This weekend, the first of two installments in the final chapter of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games franchise hits theaters and while it’ll likely blow the box office up, audience goers are going to find that they’re in for an underwhelming two hours at the cinema.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 picks up right after Catching Fire ended. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) has just been rescued by the rebels and is taken back to District 13 where the rebel leaders, like President Coin (Julianne Moore), have asked her to become the ‘Mockingjay,’ the symbol of the rebellion. Completely distraught over the fate of Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), who is being held at the Capitol by President Snow (Donald Sutherland), Katniss is taken to District 12, which has been completely destroyed, to awaken the fire in her and help spark the fire within the people in the other districts. While visiting various district hot spots, a production crew films Katniss and they begin making propaganda videos to encourage others to join the fight. At the same time, the Capitol begins using Peeta, who Katniss believed was dead, to urge people, along with Katniss, not to rebel and cease fire and return to their lives.
Continuing from his successful stint as the director of Catching Fire, Francis Lawrence is back at the directorial helm and with that chair comes the challenge of turning what should be one movie into two. He does a great job developing the characters, helping the audience understand the turmoil Katniss is going through, but then he keeps going with it. Rather than making the film lean and effective, he decides to keep the excess emotional fat and we’re left to suffer through it. A majority of this movie is watching Jennifer Lawrence cry and whine over other people, mostly Peeta. There is so much melodrama that it turns Jennifer Lawrence’s performance from a solid effort into a soap opera because of how much of a wreck her character is. There are dashes of action throughout but because it’s so spread out we’re left to deal with the repetitive nature of Katniss’ depressive state and the propaganda of both the rebels and the Capitol. Thankfully, the film looks really good so while we’re being bombarded with crying we at least have some nice images to look at.
Speaking of the propaganda blitzes, the propaganda may be one of the more interesting elements of the film. The constant battle of the rebel media and that of the Capitol provides some mainstream insights into how effective the media can be and how it sways people to be for or against a cause. Furthermore, these elements were very effective in keeping me relatively engrossed in the film. It helped build the revolutionary tension that pulled audiences in but, again, you can only build the tension so much before people are ready to see war and the small skirmishes we saw weren’t enough to satisfy the craving we had for the events that we know are coming.
As mentioned above, Mockingjay should be one film. I understand that Lionsgate wants to milk the franchise the same way Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hobbit have done, but only one of those was an overall critical and commercial success (Harry Potter). The Harry Potter novel was long enough to warrant two films but Mockingjay is not and, as described above, there isn’t enough substance in the first half of the novel to make it worth its own two hour movie. I’m sure most would agree that a 2.5 hour mocking jay film would have sufficed but instead, like The Hobbit, we’re going to have to wait until the final film to get all the good stuff.
Overall, Mockingjay – Part 1 is very much a visually pleasant drama with dashes of action scattered throughout the second and third act. While I wasn’t necessarily bored by the film, since I appreciated the emphasis on Katniss’ unstable emotional state, I did find some of the film laughable and the idea of having this movie split into two parts be ridiculous. The film will crush the box office but I’m convinced that a majority of people will feel underwhelmed by the resulting feature.
Rating: Mildly compelling yet underwhelming, Mockingjay Part 1 is just the hump we have to get over in order to see what we all want out of Mockingjay Part 2 (5.7/10)
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