"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1" - Review

“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” – Review

Categories
- Features
- James Hancock
- Mikhail Karadimov
- P. Dixon
- Rant
- Review

By James Hancock November 22nd, 2014

Before I write anything about “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” I have to confess that until recently I had not been following the franchise. I read the first book a few years ago before the release of the first movie and decided it would be better if I just sit this one out. I completely appreciate the love and passion so many fans have for this series; I have similar feelings for movies made by Marvel, but the tone and style of the series I safely assumed at the time was not designed with a jaded thirty-something bald man’s sensibilities in mind. I’m completely obsessed with Jennifer Lawrence and I have been thrilled to see her enjoying such success with this franchise, but for me I prefer seeing her in the films of David O. Russell (“Silver Linings Playbook” (2012) & “American Hustle (2013)) or kicking ass as Mystique in “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014). Fast forward to a few days ago, one of my co-hosts on the podcast Wrong Reel, Mikhail Karadimov, suggested that we not only see the new flick but also record an episode about it immediately afterward. I obediently did my homework and watched both “The Hunger Games” (2012) and “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” (2013) in order to go into the latest installment fully armed with all the necessary info and lore to have the best chance of enjoying the flick.

If you’re a hardcore fan of the books by Suzanne Collins and the movie adaptations, let’s just say I appreciate your fervor and I’m on your team when it comes to loving a big franchise in spite of its faults. I’m a slave to the films being made at Marvel Studios and even when they make a film that disappoints (“Iron Man 3” (2013) or “Thor: The Dark World” (2013)) I’m willing to sit through a lot of bad scenes in order to sink my teeth into that one moment that speaks to me. But when it comes to the subject of all the big-budget Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Superhero franchises out there right now, I have to rank “The Hunger Games” as one of the weaker franchises out there. Now before the legions of Katniss Everdeen fans string me up from the nearest tree, let me say that I love the fact that this series exists and that young girls get so much out of it. I’ve met some friends of my younger sister (age 12) who absolutely worship these books and anytime I see kids voraciously reading anything, I’m thrilled. I think the series teaches a healthy level of skepticism for political propaganda and overall the books have some valuable lessons for kids about basic human rights and the horrors of political oppression. I also love seeing a successful movie franchise that brings in a different audience other than the much sought after male 18-30 demographic. Last night at the theater, I felt like I was at a Taylor Swift concert and the excitement in the crowd was almost contagious, but not quite since I’m a bitter old bastard.

Liam Hemsworth spends most of the franchise wondering why his brother has a better career.

All sarcasm aside, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” is the weakest movie of the series so far. Breaking the third book in the series into two movies was a colossal mistake from a storytelling perspective. If the Harry Potter and The Hobbit franchises have taught us anything it’s that diluting and decompressing stories for the sake of squeezing more ticket sales out of the audience has led to lackluster movies. The majority of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1” deals with the propaganda war between the rebels in District 13 and President Snow. As part of the story, this would have been fine, but this media battle is really all this movie has to offer. Katniss Everdeen has only one moment in the movie where she gets to put her much-vaunted archery skills into play against the enemy. I’m sorry but seeing Katniss kicking ass is one of the only redeeming qualities of this series for me and if you take that away there’s nothing left. The love triangle between Katniss, Gale and Peeta is arguably the most sexless, celibate, lifeless romantic entanglement ever caught on screen. I know this is a movie for kids and I shouldn’t expect some raunchy sex scene but even back in the 1930s at the height of the censorship of the Hollywood Production Code, Hollywood managed to inject some love and emotion into their love affairs. Poor Liam Hemsworth has been trapped for the last 3 years inside the skin of Gale Hawthorne and I can only imagine the soul searching he has to do every time he sees his big bro dressed as Thor taking on alien armies, fighting the Hulk or putting the smackdown on dark elves and frost giants. The cast of the Hunger Games is awe inspiring but sadly they just are not given anything interesting to do. Criticizing the movie is a bit of a waste, however, in that the only thing that matters is whether or not the hardcore fans are happy. I have no idea if this movie will delight them or not but I would like to believe that even the most frenzied enthusiast privately will acknowledge in the back of their mind that nothing happens in this movie. I’m crossing my fingers that “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” will be an absolute barn-burner of a movie, but for now all my reservations about the series going back to when I first read “The Hunger Games” have proven to be true. “The Hunger Games” just isn’t for me.