“You can torture us, bomb us, and burn our district down, but fire is catching, and if we burn, you burn with us!”
Can our beloved friend and family-oriented warrior princess, Miss Katniss Everdeen overthrow the Capitol, in this third deep, dark, and powerful installment based on the novels by Suzanne Collins, ‘Mockingjay’: Part 1?
War on! Game off! The games are finished forever, however, the threat of oppression, and the fight to survive is not. The stakes are just as high as Katniss leads Panem through a full fledged war similar to the current wars in Gaza and Syria.
The film begins with an emotionally agitated Katniss crunched up in a dark corner crying and whispering to herself. When she is approached, she yells, “Don’t touch me!” She awakens in a world that is unfamiliar and foreign to her, a world that she didn’t even know existed:
Enter the dark underground District, District 13!
Finnick, who lay in a hospital bed attached to IV drips, proclaims that he wants to go back for Annie, as she has been taken, while Peeta is being held and controlled by President Snow in The Capitol. Katniss takes the elevator down to meet with Beetee (played by Jeffrey Wright), who is now confined to a wheelchair, Plutarch Heavensbee (the late/great Philip Seymour Hoffman) and President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore). She demands to know if Peeta is still alive, questioning “You left Peeta to die?” Plutarch is convinced that Katniss is still the face of the revolution.
Peeta appears on television, stating that “killing is not the answer and he is calling for a ceasefire,” while the people of Panem and District 13 are in an uproar declaring him a traitor.
Katniss finally agrees to be the public role of the ‘Mockingjay’ but only under her terms. As she takes on the role, she appears in “propos” or propaganda videos that District 13 uses to communicate with and inspire rebels across Panem. Katniss’ every move is followed by the media savvy rebels; Cressida (Natalie Dormer from Game of Thrones), Messalla, Castor and Pollux-Squad 451.
Some of the scenes are very grim, like the scene when Gale (who is now a dedicated soldier in the rebellion, and who still has feelings for Katniss) leads her to a demolished District 12 graveyard full of skulls, a room of patients lying on cots being treated by nurses, massive explosions, falling towers, and war planes targeting hospitals.
No one character (with the exception of Katniss), has an exceptionally large role in the film.
Highlights: The powerful musical score by James Newton Howard that directly follows Katniss singing the “Hanging Tree” song, which is again played in the end credits, Lorde’s new song “Yellow Flicker Beat” also played in the end credits, the scene where Katniss is having a difficult time making a propaganda video, while Plutarch is screaming at her, her ‘Hanging Tree’ song, and, of course, her rant, ‘Fire is catching, and if we burn, you burn with us!’
One World Cinema
ABELLA Sharon 
