REVIEW: THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY- PART 1
Fortunately I got to see a good handful of movies over the Thanksgiving break, Oscar contenders Whiplash and Birdman, and ginormous blockbusters that I normally would have seen opening day, Interstellar and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1. It killed me not being able to see these two films that I've heard so much buzz and conversation about. Acknowledging these facts, and the truth that I am late to these reviews, here is my review of Mockingjay, and later, will do a joint review with my friend Aaron Haynes on Interstellar because...I'm not sure I understand it completely.
There were fewer movies this year that I was more hyped about than Mockingjay Part 1. Perhaps it is filling that young adult adaptation space that I crave, but I just can't get enough of this series, talking about it, watching those great propaganda trailers released earlier this year. What I love is that they don't really need to market these gargantuan blockbusters because the fans already have the midnight release date saved in their iPhones...but they do it anyway! What I do not like however, is being played for a sap. We get the ploy, studio execs. You did this with Harry Potter, Twilight, and you're going to do it with the Divergent series. When each half a movie makes half a billion it's better than one finale of a movie making somewhere in the range of $800 million.
With this in mind, I'd heard people disregard it because they were just trying to milk the franchise for all it was worth, there was no action, and it was slow. I will agree with one of those statements, but I have to say I had a great time with the penultimate installment in this series. Shortly after the events of Catching Fire, Part 1, while slow at times, never bored me for an instant. Even though Josh Hutchinson's Peeta is absent (for a reason), the weight Jennifer Lawrence carries is reason enough to see this. Lawrence gets better with every turn, and this film the gamut runs from emotional to furious to victorious to defeated. I love the scene where Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Heavensbee asks her to act in a propaganda film, and she gives the flattest delivery possible. But when the cameras capture her in the real world, when a disaster has just struck, Lawrence shows Katniss' true moxie and spirit, and that footage is used.
The haters are right: there are no actual Hunger Games in this Hunger Games. It's really a film about politics when it boils down to it. Katniss is starting a revolution with her district...ring any bells, 99%-ers? And while it does cut off just as you're ready to charge into battle with District 12, Mockingjay Part 1 fades to black. But ultimately, though I am no sucker, I'm happy to have any chance to visit Panem again, and don't mind waiting another 365 days for the next one.
Rating: 3/4 stars
There were fewer movies this year that I was more hyped about than Mockingjay Part 1. Perhaps it is filling that young adult adaptation space that I crave, but I just can't get enough of this series, talking about it, watching those great propaganda trailers released earlier this year. What I love is that they don't really need to market these gargantuan blockbusters because the fans already have the midnight release date saved in their iPhones...but they do it anyway! What I do not like however, is being played for a sap. We get the ploy, studio execs. You did this with Harry Potter, Twilight, and you're going to do it with the Divergent series. When each half a movie makes half a billion it's better than one finale of a movie making somewhere in the range of $800 million.
With this in mind, I'd heard people disregard it because they were just trying to milk the franchise for all it was worth, there was no action, and it was slow. I will agree with one of those statements, but I have to say I had a great time with the penultimate installment in this series. Shortly after the events of Catching Fire, Part 1, while slow at times, never bored me for an instant. Even though Josh Hutchinson's Peeta is absent (for a reason), the weight Jennifer Lawrence carries is reason enough to see this. Lawrence gets better with every turn, and this film the gamut runs from emotional to furious to victorious to defeated. I love the scene where Phillip Seymour Hoffman's Heavensbee asks her to act in a propaganda film, and she gives the flattest delivery possible. But when the cameras capture her in the real world, when a disaster has just struck, Lawrence shows Katniss' true moxie and spirit, and that footage is used.The haters are right: there are no actual Hunger Games in this Hunger Games. It's really a film about politics when it boils down to it. Katniss is starting a revolution with her district...ring any bells, 99%-ers? And while it does cut off just as you're ready to charge into battle with District 12, Mockingjay Part 1 fades to black. But ultimately, though I am no sucker, I'm happy to have any chance to visit Panem again, and don't mind waiting another 365 days for the next one.
Rating: 3/4 stars
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