Movie Review: Mockingjay Part One

The Basics:

Mockingjay Part One is the much anticipated third installment in the Hunger Games movie series. It follows protagonist Katniss Everdeen as she struggles with the results of the "rebellion she never wanted". But, want it or not, Katniss is about to enter into a war--of both physical and mental state--against the narcissistic President Snow.




The Goods:

I'll be honest--Mockingjay was no Catching Fire. In fact, if you didn't read the book, it might've actually bored you. But if you did read the book, then, like me, you probably sat in the audience, nibbling at your fingernails and counting off in your head every major event from the book as it showed up on screen:

*WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!*

• Visting the District 12 ruins
• The first sighting of Peeta and the famous "You're alive"
• Katniss visiting the hospital--and it blowing up minutes later

--SPOILERS END--

and on and on. I was surprised that the movie stuck fairly well to the story line of the book. Of course, they didn't put everything in there (I'll get to that later). But they depicted all the characters pretty well--not just Katniss and Peeta's distress, but also Finnick's extreme character shift, Gale's constantly cold but sulky demeanor, and Prim's sweet empathy for her sister. And President Coin was spot on: determined, driven--but still mysterious enough us to make us slightly doubt her in the back of our minds. Just perfect.

*WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!*

The Peeta-choking-Katniss scene was also really good. Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence both did awesome in that scene. J-Hutch really did good as Peeta the entire movie. When he was on the Capitol screen for the last time and he saw the video of Katniss...omg his reaction...*sniffles*

Ahem. 

Anyway, the last scene in the movie, when we see Peeta thrashing around under the influence of the hijack poison, is pretty intense. And, as I already said, J-Hutch did really good.

--SPOILERS END--

The Bads:

Sorry, but right here, I'm kinda gonna have to play "Devil's advocate".  As I said before, if you didn't read the book, Mockingjay may have been boring to you. Not nearly as much action as the previous movies, and really, the plot was barely nudged forward. You mostly just watched Katniss cry over Peeta, Gale cry over Katniss' crying over Peeta, and Peeta cry over himself. Ah, the vicious, tired cycle of the love triangle--which, just for the record, was greatly exaggerated in the movie because, of course, Hollywood can't miss the opportunity to beef up a love story and drown out actual lessons.

ANYWAY. Heh-heh.

Other than the forced love triangle (which was probably the most annoying part of the movie), there's also the constant, never waning annoyance with things that were cut in earlier movies that change the minor but still important parts of the entire plot. For instance, the imprudent (notice the use of a big word in order to mask my anger) decision to completely take Peeta's leg loss out of the movies and just pretend it never happened. Peeta's prosthetic leg was a part of him, a part of his personality. For lack of a clearer way to say it, it was part of what made Peeta Peeta. And they just decided to tidily cut it completely out. I don't think I'll ever get over that.

The "Oopsies":

So this time, the "oopsies" section is less of a list of goofy mistakes and more of a list of "important-stuff-from-the-book-that-the-writers/producers/directors-cut". Like Finnick. I mean, yeah, he was in the movie. And the depiction of him was great (kudos to Sam Claflin). But where was his little piece of rope? Where was his knot-tying lesson with Katniss? Where was his famous "Do you find this...distracting?" I already spoke about Peeta's prosthetic leg (*steam puffs from ears*), but they also skipped over Katniss' half-deafness. I mean, they didn't need to make a big deal out of it. Just maybe, while she was in District 7, and the explosion happens, they could've had her grab that deaf ear or something. I don't know. But they shouldn't have just disrespectfully ignored Suzanne Collins original motif like that. And, who knows, maybe I'm speaking too soon. Maybe some of this stuff is in the deleted scenes on the DVD. But I'm not going to permanently buy a movie that I'm fine with seeing once. So I guess I'll never really know.

Fave part:

Although most people (or maybe just some? or a couple? or none?) were "rooting" for Katniss and Peeta (or Everlark, as they're called in their less...offensive ship name) to be together again, as one who read the book, I knew that it wouldn't be until Part 2 that they would reconcile, even if they did reunite in Part 1. And, anyway, it seems too "mainstream" to be obsessed with Katniss and Peeta. So, personally, I was crossing my fingers more for Finnick and Annie. And I was sososososo happy when they reunited at the end of the movie! They were so cute, the way Finnick was holding Annie so tightly. They'd been apart for so long and now they're back together...it's so sweet. Their little romance is the one kind that doesn't annoy me--and, anyway, we all need something good to balance out all the grimness in the movie. So their reunion was definitely my favorite part.

Least fave part:

Now, I've spoken on my feelings on the whole "love triangle" concept that was pushed throughout the movie. So it's no surprise that the Gale and Katniss kiss was my least favorite part. I mean, it was obviously so forced and in my opinion looked faker than anything Katniss and Peeta had to do for the cameras. And no one was even watching Gale and Katniss! And the most annoying part was afterward, when Gale muttered "Yeah, I knew you'd do that. You only notice me when I'm in pain." *eye roll* Gale is thirstier for attention than a girl on Instagram.

Wrap-up:

So, in spite of the personal disappointments (courtesy of Lionsgate and associates), I actually liked Mockingjay. I have to admit that I wasn't as excited watching it as I had been with Catching Fire--when you make fans wait an entire year for a movie and then only start really promoting it like a month before premiere, we get bored. But I was happy to see all the characters again and it was cool to see the few parts (*under-exaggeration mixed with a dash of sarcasm*) from the book depicted onscreen. Overall, if you haven't yet seen Mockingjay Part 1, but have seen the first two movies and read the book, then I suggest seeing it.