So... last night I settled into a seat in a crowded, but not
full, theater, with a lot of pretty funny perfect strangers around me, who did
some whistling... and yelling... and gasping.... and watched the premier of
Mockingjay, Part 1. It was a little bit
of a different experience for me than the first two films, because I did not
have time to re-read the trilogy before I went to see this movie. This morning, I am trying to determine if
that had something to do with the fact that I found Mockingjay, Part 1 to be
the best of the three adaptations, so far, hands down. But I don't really think that was it.
Spoilers to follow...
First, let me say, that content-wise, they got this one
right. I was terribly disappointed when
the first two big screen installments took a series that had a grand total of
one swear word spread over 1,155 pages and peppered the films with profanities
and the misuse of God's name. I'm not
going to get into all of that, again, because if you really want to know what I
thought about it, you have probably already read my previous reviews or you can
look them up now. It was mildly
surprising, and definitely a welcome change, that they finally decided to cut
it out with this movie. Can we thank new
screenwriters for this? I hope so. Knowing that they filmed Mockingjay, Part 1
and Mockingjay, Part 2 together, I am hopeful that I'll be able to have the
same kind of experience next fall.
They have, again, avoided the addition of any overt sexual
stuff in this movie. I found it
interesting how they chose to present Finnick's story of what is essentially
human trafficking during Peeta's
rescue. Not that that's any different
from how this happens in the book. It's
not. But while reading the book, we were
not privy to the information about how Peeta was rescued, so it feels as if
Finnick's story takes a bit of a back seat to everything else that is going on,
simultaneously, on the screen.
Clearly there are some violent scenes. I don't think anyone would expect anything
different, and, in fact, there would be no way to show the horror of civil war
without these. So, some reviewers might
give a cautionary warning about the violence, but I am not going to do so,
except to remind you that this is not a film for children. I can't say what age I would recommend for
this type of depiction of war. It's not
for my kids (as a reminder, my oldest is 14).
But... I can
recommend this movie, without hesitation, to adults. Well... almost without hesitation. I did not feel that I could recommend the
first two movies, so to recommend this one is, essentially, to recommend that
you begin in the middle of the story, without a guarantee that the end will be
worth watching...
And now, the storyline.
I felt like this film was far more detail oriented than the others. The little things matter to me. For example, they found the right cat to play
Buttercup. I'm not sure, exactly, what
to do with the plot hole that is caused by switching cats, but the one I saw
yesterday was definitely the right one.
How many of my readers are laughing at me right now? Never mind.
Don't answer that!
I think they also got most of the one-liners in there that I
would have considered essential. Another
re-read, and I may have to recant that statement, but I'm pretty sure I was
going to be OK with the movie as long as Finnick said, "I takes ten times
as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart," which he
did.
I thought they handled The Hanging Tree amazingly well,
although I think non-readers of the series might be a little confused about
where this song came from. I loved the lake. I wish they'd bothered to use it in the first
two films. And... the pearl. Again, confusion for non-readers. Does Peeta even give Katniss the pearl in the
second movie? Because I almost think
that's something I found conspicuously missing, and now, here it is. Little things like this made me feel like,
throughout this movie, they were sort of trying to fix the things that were
botched in the first two. I would
definitely welcome some commentary on that.
Effie... here you are
in district 13! I really liked what they
did with Effie, although I am still a bit disappointed that Katniss' prep team
has been all but missing, throughout. I
understand that you can only develop so many characters, and they have had a
lot of characters to develop, and I am just about ready to give up the prep
team for this reason, but I am concerned about the missing scene where Katniss
finds them chained and mistreated in what is, essentially, a dungeon in
District 13. District 13 was a little
too happy, and President Coin was entirely too likeable in this film. I'm trying to figure out where they're going
with that. Is it for the shock value
later? I'm not sure.
I think they cast the new characters for this movie very
well. Pollux was always a favorite of
mine in the books, and he was exactly how I imagined him. Boggs was fantastic. It did just occur to me, though, that Katniss
doesn't step on his nose in the movie. I
think she should have, but as long as she vomits all over him, next time, we'll
call it good.
I have seen some reviews that describe this movie as slow
moving, a two hour long preview, etc. In
my opinion, the whole franchise would have been better off if they had split
every book into two parts or made every movie four hours long (it's not unheard
of... consider Lord of the Rings). The
slow moving, detail oriented story is what we all spent hours upon hours
reading, isn't it? Most of what
frustrated me in the first two movies, they have corrected here. Still...
there is no fixing the disconnects, because of what was missing in the
other films. Anybody want to start
begging for re-makes of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire?
One last thought.
Haymitch. Does anybody think they
might be intentionally leaving out
all of the details of his life, at this point, because there really is a
prequel in the works? To this point, I
have seen nothing about this, and as far as I know, I'm the only one asking,
but come on... The story would be
amazing... You would think that with the
revenue that would be all but guaranteed this would be floating out there
somewhere...
And, that's it. Go
have some lamb stew for lunch, or something.
L.
