Continuing my yearly duty of screening the latest installment of the Hunger Games franchise, I have for you my take on part one of the adaptation of the third book in the series (are you following me, or am I going too fast for you?): The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1. And this really does feel like a chore right now, to the point I regret seeing the first movie two years ago, thus locking my self into seeing the series through.
And while I had reservations about the violence and general theme of that film, considering its target audience is made up of teenagers and middle schoolers, I couldn't deny that it was gripping entertainment that actually had some ideas behind it. I remember next to nothing about the second movie, but going back and re-reading my review I see that I liked it. I'm guessing that my lack of memory has less to do with the ravages of old age as it does with the fact that the themes established in the first movie weren't really expanded on, and the story itself not moved ahead as far as the movie makers would want you to think. This third film does add some new thematic wrinkles, but in the attempt to make an extra billion or two, the splitting of the last story into two parts made the action drag a bit, and in the end it seemed like a series of events strung together as opposed to a real driving narrative. In other words, we are again faced with moving only a short distance after a time consuming journey.
Mockingjay, Part 1 picks up shortly after Katniss Everdeen (again played by Jennifer Lawrence) was plucked out of the Games by the rebel forces. She's been brought to District 13, once thought destroyed, but living on in a huge underground bunker complex. Not only does District 13 exist, but it is the hub of the resistance, complete with a rather sophisticated military, considering the situation, and a functioning government complete with a president (Julianne Moore). The late Philip Seymour Hoffman returns as Plutarch Heavensbee, a sort of media consultant / propaganda minister who sets Katniss up to be the face of the rebellion. (the two parts of the film were shot together, so Hoffman appears in both movies, even though he died before principle photography was wrapped up. Some key scenes he was supposed to be in were rewritten putting other characters in his place). Katniss is resistant to taking on this role at first, but does so after the rebel president agrees to rescue the other surviving tributes from the Capitol, including her partner Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), and grants him, in particular, a pardon for his role in Panem's own propaganda campaign. (Liam Hemsworth also returns as the third corner of the seemingly obligatory YA fiction love triangle)
I started out "with" the movie, but my commitment to it slowly waned as the film dragged on, and I began to question the validity of the message. In Mockingjay we are finally out of the game, and the revolution is on, and it is televised. We are in District 13 and it stands in stark contrast with the opulent Capitol. The conditions are harsh: there are heavy restrictions on what people can possess, there is a strict prohibition on alcohol, everyone wears the same bland dark grey clothing that wouldn't be out of place in Mao's China. And I guess that's what struck me. Both the Capitol and District 13 are heavily regulated, controlled societies. The Capitol keeps the districts of Panem in check by a combination of bread and circuses and using the Hunger Games to ferment animosity between the districts and loyalty to the central government. District 13 maintains a dedicated, spartan populace with promises of a better, democratic future, free of the present tyranny.
But both sides use propaganda and manipulation to promote their cause. Of course District 13's is based on the effective packaging of the truth, while Panem's is pure lies. I still had a nagging feeling throughout the film, though, that neither side was terribly admirable, or at least deserved to be portrayed as such. I understand that we are dealing with a post apocalyptic fantasy, and one geared at younger end teenagers, but the actors are of a caliber (series regulars including Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks and Donald Sutherland are joined by newcomer Jeffery Wright), the presentation so plain, that I couldn't help but think that they're glossing over a basic truth: for District 13 to maintain this high level of disciplined austerity and unity of purpose among its populace it would have to be just as oppressive as Panem.
There is a lot of suspension of disbelief I had to engage in, and I did it happily. I'm mainly thinking of my wonderment at how these rag tag rebels living in a subterranean concrete shaft feed their people, maintain an impressive military industrial complex and manage a rather sophisticated telecommunications system. The electrical power alone would seem impossible to supply. But it is this point that I find hard to get around - that one side appears to my eyes to be the photographic negative of the other; District 13 may be devoid of color and shade, but it is just as manipulative and controlling as their adversary, and portraying it as a benign dictatorship ready to give up that control once the revolution is over is a little more than I can buy.
As for the movie itself, it runs a little over two hours, and begins to feel it about half way through. I thought the first part moved fairly well, but then I realized that the story wasn't going anywhere. They found a way to fill the time, but most of it doesn't seem to matter. A rescue mission, that seems tacked on, becomes the climactic episode, pulling a very faint thread of plot from earlier in the movie. The result of the mission gives the movie a convenient place to finish up and still keep us wondering about what will come next, but after all that time I felt no farther ahead in the story than I was at the end of the second movie (or even the first, for that matter).
There has been a lot of criticism that stretching this series into four movies renders this one a bit moot. I got the feeling that both middle movies are a tad superfluous, supplying a lot of sound a fury while moving the plot along just a smidgen. We could have gotten to where we are much more efficiently if they had edited together half of number 2 with half of this third installment. Or, just do the logical thing and make three movies from the three books. But then that would mean passing on an extra billion in worldwide receipts, and who wants to do that?
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