The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, opened midnight, November 20th in the United States. Tickets for the midnight showing were sold out weeks in advance, and in some parts of the country, lines reached around the corner as people waited in line to get tickets. Mockingjay ranked #1 in the weekends box office with its competitor, Big Hero 6, coming in second.

Mockingjay, the sequel to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire left off close to where Catching Fire ended leaving it for the audience to remember what took place prior. Mockingjay differed from the other movies as the first and the second movie involved the fight against the capitol, and although Mockingjay focused on the uprising, it paid special attention to Katniss’ (Jennifer Lawrence) relationship to Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). The movie followed Katniss and the other tributes as they were saved by District 13 from the 75th Quarter Quell Games and how Katniss will ultimately  become the face of the Mockingjay (a symbol of rebellion against the Capital) before the rest of the districts fall apart.

Hints of influence from Nazism, Fascism and Absolutism were all present in President Coin’s speech, as it was similar to those speeches of previous world dictators. President Coin’s only worry was to keep the capitol united as one and make sure everyone from other districts worked together to build a better capitol and government, despite not providing the districts with any other type of support besides security from the Peacemakers.

The last ten minutes were suspenseful as the search for Peeta continued until the very end when moviegoers were sitting on the edge of their seats shocked to see what the capitol has made of him.

Out of all of the movies in the Hunger Games series, this one appealed to a more mature audience as the movie was filled with heart wrenching scenes and mature concepts including more character development and dialogue, as opposed to, a more action filled movie like the previous Hunger Games. Director Francis Lawrence did a good job at developing the character of President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) as a responsible leader of District 13 whose mission is to provide unity to all the districts and to overthrow the corrupt government of President Snow.

Overall, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, was a great way to introduce background for the new characters and set the stage for the action in Mockingjay Part 2.