Continuing the disgusting trend of splitting the final book into two movies set by Harry Potter, Part 1 naturally tells the first half of the last book in The Hunger Games series. Unfortunately, this third and final book is probably the worse in the series and by splitting it in half, Part 1 isn't very attention grabbing. The political themes and manipulation are still present, and it portrays these themes very well. What makes Part 1 not hold up as well is due to the slow build up of the story, and the obvious set up of Part 2. You know Part 2 is coming and which is where the big finale will be. Part 1 ends up being a lot of talk, a lot of reminiscing and just a lot of whining. Characters in District 13 are unlikable, although considering it all, Part 1 could have been a lot worse and the writers manages to make it interesting enough to not make it too boring. The most obvious thing lacking in this movie are action sequences, not only are there no major firefights or survival styled scenes like in previous movies, all the talk that happens doesn't even lead to anything exciting. You would have expected the climax to at least show some of the action from the operating but it just skips to the result. Overall, somewhat disappointing, it would have benefited from some trimming of the bloated storytelling.
