Movie Review: Mockingjay Part 1

Contains spoilers! My first tweet after I watched Mockingjay was:

How awesome was Mockingjay!
— Ayanami Faerudo (@ayanamifaerudo) November 20, 2014

And it was! I am rating it a four out of five apples. However, those apples are allocated to the superb acting of the artists because, darling, not much happened.
Let us all admit that The Hunger Games film adaptations capitalized on the action, violence and adrenaline. There was a lot of steam that was generated during the first two films that should culminate in an epic conclusion - ideally a final third film.
But the traction gained in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire was lost and, here, we find ourselves in the crux of that oft-repeated question: is it really necessary to split the final installment? Business-minded executives will definitely say Yes! since the series has a high return-of-investment so far. Creative-minded people would be more on the fence (I think), one side saying yes for a better rendering of the source material and the other side saying no when things can be condensed but managing to be comprehensive.
All these arguments aside, I still enjoyed the movie while muttering "Oh, you're going to die" every time Finnick and Prim came on (I think I annoyed people) and "Bitch, bitch, bitch" whenever President Coin uttered so much as a sigh. The movie did have more President Coin and President Snow than what was in the book. Somewhat.
The biggest takeaway was EFFIE TRINKET. Effie, dear, what are you doing in District 13? You are not supposed to be there. But I guess she was the logical choice of replacement for Cinna's prep team. After all, Elizabeth Banks' Effie's presence was as great as the Mockingjay herself.
There was a little action, the rebellion gaining momentum, the rescue of Peeta, and I am so happy they included The Hanging Tree song and the general workings of District 13 that darned cat... I guess that we're going to see the lion's share of cinematic action in part 2 next year.