The new movie The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 has taken over the box office, earning over $123 million after playing in theaters for less than three days. There is no doubt that this highly anticipated movie was certainly worth the wait.
Mockingjay turned out to be a huge success, even with less media coverage than the other movies in the trilogy.
When The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire were new to theaters, every other commercial on television was a movie trailer — not to mention the merchandise that could be found in every single store. Also, the media made sure to ask every person available whether they were Team Gale or Team Peeta.
However, one of the best parts of Mockingjay was that the media did not ruin it before it even premiered. One of the biggest complaints regarding the trilogy was how the story should have been following Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, and her fight for freedom, but instead was about the love triangle that the media swooned over.
It was obvious that the main focus of Mockingjay was not the love triangle, and the media seems to be slowly accepting this fact. Instead, viewers saw a great film about a teenage girl coping with countless problems, all the while trying to protect, and in some cases save, her loved ones.
Instead of seeing a poverty-stricken teenager with a nice leather jacket and a pretty face covered in makeup, everyone sees a plain, depressed, and vulnerable girl, the way the books depicted her.
On top of all of that, the acting by Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, who plays Peeta Mellark, was phenomenal. Both actors had scenes in which they truly embraced their characters, making the movie much more realistic and enjoyable.
The downside to Mockingjay, and the other movies in the series as well, is that there was not enough time spent on the details from the novels. Granted, movies almost never capture the entire story from their novels; however, there were many details left out in the filming of the trilogy.
For example, the story of how the heroine possessed the first mockingjay pin was altered to fit screen time. Also, some characters were removed from multiple parts of the story. Finally, after taking part in the Hunger Games, Katniss suffers hearing loss and Peeta loses a leg. However, both of these injuries are excluded from the movies.
Overall, a couple of details that did not make it from the pages to the screen do not outweigh the rest of the movie. With a fantastic soundtrack and precise camera shots combined with the accurate story-telling and convincing acting, Mockingjay is a force to be reckoned with.
