The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -
Part 1 (2014) / Adventure-Sci Fi
MPAA Rated:
PG-13 for intense sequences of
violence and action, some disturbing images and thematic material
Running Time: 123 min.
Cast: Jennifer
Lawrence, Julianne Moore, Donald Sutherland, Josh Hutcherson, Liam
Hemsworth, Natalie Dormer, Elizabeth Banks, Jeffrey Wright, Woody
Harrelson, Willow Shields, Sam Claflin, Stanley Tucci, Jena Malone
Director: Francis Lawrence
Screenplay: Peter Craig, Danny Strong (based on the adaptation by Suzanne
Collins of her book) Review published November 21, 2014
The
Hunger Games films veer off into
a different direction with Mockingjay, Part 1, as we no longer
have a highly televised arena featuring combatants battling to the death so much as a battle for the
people of Panem in terms of whether they want to stay with the
oppressive regime led by the Capitol and President Snow (Sutherland,Horrible Bosses), or whether
they're going to join the revolution and fight for a new way of life.
Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence,X-Men: Days of
Future Past)continues to be the reluctant figurehead
of the rebellion, who finally comes on board once she sees her own
district has been nearly destroyed in Snow's vicious attacks.
That rebellion is led by President Alma Coin (Moore,Non-Stop), and masterminded behind the
scenes from Plutarch Heavensbee (Hoffman,A Most Wanted Man), who has been
mastering the art of propaganda to fan the flames of discontent among
the citizens of Panem, and he sees Katniss as the lightning rod for spearheading a major
uprising. They're all residing in a massive underground bunker in the
long-thought-destroyed District 13, where their hopes are pinned to
their 'Mockingjay', Katniss, to connect with the people, while Peeta (Hutcherson,Epic)appears on Capitol-based
television in order to try to keep the people from taking up arms,
though one suspects he's being manipulated or coerced.
Catching Fire director Francis
Lawrence (Water for Elephants,
I Am Legend) returns for the first of
two installments adapting the third and final book in Suzanne Collins'
massively popular young adult trilogy, and the main question is, does it
need two films to tell the story? From the amount of material that
could have been trimmed or excised altogether from this entry, I'd
gather not, but when box office gold is there to be mined, there's
definitely the almighty financial considerations that will win the day.
Why not release another billion-dollar sequel while you have the chance?
The problem here is that there are some prolonged lulls in a franchise
that, though flawed, had been successful at keeping the action at the
forefront, even if it could have been tighter in terms of overall run
time. It still will deliver the goods for fans, enough to make it a
worthwhile viewing that just intrigues enough to see where the story
ends up in Part 2, but it's not exactly the most scintillating
blockbuster effort, and certainly isn't something that merits the
electric excitement that surrounds its release.
The best thing one can say about this film is that it is elevated by
another impressive performance by Jennifer Lawrence, who actually gives
her character some nuance, despite the weak dialogue and silly
confrontations drummed up by Suzanne Collins. One of her best
moments in the film is when she actually has to act like a novice
actress, trying to deliver a powerhouse line to motivate Panem in a
propaganda commercial, but failing miserably to properly emote.
It's a rare thing to ever see Lawrence unable to properly act, but even
in this, she's phenomenal, and only makes the film that much more
emotionally resonant when she does deliver the goods in the heat of the
moment, and with authenticity.
The rest of the cast, full of some pretty great thespians, are fine
enough, though they don't captivate given their short amount of screen
time and the aforementioned terrible writing they're given to deliver.
The worst part of the acting comes in the way extras are used, as nearly
every instance of crowds in the film seem to treat them as if they are
all of one mind, Greek chorus style. Collins' continued contrived
use of character names is beyond absurd. Plutarch Heavensbee had
already stretched credibility, but there is actually a duo of friends in
the movie called Castor and Pollux, the Gemini twins. What are the odds
that two separate, non-related people in this phony world would end up
meeting and becoming a team?
As you'd expect from a movie that's the first half of a book, there
isn't really an ending to the movie, and it doesn't naturally end on much of a
cliffhanger either, so if you walk out of the theater feeling tepid,
this will likely be one of the major reasons. Given the final
moment major reveal at
the end of Catching Fire, it's definitely more downbeat than
you might be hoping for when you see the credit roll. Despite a
passable grade, given the stretched-out feel to
the movie, with, for a film about a nationwide revolution, the feeling
that it's a bit small in terms of scope, this is a clear example of why
splitting the final book into two films, while financially smart, is
quite a bad choice for fans, who deserve to feel fired up when going
into the fourth and final film in the franchise. It's fine and
faithful enough for fanatical franchise fans, but far from fostering
fever-pitch ferocity for most other free-minded filmgoers.
The
