The film opens up with a sense of desperation much like what our protagonist Katniss is feeling. She demands answers and is brought to speed on the current situation of the brooding civil war between the Capitol and The Rebels comprised mostly of district 13. Now the film is very reminiscent of other middle films like Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back and Harry Potter: the Deathly Hallow's part 1 in that a viewer will be completely lost and uninterested if they haven't seen any of the films prior. Much of what makes this film important or interesting is the investment the audience has in the characters on screen and this cannot be achieved without seeing who these characters are and why are they in this situation. 
After watching this I thought to myself "what happened in this movie?" and it was hard for me to come up with the answer. Throughout the entire film there's almost nothing but exposition and the introduction to the Propaganda style of warfare that is pivotal to the way things will turn out for the story. Now don't get me wrong at no point in this movie was I bored but that is solely because I'm invested in the world that has been built through the story of the first films. I'd be hard pressed to recommend this movie to someone who isn't familiar with the first two movies and I also have to say that this movie is not at all what the first two were. This is the first movie that does not involve the hunger games for obvious reasons and it switches up the action sequences and big set pieces for tactical and more media centric style of warfare. 
The acting from the returning actors has been improved dramatically. For the first time for me I didn't feel that Jennifer Lawrence's performance was forced. Julianne Moore, Phillip Seymor Hoffman and Donald Sutherland all deliver good performances. The sets were all very nice and as always the art department really outdid themselves with the set design, make up and costume design. 
All in all this is a pretty solid film and my personal favorite of the franchise so far. The only negative I can find (and it is a big negative) is the fact that this is so heavily dependent of the first two films. So honestly I don't see how anyone can just sit down and say they're going to watch just this movie. But alas that shouldn't take away from the rating of this film so I'd happily give it a Full price. Go see it if you've seen the first two movies.
Rating:Full Price
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