Review Roundup: THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY, PART ONE Hits Theaters Today!

Jennifer Lawrence returns as the heroic Katniss Everdeen in THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY, PART ONE. The film is the third installment of THE HUNGER GAMES series, and is the first of two films based on the final novel by Suzanne Collins.

Coming off her second Hunger Games victory, we re-join Katniss Everdeen as she adjusts to life in District 13. After facing pressure from the District's government, Katniss agrees to serve as the symbol of the war against the Capital. Through her position as the "Mockingjay" Katniss works to save Peeta from the clutches of President Snow, take down the Capital, and bring her family and people to safety.

MOCKINGJAY, PART ONE stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Julianne Moore, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Each "Hunger Games" movie makes so much noise...that it's a wonder you can detect the human heartbeat under the tumult. But it's there, thumping and sometimes racing in a franchise that, more than most industrial movies and even putative indies, speaks to both its audience and its time.

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The film works. The scale of these "Hunger Games" dys-lit film adaptations is large but not misjudged, and there's always a new post-apocalyptic district to explore in detail. From the first, they got the casting so very right with this ongoing project, from Jennifer Lawrence (a crier, but also a fighter, and a fiercely talented performer) on down.

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: It's a joyless, surpassingly dour enterprise, but one that fulfills its mission with Katniss's own eagle-eyed efficiency and unsentimental somberness. "Mockingjay" sets up the end Game with a grim sense of purpose.

Claudia Puig, USA Today: ...it's easily the most political of the three films. It also is the most absorbing and best in the series.

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Though everyone tries her or his hardest to make it otherwise, this is by definition a place-holder film that exists not so much for itself but to smooth the transition from its hugely successful predecessors to a presumably glorious finale one year hence.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: The Hunger Games is declining in power, but not as steeply as I thought, and this weird, operatic nightmare still inhabits the screen with confidence.

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: While the series' first two films captured the grandeur of the outdoors during the kill-or-be-killed competitions, Mockingjay is mostly bound to the bleak and claustrophobic bowels of a bunker. It suffocates the film.

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: There are moments when "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1" takes flight, but overall this action-drama flits about, wondering where to land.

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's a cheat, a cash grab, and it makes for 125 dystopian minutes of set-up with no resolution.

Adi Robertson, The Verge: Mockingjay was easily the weakest book in Suzanne Collins' trilogy, so it's not really fair to blame the actors and filmmakers for all its shortcomings. If nothing else, they've made most of the characters more likeable.

Photo Credit: Official Site

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