It’s probably safe to say that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is one of the more anticipated movies of the year. I haven’t read the books yet and wasn’t a big fan of the first one (because I prefer Battle Royale and eschew badly used shaky cam) but the second installment was a marked improvement as director Francis Lawrence took over the helm and the bigger context of this cinematic world was provided. As such, I wasn’t anxiously counting down the days to this film’s release but I was cautiously optimistic that it would be a good movie.
Of course, the first thing standing in the way of enjoying the film is that the franchise opted for the predictable cash grab and split the final book into two movies. While I openly admit a favorable bias for all things Harry Potter, which seems to have started this craze, at least with The Deathly Hallows there was a lot of story to get through if they were going to get it right and rather than a four-plus hour movie, splitting it into two made sense. Twilight could have summed up Breaking Dawn – Part 1 in a five minute narrated montage. I have no idea if the Divergent series warrants this treatment (not that my opinion matters) but after watching Mockingjay – Part 1, I wish they would have just made one three hour movie.
It’s not that the 123 minute runtime is exorbitant by itself but much of the movie felt padded and dragged out, with certain obvious character motivations taking far too long for the characters to grasp on-screen. There are also a few scenes that feel like they were added outside of the source material in order to create drama/action for the sake of pacing out the movie. Of course, maybe those scenes are in the book (which of course I haven’t read yet since the movies aren’t all finished) but they seem tacked on here.
Then there’s the elephant in the room that’s cursed the franchise from the start: the love triangle of Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), Gale (Liam Hemsworth), and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). I don’t get it. And to quote an unrelated but favored movie character, “I may not be a smart man … but I know what love is.” Even with the abominable Twilight movies, Kristen Stewart’s character is at least picking between two very different people (even putting aside the whole werewolf/vampire angle). With The Hunger Games, the biggest difference between the two suitors vying for Katniss’ attention is their height. They’re both brave and selfless, and share the character fault of wanting a woman who just strings them along and has the emotive capacity of an Apple IIe computer. It’s almost a reverse stereotype where in this case it’s the men who are attracted to a woman who doesn’t say much, mistaking that silence for some form of profundity.
That aside, I was fine with the movie (what a transitional sentence!). The most effective scenes involve Philip Seymour Hoffman, which adds a bittersweet element to the affair. The inclusion of Julianne Moore is a little odd, and although I assume the hair dye job going on is from the books, it just makes her look strange, and almost alien. And once again, the true heart of the movie derives from Elizabeth Banks … which I’m not sure is such a good thing. This should be all about joining Katniss on her ride through this crazy world but because of how Lawrence plays the character, what should be construed as stoic comes off as a bit bland more often than not. At least Banks’ character wears her heart on her sleeve.
Anywho, I’m sure none of what I said matters much. If you’re a fan, you’re going to see this movie. And despite my reservations and issues, I enjoyed it well enough. I think the second film stands as the best of the three so far and would rather have cut an hour of this movie to just get to the end of it all but I can’t say I was climbing the walls to leave the theater. Fans should be pleased (assuming it didn’t stray from the book too much) and we’ll just have to see if stretching things out as they have will pay off when the final film comes out next year. At least this installment features the first instance of making it seem like one of the characters is actually hungry, so there’s that … for whatever it’s worth.
GRADE: C+
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images and thematic material.
