use those systems to try and bring down the aircraft.  Red flag anyone?  Maybe someone isn't whom they seem to be?  Maybe there is a tracking devise?  This event is something to mention, but isn't something to analyze.

Finally, making 4 movies out of 3 books, isn't that just movie studio abuse of the fan base?  (Throw in The Hobbit and Twilight series, also).  I'd say that partial evidence in this abuse can be seen in the fact that this movie (at least via IMDB) is about 20 minutes shorter than the other two films.

Like the first two Hunger Game movies, this isn't an awful movie . . . it is simply a passable movie.