Thursday, November 27, 2014

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)

Well while I don't think they're bad, I didn't really get that invested in the first movie or either of the books. So it wasn't until the second movie that I actually felt really invested in what is happening in the series. So let's see how the third movie turned out.

Plot: Taking off shortly after the second movie, Katniss and her family are now hiding in District 13 where it turns out the people of that district have been hiding to secretly plan a rebellion against The Capitol. The leader of District 13, President Coin, wants Katniss to be the symbol of the rebellion through her reputation as The Mockingjay. But The Capitol is fighting back using Peeta, who is still captured, as their own representative to speak against the rebellion. So Katniss is torn between helping District 13 begin their rebellion, while wanting President Coin to find a way to save Peeta.

While it wasn't quite as pleasing in the action department, this film succeeds just as well as the last film in keeping me interested in what is happening and wanting to see more. Like the last film, this one this one delivers with building the suspense of what is happening and making the situation very compelling. A lot of that of coarse comes from the cast with Jennifer Lawrence who is still doing great as Katniss, Phillip Seymour Hoffman who of coarse we all miss, and even Julianne Moore who gave a great performance as President Coin. And what they discuss is very believable with all of the political propaganda they are trying to do to help start the rebellion and stop The Capitol. This leads to a lot of emotional moments where we see more of what The Capitol has done to the people in the other districts on top of (spoilers) District 12 being destroyed  (which by the way, am I the only one who felt like they should've made District 12 look more destroyed then it appeared to be in the movie?), and then what I think was the most emotional part of the movie, is when Katniss and these other people are singing this deep song while the district people are about to fight. Now a lot of people find the biggest problem, which I brought up briefly in the beginning of this paragraph, is the lack of action in this movie. Now it's no surprise that this movie is basically all build up, I mean it's part 1, and on the whole I didn't really mind it that much. But even I'll admit that at the same time, as much as I enjoyed watching the discussions of political propaganda, there where moments where deep down, I wanted more action. Heck, there's a moment where Peacemakers are bombing an area, and we only see them from the radars inside the district 13 base. But I think a bigger problem I discovered was from when one of my best friends, Candra saw the movie shortly after I did. She found it to be disappointing because she found the fact that it's mostly propaganda stuff to be so boring, but she said that with the fact that she hasn't read the book in mind. And...yeah that actually brings a really good point: if you haven't read the book, you might not find this to be all that interesting like Candra did. In fact, the more I thought about it from after she said what she thought of the film, I did realize that a good portion of what made this film interesting, was that I did read the book. And by knowing a fair portion of what happens, I was more on board with what I was watching on top of the great acting and so on. So, you might not like this movie because of how it has more of the characters just building things up instead of seeing some action. I mean there is a tiny bit of action in this movie, but...yeah, none of those moments are Battle of Helm's Deep amazing.

And that's my review for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1. if you haven't read the book and want more action, you might not be all that fond of this film. But otherwise, it's a very compelling film with excellent performances from the case and an all around interesting build up to the conclusion of the story. It's not as good as Catching Fire, but it's still an enjoyable film.

Rating: 75% 

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