Lack of good storyline.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

The movie starts off kind if slow and boring with you not really knowing what's going on. It takes its time explaining the situation at hand, and eventually gets down to it about half hour onto the movie, Peeta's is gone but is going psychotic. Katniss is depressed but wants to help, so the good and bad guys start blackmailing each other. In the end they leave you wondering what will happen next which I suppose is the point.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1, follows Katniss Everdeen as she wakes up after the events in the arena and finds herself in the broken district thirteen. Katniss struggles to become the rebellions mockingjay figure that she feels she can't be. Mockingjay-Part 1 may seem boring at first since there's not much to this film. The film is not as suspenseful and thrilling, though the events in the film are shocking and the decisions made will get you thinking. As you watch the film it will get interesting and will have you hoping for a good outcome from the whole situation that the characters struggle to come out of as they are constantly reminded that its the things we love most that destroy us."I have a message for President Snow. You can torture us and bomb us and burn our districts to the ground. But do you see that? Fire is catching... And if we burn... you burn with us!"-Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1

As said with the first two 'Hunger Games' films (which had its plus points but didn't do much for me), the books are fun, scary, thrilling and moving though because being so rich in detail and characterisation they are difficult to adapt.Generally the films, while all with their good points, don't do them justice, following the basic details but with the spirit watered down to blandness and the characters nowhere near as fascinating. Judging the films on their own terms is to me a fairer way to judge though, and will be done here because they are problematic on their own. Of the four films (which all have good points but just as enough problems that stop me from caring for them much), 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part I' is the weakest, it feels too much like set-up and set-up that's very tame and really struggles to justify its length.There are certainly good things. The production values, some dodgy special effects aside, are very well done with the nightmarishly dystopian production design faring best, it's lit with atmosphere and luckily the cinematography and editing is not the sloppy and frenetic kind seen in the first film. The score is thrilling and emotive, and there are some good performances here. This is particularly true of a terrific Jennifer Lawrence, dastardly Donald Sutherland, moving Philip Seymour Hoffman, smarmy Stanley Tucci and classy Julianne Moore.Not all the cast work. Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson are still lacking charisma and expression, while Elizabeth Banks (a high point of the first film) and Woody Harrelson have nothing to do.Lack of character development and halfway-decent writing plays a large part here. The characters had a lot of meat to them before but here are pretty bland stereotypes with non-existent development or direction, Katniss excepted. Didn't find myself caring for the relationship between Katniss and Peeta, mainly because of Peeta being written and played so blandly but also the chemistry didn't seem to be there. The writing does feel under-cooked, with some cringe-worthy moments and lacks edge or any kind of emotion a lot of the time.'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part I' could have easily been shorter, because the story feels far too thin and over-stretched which makes some scenes interminably dull and dreary. The film is basically set-up and after finishing on a note every bit as abrupt as the ending for 'Catching Fire' it feels like set-up that doesn't lead or go anywhere. Atmosphere-wise, it just feels rather tame in alternative to tense and leaden rather than edgy. The direction is pretty pedestrian here.In summary, bland and over-stretched despite some good performances, production values and music. 4/10 Bethany Cox

The real-life lessons: well there was not a particular point or idea that I picked on. There wasn't anything that I thought 'well this could be used in real life as well'. Plausibility: because of the gender of the movie talking about plausibility is not what one would expect but there are two things that I would emphasise-what they did good and what they did bad. What they did good in my opinion was the plausibility in terms of how you can motivate others to follow you-real emotion, past experience that they remember and a song (strangely quite powerful), i think they were right into believing that you need a person to be a symbol. What they did wrong is that it takes more than a show (marketing)-yes the song, the symbol, the speeches- to start a revolution. As I said those are necessary to get attention and followers but to start a revolution you need to do much more than that. Its not a reality show or marketing campaign. But maybe that's left for the second part. Acting: I have never seen an actress that transmits emotions that truly touch you as strongly as Jennifer Lawrence. I loved her performance.