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.

e_e

I can't help but wonder how complete and satisfying an experience this would've been if they just released it as a 4 hour long movie with an intermission at the halfway point.

On the contrary to some reviews I was never bored or less than engaged with this film but I did feel that "oh... okay then" sense of emptiness when it ended.

pixelburp

e_e wrote: »

I can't help but wonder how complete and satisfying an experience this would've been if they just released it as a 4 hour long movie with an intermission at the halfway point.

On the contrary to some reviews I was never bored or less than engaged with this film but I did feel that "oh... okay then" sense of emptiness when it ended.

Where does boredom end and emptiness begin? I bought into the world all right, heck it has intrigued me since the first film / book, but even that's not enough to sustain interest for 2 hours and 10 euro.

The film somewhat reminded me of those filler episodes from TV series, the ones where the plot can't advance because the big stuff is being held back for the finale, or midway break; instead we follow a frivolous side-plot or something. The Hunger Games couldn't even rustle up an entertaining diversion, it just padded about the place with nothing to do, filling the runtime with elongated takes and needlessly repeated scenes (did we really need to visit District 12 twice?).

ThunbergsAreGo

cloud493 wrote: »

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.

I found the last book horrible to be honest, much prefered the previous two.

Not sure I will go see this in the cinema, but defo on the eventual to watch list

constitutionus

i thought it was very good.

wasnt bored in the least and indeed found the emotional intensity of some pieces were brilliant.

only thing i didnt like was knowing going straight in that i'd get no resolution and as such towards the end kept thinking "is this where itll end? is THIS where itll end?"

shoulda been one film IMO.

But still ill give it a good 7/10 for what it did.

e_e

pixelburp wrote: »

Where does boredom end and emptiness begin? I bought into the world all right, heck it has intrigued me since the first film / book, but even that's not enough to sustain interest for 2 hours and 10 euro.

To be clear the emptiness came from the film hitting an abrupt full stop after pretty much engrossing me throughout and the rest of the opposite of empty to me. I actually found it refreshing how there was rarely a scene that didn't haven an emotional or thematic pulse to it. Don't think these films are near the best that cinema has to offer but I'll take them over 95% of blockbusters that just have me sitting there for 2 hours completely removed from what is happening on screen. I kind of love too how big budget films that are ostensibly aimed at teen girls have more going on beneath the surface than that of those targeting adult men.

Bacchus

Just back from it. Slightly underwhelmed by it. I definitely preferred the first two. This one just felt like a movie without a purpose. The war propaganda angle was a bit OTT and repetitive.

For me it only kicked off for the extraction scene but then that just abruptly ended and hey everyone is back fine. But hey we got out easy! Did noone think maybe it was a trap and maybe one of the victors is a mole/plant. I'm surprised they didn't end it with Peta getting hit over the head and Katnis near death. I don't think the scenes following explaining that Peta had been brainwashed added anything, nor the scene with him going bezerk in the bed.

That_Guy

My assessment:

Katniss makes a film, stands in front of a lot of people and moans for 2 hours.

Weakest of the films by far and I really enjoyed the first two in the series.

Bacchus

Another few things on reflection... (this may be slightly spoilerific but I don't go into specifics)

There is very little action in this. For any fans of the first two expecting some action, there is very little here. In fact the ONLY action sequence involving Katniss is shown in the trailer... literally. There are a couple of other sequences but only one gets the heart racing really. This is far more of a political/propaganda movie - without any sort of subtly either I might add.

This is probably the cheapest blockbuster ever to be made. The cast cost a packet I'd say but there are about 4 or 5 settings in the entire movie. Most of the movie is shot either a bunker or in the ruins of one of the districts. All the colour, OTT showiness & weirdness of the Capitol has been replaced by military grey. It's such a bland movie visually.

For a movie about revolution, we didn't really get shown much of it. All we are treated to is Katniss doing her best Braveheart impression a couple of times followed by a 1 minute scene showing an act of revolution in one of the districts. It would have been nice to see a bit more of the revolution itself across the districts to get a sense that they are somewhat organised as opposed to just carrying out disconnected random suicide runs.

Outkast_IRE

Weakest film by a long shot, honestly felt like it would of been served alot better by being a 3hr epic that covered the final book adequately.

Obviously the pacing of the movie was entirely different to the last two, the entire movie is just a setup to the final one.

Obvious cash in before the current franchise ends, if anyone is on the fence i would be telling them to sit this one out and watch it at home, and maybe head to the cinema next year for the final installment.

Spon Farmer

Can someone tell me why

every building in District 12 is in ruins except for the Everdeen house?

cloud493

Spon Farmer wrote: »

Can someone tell me why

every building in District 12 is in ruins except for the Everdeen house?

According the books

the capitol spared the houses in the victors village, which includes Katniss's house, to have places for people to stay in they come to film the ruins. The film doesn't explain it well.

Spon Farmer

cloud493 wrote: »

According the books

the capitol spared the houses in the victors village, which includes Katniss's house, to have places for people to stay in they come to film the ruins. The film doesn't explain it well.

Thanks

Pierce_1991

cloud493 wrote: »

According the books

the capitol spared the houses in the victors village, which includes Katniss's house, to have places for people to stay in they come to film the ruins. The film doesn't explain it well.

Also:

Correct me if I'm wrong but was there a fresh white rose left in the house specifically for Katniss to see. Was there maybe an element of Snow, knowing she would go back there, saying to Katniss the destruction of District 12 was your doing.

Liam O

I felt it was the strongest thematically of the 3. I didn't like the first one bit felt the plot was good enough for me to read the books and as I thought would be the book was actually about a skinny girl who works for her family to eat and isn't automatically the killing machine you see in the actual Hunger games. The film cut out a lot of that but seeing as it's not in Katniss' head you get a more macro view I guess so it's excusable.

Catching fire then showed a lot more of the scare tactics and intimidation from the capitol which was interesting and brought some great set pieces. Again it's more macro than the book but it was presented very well and it was on of the best book adaptations I've seen I think.

Mockingjay is about war by propaganda. They made some changes again to the book but kept that reclusive feeling and I think showed the mind of Katniss a bit more than the previous two which was difficult then when you had the razzle and dazzle of the games to present. It shows her anger a bit more and also her other side which is neglected in the first 2 a bit. President Coin was underutilized I feel, there wasn't enough back and forth between her and Katniss more than "I don't want to" ... "oh ok then".

All that said though I felt interested the whole way through. The lack of action was probably more of a time thing and I would have liked to see her go out for one more vignette or something but they got that feeling of isolation spot on I think and the back and forth between her and Peeta was as good as they could have made it. In the book this is just a part of an overall story but in the film they made it about this theme of revolution or war by propaganda and I feel they achieved that. People going in expecting quasi-main character deaths every 10 minutes like the previous 2 will be disappointed but if you consider the overall arc of the film you'll be very impressed imo.

Mickeroo

Felt like half a film to me. It was very well made and entertaining with some very good moments (

Hanging tree song dam attack for one

) but ultimately it was thoroughly unsatisfying in the end. I think it will play a lot better alongside the final part but honestly I felt the last book wasn't very good and needed to be streamlined rather than bloated into two films though.