The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 (review)
"Mockingjay Part 1" is all build up with no emotional or dramatic payoff
“Everyone’s either going to want to kiss you, kill you or be you,” says Capitol couture maven Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) to her young charge Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), the valiant heroine of “The Hunger Games” trilogy-turned-quadrilogy. When we last saw Katniss, at the end of the magnificent The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, she was being whisked away to District 13, home of an underground revolutionary base. Her maybe-beloved Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) had been rushed off in the other direction, to the tyrannical Capitol, where life is a giant cesspool of excess to which the various impoverished districts pay tribute.
And so commences The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, as Katniss is groomed for gamesmanship of a propagandizing kind. Recruited by Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and District 13’s brittle president, Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) to be the face of the revolution, Katniss finds herself pushed, pulled and twisted as though she were the kneaded dough in Peeta’s family bakery. As the reluctant star of rebel propaganda, or “propos” as they are called in the film, Katniss is once again paraded around in a way not altogether dissimilar from what the antagonistic Capitol forced her to do in the previous films. She spends most of the movie in a morose fog, battling PTSD and heartsick over her separation from Peeta. President Snow (Donald Sutherland, whose delicious, glint-of-evil performance is only outmatched in polish by his alarmingly well trimmed, white locks) continues to torture Katniss from afar. Every so often there’s a sign of the old Katniss — a trace of ferocity, a hint of anger, a moment of resolve — but mostly she spends the movie with a very bad case of the blahs.
Advertisement
And so it goes for two long, nearly action-free hours, as Katniss grows mopier and mopier over her separation from Peeta, despite the fact that there’s a perfectly good stud nearby who adores her — Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), ready to fight alongside her and even kiss her chastely, lips closed vise-tight.
Directed by Francis Lawrence, who also helmed Catching Fire and will do similar honors a year from now with Mockingjay, Part 2, the current Hunger Games installment suffers from Hollywood’s recent, greed-fueled need to split the final installment of trilogies into an unmatched pair. Mockingjay Part 1 is a static, grim setup for what is sure to be a terrific payoff, particularly if President Coin makes good on her promise of a “special weapon.”
Claustrophobic and bleak, virtually devoid of color, Mockingjay, Part 1 is essentially the first half of any traditional action film — all buildup, with no emotional or dramatic payoff. Even the few assorted incidents that kick the movie to sudden life sputter into nothing. Fans of the books will no doubt love Mockingjay, Part 1. The rest of us are left to fidget in our seats, wondering why we’re not at home watching an encore of Catching Fire. — Randy Shulman
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (
) is now playing at area theaters.
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.