The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1: FILM REVIEW

Jennifer Lawrence is back as the reluctant rebelKatnissEverdeen inTheHunger Games:Mockingjay- Part 1.

Thelatest instalment in the wildly popular franchise opens in theatres this weekend picking up where TheHunger Games: Catching Fire left off.

• QUIZ|How well do you know the The Hunger Games?
• VIDEO|The Hunger Games L.A. premiere

The film opens with The Capitol on the brink of a bloody revolution andKatnissheading into the depths of District 13 withPeeta (Josh Hutcherson) a political prisoner of Donald Sutherland's sinister President Snow.

Liam Hemsworth is back as Gale, Katniss's District 12 love interest, while the late Philip Seymour Hoffman returns as Plutarch Heavensbee, the former Capitol gamemaker turned rebel sympathizer.

Tasked with uniting the districts in an all out war,Lawrence's heroicKatniss isas likeable as they come with "the pluck of Princess Leia, and the never-say-die stare of Indiana Jones," says CBC film critic EliGlasner.

Director Francis Lawrence, who also helmedCatching Fire, will alsopleasefans by staying pretty close to the original book.

• VIDEO|Mockingjay - Part 1: Jeffrey Wright on playing Beetee
• VIDEO|Mockingjay - Part 1 star Jeffrey Wright on Jennifer Lawrence

Speaking of books, fans who read the source material (Suzanne Collins's bestselling Hunger Games trilogy)will likely be left unsatisfiedwith the final story cleaved into two parts, andPart 2 not due until next November.

In the meantime, Watch Eli's full review in the video above.