It may be fashionable and profitable now to cast the final movie of a series in two parts after the success of Harry Potter and Twilight, Gary Ross (The Hunger Games' Director) needs to understand that it only makes sense to do so when the plot is simply too long to be covered fully in two hours. The Hunger Games MockingJay seemed a drag at best. It revolves excessively around the plan to save Peeta, which successively takes away the thrill and excitement from the real hunger games.
Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and her peers in District 13 spearhead the rebellion in Panem. Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) on the other hand is hijacked by the Capitol where he is tortured and forced to plead for a cease-fire with the rebels on the Capitol's behalf. Katniss then agrees to become the face of the revolution on the condition that Peeta will be rescued from the Capitol and forgiven. Gale (Liam Hemsworth) then risks his own life to save Peeta and the other tributes. In a surprising turn of events, Peeta tries to kill Katniss who then learns that Peeta has been given a drug that induces extreme fear. And this is it. The entire movie summed up in one paragraph. There, it didn't need that long a time.
On a different note, the gruesome scenes of bombardment remind us of the wars and drone attacks in the Middle-East where innocents are getting incinerated every day, and the rubble from the destroyed buildings is a common sight. For a while it seemed like a subliminal message to portray the intifada of the anti-Americans against the Capitol Hill in Washington. The state's control over the media was another similarity for the conspiracy theorists.
Overall, The Hunger Games MockingJay seems to be nothing special and is more or less a disappointment on many fronts. With much less action than promised, the movie did not live up to the anticipation.
The writer is a digital media scientist, a movie buff and a cultural critic. Follow her on Twitter