The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

[Mockingjay Raphael]

Too much hate for this, is not a DH1, but is a lot better than BD1.

[TheMovieman]

Agree with Baumer, the entire 110 minutes (w/o credits) was merely filler and really, nothing stood out though it did make me miss PSH once again. Even Jennifer Lawrence seemed to be on autopilot until the end. Only showed that it was a big mistake making this a two-part movie. Where Catching Fire was exciting and briskly paced, this one felt every bit of its running time and a bit more (and was 20-minutes shorter).

 

**¾/*****, (C, 5.5/10, 2.25/4)

Edited March 6, 2015 by The Movieman

[Noctis]

Agree with most of what you're saying, but Jennifer Lawrence on auto-pilot? She was great.

[TheMovieman]

Agree with most of what you're saying, but Jennifer Lawrence on auto-pilot? She was great.

 

That was my initial thought but perhaps not. She did have a couple good scenes yet IDK, I thought she was better in CF.

[solaris]

Finally got round to seeing this. The fact that it's taken me this long to bother to watch this, vs the first two that I saw on their respective OWs speaks volumes about how appealing this looked from the marketing - and probably goes a long way to explaining that 25% dip in box office.

 

Anyway - loved the first two and in particular Catching Fire. Whilst I'm not a book reader and thus don't know what's coming, I think Catching Fire will remain the apex of this series. All of the things that movie had in spades are absent here - action, drama, a sense of urgency, visual beauty. By comparison this feels like the Alien 3 of THG franchise - dark, dank, dour & stubbornly slow. 

 

So what does work? Well, it's predictable but the performances are uniformly great - JLaw is amazing as ever, PSH ( ) and Julianne do well with what they're given, and Natalie Dormer is so f'ing great, I would happily have watched a film about her escape from the capital instead of this.

 

Whilst the unrelenting sourness and darkness of the film is initially jarring, it's still a pretty brave choice for a major franchise movie and so I kind of applaud it for that - I just wish it had been augmented by a little more in the way of narrative or action. Even a pre credits sequence showing the fallout from CF from Peeta's perspective, or action from the Disticts (loved the lumberjack rebel stuff) - just something to give the film a bit of room to breathe.

 

The Hanging tree - great.

 

And I really loved all the Propos - sometimes a little heavy handed with the satire but definitely the most fun to be had here. And Natalie Dormer 

 

But overall the film is just kind of there. I can't recall half of what happened. The overall narrative of this franchise feels like it has inched forward by the smallest possible amount in the space of 2 hours. All the hokey stuff from the Games themselves (nasty monkeys! poison fog!) are sorely missed here, and all of the hushed two handers in the word between Julianne Moore and PSH can't rectify this (though they are pretty great in their own way).

 

So yeah, colour me disappointed. That Alien 3 comparison feels apt again - like A3 this is a film I can admire and appreciate, but it's not really the film I wanted to see.

[James]

Re-watched this and it's holding very well. Liked it more than the first time. Actually, I think I might like it just as much as CF. Has some very good moments. Really dig the darker tone.

[Blankments]

This held up surprisingly decent to a rewatch. Nothing really happens, yeah, but the characters are entertaining and the last half hour is very good for blockbuster filmmaking. Keep my grade the same though.

[Gopher]

Not great

Edited December 27, 2017 by Gopher