The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1

cloud493

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PkkHsuMrho

I must admit, I'm kinda sweet on these movies. And I just noticed I can watch all 3 hunger games movies in a row at cineworld, 413 minutes of film

cloud493

Movie is out tomorrow, who else is seeing it?

johnny_ultimate

cloud493 wrote: »

And I just noticed I can watch all 3 hunger games movies in a row at cineworld, 413 minutes of film

Pfft, that's barely 75% of Shoah.

Pierce_1991

Started another thread without realising this was here, apologies.

Just back from the midnight screening in cineworld, must say I really enjoyed it. Despite the fact that I love the films and the books I had pretty low expectations for this one but I think it might be my favourite of the series so far. Some very solid performances from Hutcherson, Moore, and of course Philip Seymour Hoffman .

Lawrence proves again why she is pretty much the best actress out there atm, particularly I felt

in the scene outside the hospital when she delivers her message to Panem. This scene could have easily veered into the cheese but I think she really managed to give it some good weight.

Already very excited about the conclusion to the series next year!

cloud493

You know what I really dislike about these movies (and movies of this ilk) using weird names that aren't names as short hand for 'this is the future'

Plutarch heavensbee give me a break.

Arbiter of Good Taste

I love the books. Read all of them over three weeks last year. Can't wait to see this

Telecaster58

Chick flick

cloud493

It was.... ok. Very meh.

mightyreds

cant wait to see this, i wonder is it just setting up for the final movie is it gonna fall into the trap of "they could of made 1 good movie"

e_e

Liked it even though it felt kind of like an extended epilogue to Catching Fire rather than a good standalone movie in and of itself. Still enjoyable though because I enjoy the world building, characters and ideas at play.

ziedth

Out of interested where does it end? Having read the book I can't imagine where a good spot would be to make two watchable films

Pierce_1991

ziedth wrote: »

Out of interested where does it end? Having read the book I can't imagine where a good spot would be to make two watchable films

Peeta is rescued and attacks Katniss back in District 13 (very well done scene). The movie ends with Katniss looking over Peeta going mental in isolation while President Coin talks of how now is the time for victory.

theteal

Didn't bore me to sleep but not great. The weakest of the 3 so far. Very much an attempt at setting the scene for the big finale.

wp_rathead

okay.. pretty much everything that happened in that film coulda been the opening 45 mins to a really good film..
..instead we got a film (somehow) running 2 hours where very VERY little happens..

Did not enjoy it- I liked the first film, loved the second film but this was a load of **** as a stand alone film

EoghanIRL

Going to see this tonight . I'm looking forward to it .

marcus2000

I was disappointed. I found it pretty boring, in parts .

cloud493

Well where it ends is less than half way through the book, and theres only one major action scene in it.

Flex

Saw it last night

I thought it was alright, but it just seemed so dragged out. So many parts where little or nothing happened that just seemed to go on and on.

SusieBlue

Really enjoyed it. Could very easily have come across as cringey and overly cheesy but it didn't. Can't wait for the next part!

El Diablo Blanco

Just saw this earlier, myself, and enjoyed it. Another good adaptation by Francis Lawrence, following Catching Fire. Having enjoyed the first half of Catching Fire more, with the focus on the growing uprising in the various districts, Mockingjay Part I follows on nicely in that vein, with the sense of impending rebellion palpable. Great performances across the board, and good choices for the new characters in Julianne Moore and Natalie Dormer, amongst others. The former, particularly, really put her own stamp on the character, and made her likeable and sympathetic.

A few very powerful scenes - in District 8, especially- but one key action scene towards the end was slightly mishandled, I felt.

Finnick (who should've been developed a little more, and gotten more time) was delivering his 'propo' about Snow while the attack on the Capitol Tribute Centre was taking place. As a result, there was no time to really process what he was saying about Snow, and a little of the suspense of the extraction operation was taken away. I think both occurred in tandem in the book, but it didn't translate well on screen. Minor quibble, though.

It ended at a good point and set up well for the second half. Probably could've (and should've) been done in a single film, but it is what it is. Another good entry in the series, nonetheless.

cloud493

Whoever it was playing president coin was horribly cast I thought. And don't even get me started on the actor on playing Peeta

tvnutz

Fairly dragged out and quite boring at times. It was basically just a set up for the next movie.

edgecutter

A boring watch. Nothing really exciting happening. It just seems like a cash and grab making sure to milk every penny out of our pockets extending this book into two films. This practice has to end.

