I really disliked what Peter Jackson did with the Hobbit: he turned a smallish novel into three unnecessarily long and dragging movies just because he could. I've read the book and I was quite indifferent towards it (as opposed to being absolutely enamoured with The Silmarillion), even as it was directly connected to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
I haven't read the Hunger Games books, so I can only judge the movie by its merits and I'd have to say I liked it quite well: Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen (best name ever) is a joy to watch, and the late Philip Seymore Hoffman gave his usual excellent performance (his eyes seem to be always smiling, giving him that jokes-on-you look). Julianne Moore is there as President Coin and Donald Sutherland plays his villainous best.
The movie is quite... depressing and tends to pull at your heart's strings. Katniss struggles against the role the rebellion places on her and spends the time looking generally bewildered, with interleaving moments where she's back as her usual Mockingjay self. One thing I can say is that Lawrence certainly has turned out to be quite the young woman, as opposed to being just a teenaged girl as she was when she started with The Hunger Games.
Of course, as being the first part of two movies covering the last book in the Hunger Games series, the movie spends most of its time as setup for the concluding second part. The pace is set quite well, and I never felt any sort of padding or fluff added on. The ending isn't quite the painful cliffhanger they sometimes leave us with (which is good, since the second part is supposedly coming out on November 20, 2015 according to Wikipedia), but it's hardly all that satisfyingly conclusive.
Should you watch it? Yes, the movie is well made, the actors giving good performances and the story sufficiently heartbreaking and depressing (though not in a stressful way). Fans will most likely watch it anyway, as for the rest of us, it's good cinema!
Verdict: 4/5 It's worth your 200-252 pesos.
TL;DR:
++ Jennifer Lawrence
+ Excellent supporting cast
++ Story and pace quite good, no obvious padding
+/- Slightly depressing
- One more year until part 2
Details:
Release Date: November 19, 2014
Genre: Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Dystopian
Running Time: 123 Minutes
Notable Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Donald Sutherland
Seen On: Fisher Mall, 2D, Regular Cinema
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