From the moment Katniss Everdeen appears on screen, until the moment the movie abruptly ends, every piece of the movie is like reading Suzanne Collins’ book. The way I pictured Cressida was true, the way I thought the now distraught Effie would look and feel, all the way to the feeling of the lump in my throat when Katniss ran for her sister while the District was under bombing.

I wanted to cry when Katniss returns home in this third of four installments of the Hunger Games Trilogy. The movies stay true to her storyline in the books, because Collins also writes the movie script.

For anyone that read the series long before the movies came out, you either hate or love what producers Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik have done to the books.

Spoiler alerts:

I love the new Katniss, she is strong, figuring out that not only are the bad people trying to manipulate her, but the good are too. Haymitch is sober, Peta was held captive, and Katniss needs to lead the rebels in order to save him.

Here, in Mockingjay, Gale plays a much bigger part than in the first two movies, his character blossoms by the third installment of the novels. The love triangle of Katniss, Peta, and Gale is still present, as we see that Finnick has became important to Katniss too. Katniss, her mother and sister, all share a room in their new place District 13. It is a cold, monotonous place, where no color or extra of any pleasures is to be had.

There, in District 13, we discover that there was drinking water, food, and everything that the other district had been in need of, including a bomb shelter, and most importantly, a bomb. The district is built underground, and in many ways, paints the picture for the mental prison Katniss is now captive of, juxtaposing the desire for the nature she yearns for. Katniss remains a naturalist at heart, missing the comfort of the trees and the forest where she loves to hunt.

If you haven’t seen the movie, I am being as vague as possible.

I’ll leave you to wonder where the movie would cut into two, which had me on the seat of my chair, pins and needles, in anticipation for the curtain to close. The last 15-20 minutes are so intense. All I can say is that I absolutely loved it.

Mockingjay has much more depth, which stir feelings of empathy, and then you are smacked with action packed screen warfare of good versus evil in the concept of the future. From the hovercrafts, to the battleships, and the weapons in between, Mockingjay slashes through your imagination lead by the unthinkable: A female, a heroin, who isn’t saving the day, but instead adding fuel to the burning flame she lit in the arena in the second movie, Catching Fire.

Mockingjay are the mockingbirds and blue jays that reproduced outside of the capitol’s rule, which Katniss encapsulates. In the police state capitol, Peta is used to sending messages to counter the rebels, but nothing can stop the fire that Katniss keeps burning.

There are numerous moments of heart-touching, human-interest scenes with tons of secondary messages that correlate to the present day of warfare or police state. The capitol representing the politics of present-day issues, the discrimination of people based on territory is explored in the inner battle of it.

Katniss only decides to play the game of being the District 13’s puppet with specific instruction that Johanna Mason, Annie Cresta and Peta Mellark are rescued from the capitol’s prison.

There are many other spoiler alerts, like the former game maker Plutarch Havensbee playing the new game of rebels versus the Capitol. For the most part, I will allow you the chance to find out all the great turns and twists of events, especially if you still won’t read the novels.

I not only suggest you go see the series on films, but definitely pick up the novels if you enjoy a good read.

5/5 stars