This bird don’t sing.
The H-Bomb: In the aftermath of the Quarter Quell, Panem’s evil President Snow (Donald Sutherland) has laid waste to District 12, the home of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), in retaliation to her repeated acts of defiance. Katniss, and her family, are now living in a vast underground bunker beneath District 13, where the resistance against the Capitol has made its home. The resistance’s leader, President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), and its minister of propaganda, Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), want to make Katniss the face of their revolution, as she has shown a distinct talent for inspiring the masses. They want Katniss to be their Mockingjay.
Trouble is, their Mockingjay is presently all atwitter over the fate of her fellow District 12 tribute, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), who was taken by President Snow’s forces during the Quarter Quell, and is currently being held in the Capitol. Snow, master manipulator that he is, has turned Peeta into his own Mockingjay, of sorts, by putting him on his state run television to espouse the bullshit virtues of his government, and to try and talk the citizens out of any kind of violent uprising.
Coin is desperate to get Katniss on the air to start rallying the troops, but Katniss has one demand: That Coin launch an operation to rescue Peeta and fellow surviving Quarter Quell tribute, Johanna Mason (Jena Malone), from the clutches of Snow. Coin reluctantly agrees, but she really needs Katniss to start right away. So little miss Mockingjay, sporting a nifty new bow from resistance egghead, Beetee (Jeffrey Wright), starts visiting the various war torn districts with a camera crew, and her almost boyfriend, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), by her side. Her promotional videos reach its intended audience, as well as Snidely Whipsnow. Now the rebels can only hope that the people will be inspired to take action before he does.
Viva la Revolution… I guess.
Goddamn it… what a disappointment. Sorry, but I gots to keep it real, and the grim reality is that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1, is one utterly underwhelming motion picture. In fact, it isn’t even a film, it’s a two hour long placeholder, simply marking time until Mockingjay- Part 2, where hopefully we will get the real concluding chapter of The Hunger Games saga. Mockingjay is the third novel in Suzanne Collins’ wildly popular young adult trilogy, and has, in accordance with newly founded Hollywood tradition, been split into two movies… because why only make one, when you can make two for twice the profit?
The plot of Mockingjay- Part 1 would have made a great forty minute act one for a third and final Hunger Games film. Unfortunately, that act one has been stretched out to feature length, with some obvious filler and padding, and has been released as its own film. The result is two fucking hours of little more than some PR strategizing and Katniss moping about Peeta and acting petulant. And then, when finally something of significance or interest is about to happen, the movie ends.
I suspected that this was going to be the case going in, but that did little to off set that feeling of just how unsatisfying it ultimately is. It pains me to say that, too, as I am a fan of the previous Hunger Games films, particularly Catching Fire. I just wish the first part of Mockingjay actually had a story unto itself to tell. It doesn’t. It does have more going for it than Twilight: Breaking Dawn- Part 1, but hey, if we’re going to set the bar that fucking high…
I suppose we were meant to be interested in the political intrigue of President Coin and Plutarch planning their elaborate PR campaign, and at first, it is interesting. However, the film just kept going over and over it, to a point where it’s drawn out and stupefyingly repetitive, not to mention dull. I will give the writers credit for making a statement about how both sides use propaganda and manipulate people through the media, but instead of that merely being an aspect of the film, which is what it should have been, it is the entire film. The whole damn movie is centered around the propaganda war, and it simply isn’t enough.
All the padding and stretching and poppycock aside, I also immensely disliked what they did with Katniss, here. In the first two films, she was a compelling and strong female lead, a solid anchor for this series. This time, she’s written in such a way that she comes off as idiotically stubborn and short-sighted. She doesn’t seem to give a damn about the revolution or the millions of lives at stake, she only cares about Peeta, and her ceaseless bitching and moaning over his well being grows very tiresome very fast. Lawrence is a great actress, and gives it her all, but this go around, Katniss is simply insufferable.
For the first time, Katniss’ other man, Gale, takes center stage, with a largely inflated role, and this only highlights an issue that I was able to overlook in the first two films, because he had so little screen time: Katniss and Gale have no fucking chemistry, whatsoever. Lawrence may be great, Liam Hemsworth, however, is a charisma vacuum. I’ve seen doorknobs with more personality than him, and given that this whole Twilight love triangle is totally extraneous anyway, his presence in the movie only drags it down lower than it already is.
On the bright side, the late, great Hoffman gets quite a bit to do, this go around, and he does it really well, making his numerous scenes of media strategizing far more bearable than they would have been with a lesser actor in the role. I’m really going to miss this guy. Sutherland is still fantastic as the diabolical Snow, even if his character is becoming more cartoonish as the series progresses, and franchise newcomer Moore does some fine work as the resistance leader, Coin, though her colorless character definitely has a stick up her butt.
Sadly, the rest of the supporting players, most of whom are holdovers from previous entries, are wasted. Woody Harrelson’s formerly drunken Haymitch has been forced into sobriety, and the character is far less fun for it. Same for Stanley Tucci’s flamboyant TV host, Caesar Flickerman, who is far more subdued here than in earlier installments. Sam Claflin, a genuine scene stealer in Catching Fire, as Finnick Odair, is only given a few scenes, in which all he does is whine and cry over some ginger chick. Lame. And the other standout from the last film, Malone’s alpha-bitch, Johanna Mason, is only seen fleetingly this time. She is given no dialogue, and she had more screen time in the early teasers than she does in the actual film. Malone was fantastic in the previous movie, so I must politely inquire… What the Fuck, man?!
I hate that I’m dumping all over The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1, but again, in the interest of keeping it real, I must reiterate, this is not a movie, it’s a two hour tide-me-over. There’s maybe forty minutes of actual story, and about eighty minutes of bullshit. Director Francis Lawrence and his game cast try their best to make it work, unfortunately, the decision to turn it into two movies is a business one, not an artistic one, and with a script this redundant, this dreary, and this devoid of any real action (let alone an actual Hunger Games event), there was nothing anyone could do.
When a book is adapted for the screen, it is meant to be condensed, not translated in its entirety. The decision to translate Mockingjay in its entirety has resulted in a two hour opening act, one that stops just as it’s getting revved up. Perhaps this will work better in a year’s time, when we have Mockingjay- Part 2 to stand it up beside. As of right now, though, this fraction of a film just doesn’t stand up on its own.
