Young Adult Month - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1

In the not too distant future, after a disaster takes place

A nerdy guy with Rage Issues, among the last of the human race

He was just a media nerd, he ranted a lot, it was quite absurd

But he was special for some reason, so bad men decided it was Rage Issues season

He’ll star in 3 movies, 4 if we squeeze him dry

He’ll go and join a rebel force, as he’ll slowly lose his mind

Now keep in mind, he’s just a guy, no different from you or me

So, he’ll have to learn how to survive, with the help of YA Movies

Franchise Roll call:

The Hunger Games

The Maze Runner

Diiiiiiiivergent

If you’re wondering how he posts his thoughts, and who he’s posting for

Repeat to yourself, it’s just a theme, and stop thinking any more

It’s Young Adult Month!

And we’re back with the Hunger games with Mockingjay part 1

With the success of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows being split into 2 movies, it was decided to do the same thing with Mockingjay. The thing is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a much longer book and it needed to catch up with details omitted from previous very long books. Hunger Games: Mockingjay is a medium sized book, and the previous films had been largely pretty good at not omitting major details from the book (going from the Dom’s Lost in Adaptation here)

So, it’s not difficult to see this move as a major cash-grab on the part of the studio. The difficulty comes in altering the structure of the story to fit this. I will admit that my thoughts on this have been changed slightly. Unlike the other 2 books, I have read Mockingjay, I happened to stumble across it relatively cheap so I do know where these films branch off from the books.

Still, the success was felt, the film earned over $750m at the box office on a $140m budget (a notable downgrade from Catching fire but still) but took a hit critically with now a 68% Rotten Tomatoes rating with an average 6.3/10 score and a 71% audience rating with an average 3.8/5 score. What does that mean for the film itself? Here is my take.

Katniss’ escape at the end of Catching Fire had consequences, not only was Peeta not among those rescued, but her entire home of District 12 was firebombed, with only around 800 survivors, which thankfully include Katniss’ family. Gale was the one who got them out and most of the movie is spent with them reconnecting, something there was some of in the last movie, but he was basically a non-entity in the first.

They’re now in the underground tunnels of District 13, thought destroyed during the original uprising. President Coin wants to reignite the rebellion against the Capitol and wants Katniss to be their symbol, the Mockingjay. Trying to film her in a studio doesn’t work, so they head out into the field, seeing a hospital bombed just for associating with her and standing in the ruins of her district.

Meanwhile, Peeta is held by the Capitol, and is making statements trying to call for an end to the violence, much to the annoyance of District 13. He’s looking worse with every video made, can they secure his rescue before it’s too late?

This movie covers about the first 2/3 of the book, the problem is that a lot of it is exposition and setup and there’s no meaningful climax. There is very little action in this film, in spite of its budget being the same as the last one.

So, how does it do with character stuff? For the most part, it does an adequate enough job, it gives us a bit more depth to Gale and Katniss’ relationship, with Gale pretty much performing Peeta’s role as the emotional support. The problem is that they don’t show the differences as well. In the book Gale and Katniss have a lot of small disagreements, few amount to much but it paints a picture that Gale isn’t the saint he appeared to be (especially since they changed the reason for his whipping in the last film) and may not be right for Katniss, especially in her current and very volatile mental state. Finnick’s backstory is only briefly explored in the film, but he is used effectively.

Katniss herself is explored as much as she can be, she’s upset a lot and has vary between crying and being angry about it. A bit is lost by lacking access to her internal thoughts but her journey is relatively well adapted as she begins to see the horrors of war, especially the prospect of continuous retaliation from the Capitol, which she’d begun to experience in the last one.

The main through-line of the movie is Katniss’ starring as the Mockingjay, which involves the movie’s 1 major action scene (that actually involves the lead) as hovercraft attack a hospital. It’s a good showcase of skills for Katniss and Gale, shows the ruthlessness of Snow and is rather exciting. It’s a pity so much of the movie is kinda dull.

Because of the problem with adapting half a book into a movie, there’s no real climax from the book to adapt. The chosen substitution is the rescue attempt in the Capitol, as it’s shown, rather than the details being kept sketchy. It does make the fact that Snow allowed them to leave for more apparent, rather than just an off-handed comment. Nonetheless it is an entertaining scene from a film that really did need more action.

So, the whole bit about Katniss trying to tempt Snow into conversation in attempt to distract him, not in the book, and it’s kinda dull. I know they needed to force Katniss into the climax a bit more, but it wasn’t a particularly interesting way of doing it

The acting and directing remain solid, with great performances all round. Including Woody Harrelson playing a sobered up Haymitch, Elizabeth Banks playing a more down-to-earth Effie Trinket, Willow Shields as Prim, getting herself sorted out as a doctor, and Jullianne Moore playing the aforementioned President Coin

Mockingjay part 1 suffers from an abundance of setup with very little payoff, with little action to keep you on the edge of your seats. That said, the character stuff they keep is handled relatively well and I’m looking forward to what the second half has in store for us.

Rating 75/100