Following in the footsteps of the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, the Hunger Games series also decided to release the adaptation of the final book as two movies. From a commercial point of view the decision was a no-brainer as the two installments will likely earn a combined $1.5bn at the box office, but from a creative standpoint the first part of closing chapter Mockingjay greatly suffered from being all setup and no payoff. With the actual games no longer featuring in the plot, the franchise lost one of its most entertaining elements and Francis Lawrence's sequel failed to deliver much excitement to replace it. The performances from Jennifer Lawrence and the supporting cast are strong across the board and the underlying message never becomes too on-the-nose, but stretching half of a book into a two hour movie means that Mockingjay - Part 1 can never shake that feeling of simply being a placeholder until next year's final chapter comes along.