FIRST REVIEWS FOR MOCKINGJAY — PART 1

Mixed reviews of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 have hit the British press following Monday’s international premiere of the movie in London. Several critics are particularly scornful of Lionsgate’s decision to split novelist Suzanne’s Collins’s story into two parts. The Daily Mail‘s Brian Viner remarked that the decision "has less to do with story-tellers indulging our appetite for delayed gratification and more to do with executives enriching themselves." In the Daily Telegraph Robbie Collin called it "all queue, no roller-coaster." Henry Barnes in the Guardian refers to it as a "stopgap" that "ekes a paltry story out." Nevertheless, he conceded, "somehow it still manages to thrill." And Geoffrey MacNab in the Independent commented, "The film doesn’t exactly disappoint but nor does it satisfy. There is a half a sandwich feel to the latest instalment — a sense that the filmmakers have denied us a full experience by splitting the movie into two." But Andy Lea in the Star had no complaints about the decision to split the final act, noting that "the series is taking a breath to examine its themes before an action-packed finale." Nevertheless, he wrote, this penultimate film is "smart, stylish, gripping and surprisingly thoughtful."