{"id":16641,"date":"2014-12-02T21:41:24","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T11:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=16641"},"modified":"2014-12-06T18:19:06","modified_gmt":"2014-12-06T08:19:06","slug":"the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=16641","title":{"rendered":"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mockingjayposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Director: \u00a0<\/strong>Francis Lawrence
\nWriter: \u00a0<\/strong>Peter Craig, Danny Strong
\nCast: \u00a0<\/strong>Jennifer Lawrence, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Dormer, Julianne Moore<\/p>\nL<\/span>ike everyone else, I’m not totally sold on the recent trend of turning film trilogies into quadrilogies with the last instalment being broken up into two parts. \u00a0The experiment must have paid off handsomely at the box office for Warner Bros when they split Harry Potter and\u00a0<\/em>The Deathly Hallows<\/em> into two films and now every man and their dog is doing it and here we are with\u00a0The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part One.<\/em><\/p>\n

THG:MP1<\/em>\u00a0is half of the final chapter in the Suzanne Collins series which most fans of the books I know assure me is the worst of the series. \u00a0I went in with tempered expectations.<\/p>\n

The film picks up shortly after the events of\u00a0Catching Fire<\/em> where our hero Katniss Everdeen is picked up by the stupendously named Plutarch Heavensbee (played by the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman). \u00a0I assume everyone involved with the film thinks the name is as ridiculously silly as I do because no one ever refers to PSH by name. \u00a0Anyway, Heavensbee takes Katniss to District 13 where the populace have sought shelter in a massive underground bunker and are lead by President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), a cold and stoic military leader who brooks no nonsense and is methodical and single minded in her aspirations to unseat President Snow from power in The Capitol. \u00a0Throughout the film is she called upon to make strategic choices – like whether a rescue team should\u00a0abort a mission or potentially die trying to finish it – and she barely flinches.<\/p>\n

Its easy to sneer and be cynical at a film series that cashes in on the popularity of a Young Adult book series post-Twilight<\/i>\u00a0but I have always been pleasantly surprised and admired\u00a0The Hunger Games<\/em> series for attempting to explore a number of different themes to contextualize the violence that is at the heart of the storyline. \u00a0The Hunger Games<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Catching Fire<\/em> both looked at women in the media, how they are scrutinized for their appearance and behavior on a different level to men as well as the influence of reality television\u00a0in shaping societal values and norms. \u00a0Katniss’ stylist Effie is often used for comic relief but in the second film\u00a0Catching Fire<\/em>, Snow’s primary concern with Katniss is not that she won the games but how she is perceived by the public as a result. \u00a0Her appearance, her relationship with Peeta and her behavior in public are all pivotal to determining whether she is a figurehead for the Capitol or a leader of the rebellion.<\/p>\n

Mockingjay\u00a0<\/em>doesn’t tread the same ground and instead, rather unexpectedly, it delves head long into a critique of war propaganda…from the perspective of the rebels<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"mockingjay001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Is this what everyone else expected? \u00a0Because I didn’t see this coming at all. \u00a0Heavensbee and Coin don’t particularly find much value in Everdeen as a military weapon to battle Snow’s forces. \u00a0After all, she’s just one person. \u00a0Instead they use her to make propaganda films to convince the downtrodden in other districts to participate in suicide missions. \u00a0And they do this by filming Katniss at the scene of drone strikes that wipe out hospitals. \u00a0Is this seriously an American drones\/Palestine parable in my Young Adult action movie? \u00a0Can you imagine anything like this in\u00a0Star Wars<\/em> or\u00a0Lord of the Rings<\/em>? \u00a0We never question whether Luke Skywalker will form a constitutional democracy when he unseats the Empire and we don’t wonder whether Aragorn is needlessly allowing the people of Isengard to be used as cannon fodder when he could be engaging Saruman in a diplomatic peace treaty. \u00a0But in\u00a0Mockingjay<\/em>, we see a surprisingly cold and cynical lens cast on President Coin and how she uses the people of District 13. \u00a0She whips them up into a frenzy at her rallies. \u00a0She never forms a bond with Katniss and sees her as a tool to be exploitd. \u00a0These are shades of grey that I didn’t really expect in the story. \u00a0Whether they lead to anything in the final film is anyone’s guess (well…at least for those of us who didn’t read the books).<\/p>\n

The love triangle is still a thing. \u00a0Sort of. \u00a0I think in everyone’s eyes, the milquetoast Peeta is surely Katniss’ second choice compared to best friend Gale who is a stronger, assertive and a more believable equal to Katniss and her world-conquering feats. \u00a0Poor old Peeta’s loyalty to Katniss is pushed to the limit in\u00a0Mockingjay\u00a0<\/em>as he is captured by the Capitol and we suspect he is tortured and brutalized for most of the film. \u00a0There is a scene near the end of the film involving Peeta which made me jump out of my seat and the sheer brutality of the scene (bug eyes, burst blood vessels) made me wince and squirm. \u00a0There are definitely moments in\u00a0Mockingjay<\/em> where the film pushes the envelope with its M-Rating.<\/p>\n

I think its impossible to talk about\u00a0Mockingjay<\/em> and not make mention of what a superb job Jennifer Lawrence does once again as the lead. \u00a0Under a lesser talent, this series would not be nearly as successful in drawing in fans from outside the target demographic. \u00a0Ultimately,\u00a0The Hunger Games<\/em> trilogy is a B-movie storyline that’s been elevated by an A-list performer. \u00a0You only need to watch\u00a0Divergent<\/em> to see how a similarly ambitious project can fall flat when the star isn’t able to make the material work.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, there was enough going on in\u00a0Mockingjay<\/em> that kept me engrossed in the proceedings and fascinated by the dark and unexpected turns the film took. \u00a0Having said it, it definitely doesn’t follow a conventional narrative arc and is most definitely feels like watching half of a four hour film which is exactly what this is. \u00a0I don’t much care for this Part One and Part Two business. \u00a0I think the original Lord of the Rings<\/em> trilogy got it right with the 3 hour cinematic releases and the Extended Edition for the diehards on DVD. \u00a0Mockingjay<\/em> has some of the most interesting themes in the series so far but it is also the least successful as a stand alone film in its own right. \u00a0Three films down and one to go. \u00a0Lets see if Jennifer Lawrence and the rest of the cast and crew can stick the landing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The penultimate chapter in The Hunger Games series is dark, gloomy and occasionally surprising<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[771,1122,1224],"class_list":["post-16641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films","tag-jennifer-lawrence","tag-phillip-seymour-hoffman","tag-the-hunger-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16641"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16666,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16641\/revisions\/16666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}