EoghanIRL

Agree with everyone else . A good setup for the second movie but quite drawn out and boring in parts . 6-7/10

Mr Freeze

mightyreds wrote: »

cant wait to see this, i wonder is it just setting up for the final movie is it gonna fall into the trap of "they could of made 1 good movie"

Ya, I think it definitely falls into that category.

On its own its a weak film, might be better when Part 1 and 2 are watched together (if you have the time for that when part 2 is released).

I didn't find it boring, but I was waiting for something big to happen.

allym

El Diablo Blanco wrote: »

A few very powerful scenes - in District 8, especially- but one key action scene towards the end was slightly mishandled, I felt.

Finnick (who should've been developed a little more, and gotten more time) was delivering his 'propo' about Snow while the attack on the Capitol Tribute Centre was taking place. As a result, there was no time to really process what he was saying about Snow, and a little of the suspense of the extraction operation was taken away. I think both occurred in tandem in the book, but it didn't translate well on screen. Minor quibble, though.

.

My thoughts exactly. When reading the books that was a big shocker moment, and really showed how disgusting the Capitol are, but in the movie it was just like "oh yeah this happened, by the way".

bada_bing

Saw this too and was really disappointed with it, as one poster said, it could have been reduced to 45 mins as the opening part of the final movie. just another cynical profit making opportunity. I didn't read the book but i was curious to see how much of the final book was covered in the movie so i went to wikipedia. There's 9 paragraphs on the whole synopsis of the book and the movie only covers the first two short paragraphs of the synopsis. Says it all really!!!!

TerrorFirmer

edgecutter wrote: »

A boring watch. Nothing really exciting happening. It just seems like a cash and grab making sure to milk every penny out of our pockets extending this book into two films. This practice has to end.

This is spot on.

First movie was OK, second was really rather good - this one was a shameless attempt to extort money from fans. The acting was fine, but everything was just so dragged out and insignificant plot lines were shoved under the spotlight which only cheapened the feel of the film. There's very little action in between the dross, and ultimately, I think this was a huge step back and actually goes some way towards destroying just how well the second film set the franchise up for a grand finale.

After enjoying the second one so much, this left a bad taste in my mouth. Terrible shame really.

pixelburp

This film was a very frustrating experience for me; there's little question the splitting of the final novel into two pats stunk of the worst kind of money-grubbing that's now endemic within Hollywood blockbuster adaptations - and it showed throughout this production. A dull, paper-thin plot was stretched beyond credibility to feature-length when it had absolutely no right to be: some scenes were so guilty of being dragged out I didn't just feel impatient, I felt a little angry that I was being taken for a ride. One scene in particular was a particularly egregious moment, where a character walked away from a plane taking off for about 10 seconds more than was required. There was no pay-off, no context, no relevance; it was 10 seconds the director needed to fill, so they could take this snake-oil to feature length.

And aside from the decision to split the story, rendering the film inert and dull, Mockingjay felt like a much more interesting movie constantly kept at bay by an uninspired, timid plot. There was a hint of something more intriguing, the basic premise suggested flirting with notions of propaganda and media manipulation, how Katniss was had just become a puppet for another faction, yet the film couldn't/wouldn't do anything with this notion. I guess as this was a marquee crowd-pleaser it wouldn't do to have too many grey areas and awkward questions asked: the bad guys had to be bad, and the good guys good (and a military faction at that, god bless the US armed forces! *sarcastic sniff*). I guess it's possible questions of morality in war might get asked in Part 2, but that just returns to the previous point about how cynical this films creation was.

All that said, what little life this film had was mostly down to Jennifer Lawrence's ability to raise humdrum material to a compelling, watchable state: the script should have died on its backside, it was so limp and moribund, yet when Lawrence got a chance to take centre stage, everything sparked to life a little more. It's still a little weird to have someone so unlikable as Katniss as your emotional core, but at least the portrayal had a little vitality to it.

Otacon

My one sentence review: Mockingjay Part 1 is a well-written, superbly-acted, beautifully-shot movie that simply cannot justify its existence.

cloud493

Well the book is a lot better, in fairness. Obviously in the book Katniss is our narrator so we know whats going on in her head, her perspective, etc, whereas in the film all we have is what we see.