The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (Part 1)

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and the dreaded 'splitting-the-last-book-into-two-movies-to-make-a-bit-more-dollar' scenario.

Yes, that's a cynical viewpoint and, yes, it does mean fans aren't annoyed at any content left out of the final movie but, actually, Mockingjay is the book which needs the least amount of time in this series.

I would much rather this detail was thrown into the first movie as there's quite a lot of scenes which feel like they've been promoted from the cutting room floor.

After last year's 5 star Catching Fire you can't help but be a tad underwhelmed at the general lack of action on show in this one (although some nice scenes of revolt from the other districts are highlights.)

The character development isn't even massively explored, certainly not like it was in the first Deathly Hallows movie, there's not much of Prim, Peter, Beaty or Finnick but we do get more of Gayle in this one.

There's a nice glimpse of more of the districts and a creeping sense of dread and anticipation for what's going to happen in the fourth and final film thanks mainly to Donald Sutherland's brilliantly evil President Snow, but not a massive amount goes on and the ending does leave you screaming at the screen to continue.

If you're completely new to the series you can't jump in here and, if you've seen the films but not read Suzanne Collins' source material then this won't do much for you. For fans of the books though this is still fantastic just to have more of this world that's been created and more of Jennifer Lawrence's superb portrayal of Katniss can never be a bad thing.

The worst of the series so far but still great.

4 stars ****