The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
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The good
Strong performances carry the scenes and give life to the conflicting sides. The few action sequences are intense.
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The bad
Katniss is just a mascot for extended parts while the depravity of the capital is rehashed.
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The ugly
- Total score
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is a sci-fi adventure movie that continues the story of Katniss as the war escalates between the Capital and the surrounding districts. It opens up with Katniss recovering from her participation in the latest Hunger Games along with 2 other victors. She would learn that while she was recovering her actions in destroying the dome during the Hunger Games sparked a rebellion in the districts and it escalated to all-out war. And she would be introduced to President Alma Coin, who would want Katniss to become the face of the rebellion as the Mockingjay in order to inspire the current rebels as well as recruit those in the other districts who have yet to become involved. Katniss would reject this at first because her focus would be on Peeta, and she would be angry that they weren’t able to rescue him. She’s suffering from survivor’s guilt, and despite being reunited with her mother and sister she still can’t get over her grief even with Haymitch Abernathy’s help. However, she’s taken to District 12, her former home, by Gale and she’s horrified at how it was reduced to ash with thousands being massacred in a bombing campaign by the Capital. And Gale tells her how he tried to save more people but was unable to do so, and he can’t forget this moment. This allows Katniss to see the brutality of President Snow and that this is what they intend to do to the other districts. But when she sees a broadcast from the Capital showing that Peeta was not only alive but was disowning the rebellion and claiming Katniss had no idea she was participating in a rebel plot when she destroyed the dome, she decides to become the face of the rebellion. She could tell Peeta was being tortured and forced to say these things so she gives a list of conditions to Alma Coin before she agrees to become their Mockingjay, and the convinces the rebel president in the process. The main condition is that Peeta and the other tributes captured by President Snow have to be rescued at the earliest convenience and receive full pardons for all their actions. But with the other tributes being kept in the heart of the Capital, can the rebels truly free them without risking everything? And even if they do, can they convince the other districts to rise up before it’s too late?
Katniss is back! Well, soft of. At least in spirit. Mostly. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 has the difficult position of being the follow-up to a climactic event (Katniss destroying the dome) while being the bridge to the conclusion of the series in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2. So the question of whether or not the final act in this series should’ve been divided into 2 parts becomes secondary to the way events actually unfold, which didn’t require Katniss to have as active a role as the previous 2 movies. The beginning of this movie dealt once again with Katniss recovering from the harrowing ordeal, i.e. the Hunger Games. She would have to get adjusted to the new status quo with a rebel president and her image being used to inspire others to join the revolution. So the early part was convincing Katniss to be part of the revolution too and that was done with her visit to District 12 and then a visit to a hospital in District 8. The latter visit would be part of an idea to catch Katniss in unscripted moments, which have been deemed to be more inspirational than trying to get her to just create promos stating the capital under President Snow is bad. This part was really engrossing as the destruction in the districts was shown clearly and the ruthlessness of the capital was evident in their attack on a hospital in District 8. This would be the one true time Katniss was in action in this movie and it was seriously riveting as she would commit fully to the rebellion and inspire others. For a moment, I was ready to sign up too.
And this is where this movie can be a mixed bag for some but was mostly enjoyable for me. I felt it was already clear that President Snow was ruthless and the tide in the districts already changed in terms of wanting to revolt against the Capital so it didn’t need to be spelled out again through promos and speeches. And that’s because I felt that would be a given. And so the pacing here was intended to draw one into the world even more whether it was Katniss singing or her and Gale hunting. So if you’re fascinated with the characters and the world then you’ll appreciate these touches. This all plays into the actions that others take throughout as part of the rebellion. So it’s not as if the story doesn’t progress at all, it just starts from a point that was assumed to already be covered. However it was interesting to still see the chess game between President Snow and the rebels, and that was mostly due to the performances. Donald Sutherland gives an amazing performance as President Snow basically carrying the entire weight of the ruthlessness and greediness of the capital on his back. Jennifer Lawrence, of course, is excellent in her role even though she wasn’t directly involved in many of the events occurring. But all the performances were pretty solid and made it feel as if more was occurring than there actually was. Peeta was being used as propaganda by the Capital since his popularity with Katniss was at a high in order to sow doubt among the districts about joining the rebellion. And the other victors had their roles and were useful. There were questionable character decisions that could be somewhat frustrating such as Katniss’s mother, who would take the crown here as she would be clueless during just about every scene.
SUMMARY
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 does the bare minimum in advancing the story overall but the character development and the strong performances made the overall conflict more engrossing, Katniss was effective as a character and a symbol but she was used more as the latter since her direct involvement was mostly limited to that. However, the few action sequences were pretty intense and enjoyable, and they make me optimistic about the action in Part 2. The question of whether or not the final book should’ve been divided into 2 movies is one I can’t answer until I see Part 2 but there are times where the story progression is almost nonexistent with time being spent convincing others once again that the Capital is oppressive. But if you’ve been a fan of the series then you’ll at least enjoy the major developments at the end of this one.
3 comments
fantasywind - December 31, 2014 11:21 AM
It’s interesting with this trend of dividing last part of franchise into two movies 🙂 at least with Harry Potter 7 there was excuse of large surce matrerial hehe, with the Hobbit decision was most likely made on the last moment (by the way have you seen the Battle of Five Armies?). Marketing reasons hehe :)?
Kareem Ali - January 2, 2015 11:06 AM
Yeah, since I’ve never read that book I’m not sure if separating it into two movies was a good idea or not. I have to see when Part 2 comes out. Yes, I saw Battle of Five Armies and I have a review coming before the week is over. I saw it twice and thought it was excellent. What about you?
Anonymous - February 2, 2015 9:17 AM
I was in overall pleasantly surprised with Battle of Five Armies after the DoS I thought that the movie would be much worse (of course there is still many things that I wished would be done differently, I seriously was disappointed with limited role of Beorn, who was basically a cameo there and I hoped for an action sequence with him tearing through enemies like book described :)). I like that especially the beginning of movie has this certain amount of faithfulness to book, conversation of Bard and Thorin was really climatic (and they indeed parley in book :)). Some things like…wereworms looking like sandworms from Dune, made me laugh 🙂 (there is a off hand comment by Bilbo in book where he says he would go ”to the East of East and fight wild Were-worms at the Last Desert” which implies that those creatures might be simply hobbit folklore but it was amusing to see them used nonetheless haha). There were downsides for me but overall movie was enjoyable :).