The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1: FILM REVIEW
CBC News | Posted: November 21, 2014 9:00 AM | Last Updated: November 21, 2014
The latest installment of the series is 'the best so far' says CBC's film critic
Jennifer Lawrence is back as the reluctant rebel Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1.
The latest instalment in the wildly popular franchise opens in theatres this weekend picking up where The Hunger Games: Catching Fire left off.
The film opens with The Capitol on the brink of a bloody revolution and Katniss heading into the depths of District 13 with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) a political prisoner of Donald Sutherland's sinister President Snow.
Liam Hemsworth is back as Gale, Katniss's District 12 love interest, while the late Philip Seymour Hoffman returns as Plutarch Heavensbee, the former Capitol gamemaker turned rebel sympathizer.
Tasked with uniting the districts in an all out war, Lawrence's heroic Katniss is as likeable as they come with "the pluck of Princess Leia, and the never-say-die stare of Indiana Jones," says CBC film critic Eli Glasner.
Director Francis Lawrence, who also helmed Catching Fire, will also please fans by staying pretty close to the original book.
- VIDEO | Mockingjay - Part 1: Jeffrey Wright on playing Beetee
- VIDEO | Mockingjay - Part 1 star Jeffrey Wright on Jennifer Lawrence
Speaking of books, fans who read the source material (Suzanne Collins's bestselling Hunger Games trilogy) will likely be left unsatisfied with the final story cleaved into two parts, and Part 2 not due until next November.
In the meantime, Watch Eli's full review in the video above.