Having not posted my review for the first part of Mockingjay until after watching this one, I was pretty surprised at how excited I’d been. Given how much I was bored during the second part.
While the books kept my attention right through to the end, this film bored me deeply. I couldn’t care about how it all ended – despite going it at the start loving it. Yes, it follows the same mood and world created, but *yawn* I just got sick of it.
So Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is sick of being the ‘face’ of the rebellion, so she sneaks off to do her own thing. Only then she ends up with a crew around her. And stuff happens. For me, not enough action, and these last two films should have been just the one.
I’d been bit concerned that I’d lost my Hunger Games mojo… I couldn’t really recall the second film, and while I was very interested in seeing how they deal with the intense darkness of the third book, if the second film hadn’t stuck in my mind, would it be worth it? Me and a couple of mates watched the first two films in the lead up to Mockingjay and it still wasn’t sticking – though I was feeling a lot of love for the character and the overall story.
If you haven’t seen the first two and want to, here’s a big spoiler alert.
At the end of Catching Fire, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) had been rescued from the arena and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) had been left behind. Katniss is now with the resistance of District Thirteen, under the rule of President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and guidance of Plutarch (Philip Seymour Hoffman). But, she is not willing to just be their face, they need to let her find her leadership, and she does. In the meantime, a whole heap of people die and are injured, and rebellion is happening all over the place.
It’s quite a slow film in that there is a lot of ground to cover. It seems to be the thing to break single books into multiple films and it sometimes works well (Harry Potter) and sometime less so (The Hobbit), but this seems to be a case of needing to split it. The really dark stuff is yet to come, although the end of this film saw the first hints of it. I just wish they didn’t make us wait a whole year for it – I know, I know, it’s all about the money, but I want it NOW!!!
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song – Motion Picture.
Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening) and their two children Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson) live a pretty idyllic life – they have plenty of money, Joni is about to head to college and things are great. Then, when Joni turns 18, Laser pushes her to contact their donor father, Paul (Mark Ruffalo). When Paul enters their life, things become difficult for everyone.
It is a great film, which is clear by the quality of the cast it attracted. The story is plausible and it doesn’t shy away from difficult scenes. Having said that, I did wonder (spoiler alert) about how easily a woman in a strong, long-term same-sex relationship was wooed away by a man. Seems quite insulting to the strength of the relationship and dangerously could be seen to suggest that a lesbian just needs to meet the right man. Perhaps it was just that it all seemed fast – the passing of time is not overly clear throughout the film. There are a couple of moments where characters seem to take the easy way out of a situation, but for believable reasons. As far as a story is concerned, this is generally a good yarn.
The Kids Are All Right was nominated for Oscars for Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Annette Bening), Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Mark Ruffalo) and Best Writing, Original Screenplay (Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg).
ireckonthat 