Mockingjay portrays Katniss in a new light

By AMANDA MOTLEY

Following the cliffhanger of “Catching Fire” and the Quarter Qurell, “Mockingjay, Part 1” picks up where the previous movie left off. The series, based on the dystopian society created by Suzanne Collins, received a two-part-movie ending.

The movie opened with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) waking up and not being quite sure what happened to her. She finds herself in District 13, a makeshift district in which President Coin (Julianne Moore) is in charge, and Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has convinced Coin that Katniss is the key to dismantling the capital.

Katniss is not convinced she is really the key and is angry that she was saved instead of Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) and the other tributes.

She only agrees to help when she is taken to her own district. District 12 is in ruins, and she witnesses the burned skeletons as a result of the brutality in the capital. Katniss believes that Peeta is dead until she sees him on a capital television network telling the rebels that their cause is a lost one.

Although there were dramatic battle scenes throughout the movie, set off with special effects and great CGI, the majority of the movie was fought through media propaganda.

Gail Hawthorn (Liam Hemsworth) tried his best to get Katniss through the aftermath of the games but later found that the games made her love for Peeta grow stronger.

Katniss’s otherwise hard nature was interrupted a few times throughout the movie when her softer side shown through. In one of the opening scenes she went back to her district and rescued her sister’s cat, stating, “You’re breaking my heart.”

Lawrence did a great job of portraying Katniss, exhibiting hard emotion without the aid of an extensive set, minimal make-up or toned-down costumes. Katniss and her strong personality was a role many believe Lawrence was born to play.

There were also other characters that contributed to the larger picture and offered great performances. The many new faces found in the movie added great depth to each scene and made Collins’s book come to life.

Director Francis Lawrence and screenwriters Peter Craig and Danny Strong created a less dark and more unique movie for the last installment of the Hunger Game series. “Mockingjay, Part 1” does a remarkable job setting the scene for the final installment, which will be out in theatres November 2015.