The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014) review

When the Young Adult Book to Film Genre needed a new frontrunner to lead the pack after the ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Twilight’ franchises came to a close, ‘The Hunger Games’ stepped in and has been both a commercial and critical success, thanks of course to great writing, great directing, and great acting from all involved. While I do understand the problems that some people have with the first film in regards to the cinematography and editing during the actual Hunger Games, I still stand by that film as being a well-made adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novels. But like many people, I do agree that ‘Catching Fire’ was a superior film, expanding on the whole universe of Panem and moving away from those aforementioned ‘issues’ from the first film. So now ‘Catching Fire’ director Francis Lawrence (no relation to star Jennifer Lawrence) is back to direct the final film in the series, ‘Mockingjay’… except it isn’t the final film… not yet. Instead, Lionsgate decided to go the route that Warner Bros. did with ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ and split the final book of the ‘Hunger Games’ series into two separate films. This has certainly attracted a lot of controversy considering that the length of the book doesn’t really justify the need for two films. However, I do feel that ‘Mockingjay Part 1’, even though it is technically the ‘set-up’ for ‘Part 2’ next year, is just as good as the two films that came before it.

At the end of ‘Catching Fire’, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), winner of the 74^th Hunger Games and participant in the following year’s event AKA the ‘Quarter Quell’, escaped from the Hunger Games arena after she destroyed it and was brought to District 13, the district of Panem that was thought to have been destroyed 75 years ago during the original rebellion amongst its districts against the Capitol. However, at the same time, Katniss’ fellow Hunger Games champion and love interest Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) ended up getting taken by the Capitol and their home, District 12, was destroyed. Now in District 13 under the leadership of President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), Katniss finds herself pressured into being the ‘face’ of the districts’ rebellion: the ‘Mockingjay’. She is at first hesitant to do so but finds new purpose when she learns that Peeta is still alive, albeit now under the control of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and the Capitol. This inspires Katniss to spread her wings and become the Mockingjay as she now finds herself at the frontlines (in both a figurative and somewhat literal sense) along with her allies, including her best friend Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), and her mentors Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) and Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) as she looks to save Peeta before he ends up getting killed by the Capitol.

‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1’ is a very different beast compared to its predecessors. This time, there aren’t any ‘Hunger Games’ and instead it’s more about the political side of the rebellion and how each side is trying to use propaganda to sway public opinion. And while this film technically is more focused on that than the action, it still results in a very compelling film. But of course, the big question still remains; was the decision to split this final book into two films a good idea? Well, so far that has attracted quite a mixed reaction from a lot of people but personally I felt that it did actually work from a story perspective. I’ve noted before that the reason behind this was so that the filmmakers could expand on the book whereas Collins was forced to condense a lot of stuff to meet publisher demands and because of this, it does actually feel justified. Never at any time during the course of this film did I feel that it felt ‘padded’ to stretch things out for two movies. This movie does have a proper beginning and end with a clear objective; rescue Peeta from the Capitol. Because of this, I was never bored and the film did on a pretty neat but also very tense cliffhanger to lead into ‘Part 2’, where I’m guessing most of the action from the book will occur.

Once again this film, like its immediate predecessor, benefits from great direction from Francis Lawrence, who handles the transition to a more politically driven storyline (compared to the last two films) quite well and does a great job at showcasing the large scale of this rebellion. And that’s backed up by the great cast, headlined once again by Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss. In the last two films, Katniss was a character who was basically dragged into these events, sort of against her own will but now she’s much more proactive this time as we truly see her become the face of the revolution. Josh Hutcherson also stands out here as well as the transformation that Peeta goes through in this movie is truly fascinating. One of the advantages that the films have over the books is that because it isn’t in the same first-person narrative from Katniss’ perspective, this allows for the other characters to stand out more than they did in the books, resulting in members of the cast like Liam Hemsworth and Elizabeth Banks (the latter of whom brings such much-needed levity to this rather bleak setting as Effie) getting more to do and with equally great turns from other members of the cast including Jeffrey Wright as tech wiz Beetee, newcomer Julianne Moore as President Coin, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as rebel leader Plutarch Heavensbee, the whole cast is superb from top to bottom. But something that I forgot to mention the last time is that not only are the protagonists great but also the villain as well. Donald Sutherland has been great in these movies as President Snow. They REALLY make you hate this guy; cold, evil, and emotionless but yet he still manages to be calm and collected during all of this.

Now I’m not saying that I’m 100% supportive of the decision to split ‘Mockingjay’ into two films and ‘Part 1’ will never escape the fact that it’s basically a ‘set up’ for the finale in ‘Part 2’. But you know what? The same can be said for ‘Deathly Hallows Part 1’, and this is very much the Hunger Games’ version of that movie as both films are very similar in regards to their structure and execution. Yes, there’s not really that much action in this compared to the first two films… but hey, so was ‘Deathly Hallows Part 1’. In other words, this film still manages to be incredibly compelling thanks of course to the great direction from Francis Lawrence, the great writing that gives us great characters, and of course the great cast portraying these characters. I went into this unsure about the whole ‘2-parter’ thing but ultimately I came out pretty satisfied as I felt that the film did end on a solid note with an incredibly suspense cliffhanger. Now of course I say this knowing that this is only ‘Part 1’ of the story. We still got one more film to go in this series but you know that I will be there November 2015 to see this great series officially come to an end with ‘Mockingjay Part 2’ and I’ll also be keen to see if that film can also feel as ‘complete’ as a film like ‘Part 1’ was… as the first half of a two-part story of course.

Rating: 5/5!