Considering the box office juggernaut the franchise has become, it's hard to believe that the first The Hunger Games movie first saw the light of day in 2012. Here we are, two years later, and we're into the home stretch with Mockingjay Part 1, continuing the current trend of splitting the final movie into two parts to stretch out a popular franchise. It's a practice that frustrates this particular reviewer. In this case, it robs the movie of some of its energy. What could have been an absolutely thrilling whole, becomes only a very good first chapter, with audiences left with a frustrating year long wait to see how the story ends.
Picking up almost immediately after the events of Catching Fire, we find Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen in the long thought destroyed District 13, home base to the mounting rebellion against the Capitol, and the callous and calculating President Snow (Donald Sutherland). She soon becomes the rebellion's figurehead, the Mockingjay, and the subject of propaganda videos intended to sway the public to their side, just as Snow steps up his campaign to squash the rebellion once and for all.
What the previous The Hunger Games movies did extremely well was world building, making the dystopian Panem a fully realised world that we actually cared. All that work pays off with Mockingjay Part 1, a totally different animal compared to the other movies. The politics of this vaguely futuristic nation are to the fore here, as both heroes of the series, Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), are used pawns by both factions to control popular opinion. It's this back and forth that is one of the things that works so well with this movie, with Lawrence and Hutchinson putting in some heart wrenching performances. Mockingjay Part 1 is considerably darker than previous installments, the horrors of war put through The Hunger Games lens in a pretty effective way. The first act is a slow burn, surprisingly rich in humour, and is the movie at it's weakest. It takes it's establishing the new status quo, and putting the characters we have gotten to know pretty well in the first two installments into their new roles.
With the first act out of the way, the movie picks up immensely, packing in some great set pieces as Katniss travels through different districts with a film crew in tow. The story moves forward at a thrilling pace from this point on, finding time for some beautiful human moments in between the action, leading to a fantastic finale that is sadly let down (you could actually say this about the whole movie) by the fact that this is only part one. As great as the preceding two hours was, as the credits start to roll, it's hard to shake the feeling that it was all set up, with the pay off still a year away. No doubt Mockingjay will play much better when viewed as the whole it really should have been.
The cast really can't be faulted, but most roles beyond the lead cast seem underwritten and an afterthought at times (Jena Malone's Johanna Mason gets mere seconds of screen time), another casualty of the movie being split in two. Lawrence plays Katniss perfectly, as usual, showing a hardening of her character as she fully accept the burden being the Mockingjay demands. Philip Seymour Hoffman, who this movie is lovingly dedicated to, brings a smile to your face whenever he's on screen, his role bringing a lot of heart to proceedings. He also delivers the movies biggest laugh as he tries to coax a performance out of Katniss for a propaganda video. Sutherland is fantastic as Snow, exuding pure evil whenever he's on screen. A newcomer to the series, Julianne Moore is probably the weakest as District 13 President Coin, her role coming off as pretty one dimensional and could have done with more fleshing out.
Hurt by being the first chapter of the finale, Mockingjay Part 1 is still an immensely entertaining ride, keeping up the quality the series has shown so far.
What the previous The Hunger Games movies did extremely well was world building, making the dystopian Panem a fully realised world that we actually cared. All that work pays off with Mockingjay Part 1, a totally different animal compared to the other movies. The politics of this vaguely futuristic nation are to the fore here, as both heroes of the series, Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), are used pawns by both factions to control popular opinion. It's this back and forth that is one of the things that works so well with this movie, with Lawrence and Hutchinson putting in some heart wrenching performances. Mockingjay Part 1 is considerably darker than previous installments, the horrors of war put through The Hunger Games lens in a pretty effective way. The first act is a slow burn, surprisingly rich in humour, and is the movie at it's weakest. It takes it's establishing the new status quo, and putting the characters we have gotten to know pretty well in the first two installments into their new roles.
With the first act out of the way, the movie picks up immensely, packing in some great set pieces as Katniss travels through different districts with a film crew in tow. The story moves forward at a thrilling pace from this point on, finding time for some beautiful human moments in between the action, leading to a fantastic finale that is sadly let down (you could actually say this about the whole movie) by the fact that this is only part one. As great as the preceding two hours was, as the credits start to roll, it's hard to shake the feeling that it was all set up, with the pay off still a year away. No doubt Mockingjay will play much better when viewed as the whole it really should have been.
Hurt by being the first chapter of the finale, Mockingjay Part 1 is still an immensely entertaining ride, keeping up the quality the series has shown so far.
