The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1
Nov. 21st, 2014 08:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI should say that I haven’t read the books, and have only been spoiled about a few things by fannish osmosis. I spent the last week or so rewatching the first two films and watching all the Catching Fire extras, well, the ones on the special edition DVD, anyway.
My response?
A little mixed, even more so than with Catching Fire, although I suspect like with CF, it’s based on the original story. The emotional through line was great, JLaw’s Katniss has me hooked, and watching her be emotionally battered, picking herself up, have to be manipulated into being the Mockingjay icon, fight in her own way, be traumatised some more while being not entirely self-aware – feelings all over the shop. Especially as it’s watching a girl play this part in a story. (I was thinking of the supporting roles that women are likely to play in all the other films out at the mo that I want to see). But I don’t know if it’s having to expand the POV from solely Katniss’s yet not too much, but the plot didn’t quite work. I cheered (metaphorically) when Moore’s Lady President turned out to be a warrior and quite rightly told Plutarch he was out of his depth. But maybe Collins was in writing the rebellion?
For instance, the twisty reveal of Peeta as literal weapon, rebuilt to kill Katniss was excellent, until I thought about how just a really short while ago, he was reacting to seeing her broadcast as non-tortured Peeta would, the ‘real’ one who wasn’t spouting the Capitol’s script. Could they have been so sure they’d broken him if they’d broken him after that? The rebellion’s plan(s) were revealed scattershot, to some extent, as Katniss learned of them/was part of them, but for all the talk of ‘the secret weapon’ I almost believed that they were going to fight the peacekeepers with singing at the dam. Fortunately, no, but would the Capitol really be so dependent on just one source of energy, on so few peacekeepers, even if they thought they had the technological ascendancy and all the power? And all that tech ascendancy couldn’t have mainly been because of Beattie (sp?).
But to step away from the overthinking, whew, it was emotional. It’s still Katniss and Prim who get to me the most. Watching an older and wiser Prim and the role-reversal, to some extent, from Prim doing Katniss’s hair to talking her down from her night terrors, which were so much worse than Prim’s had ever been, I realised a bit that they’re like Jo and Beth March, except the Jo figure gets to save Beth, and so Beth gets to grow up and help Jo in her own way. The analogy is only partial, obviously, but it explains the dynamic nicely for me. And it was heartbreaking that Prim was planning her future as a doctor, while Katniss’s mind wasn’t able to go there because of Peeta, because of Snow and the war, because she was again being manipulated as the Mockingjay, for a better cause, mind you, but still.
I’m a bit torn on the satire. I think it could have stung even more, although I snickered at the sequence from the return of turbaned Effie (OH, EFFIE, also now I get the Effie/Haymitch) to the wind machines to Haymitch talking sense. Plutarch’s attempts to fight the war solely as propaganda – I just felt that even more could have been done of the propoganda, but then I’ve always felt that about the Games. Based on modern reality TV, you’d think the amount that they’d film would be far more intrusive outside of the arena.
And Katniss IS much better when she’s being herself, even if she kept being checked by the firepower at Snow’s disposal and his deviousness. Took her a while to see she was being toyed with, but her response to the bombing of her home district, the hospital she’d just visited and the carpet of white roses was powerful (Lawrence is magnificent), and showed that she is just a girl, even if a remarkable one. I love her clinging to the belief that Peeta should have been saved because she sees him as a better person, though his facility with words was so twisted in this film, without realising that she’s the symbol people rallied behind and needed in a way he could never be.
I love that she is a girl, the agent and object, deconstructed, the hero, the protagonist. The one with a family, the one with broken-hearted, loyal Gale who can’t get it, with Haymitch (and to an extent, broken Finnick) who do, oh, and Beattie, her Q, who has drawn even ridiculous Effie to her, who pulled the soldier who was a Cinna replacement (in that he could see who she really was and argued for her to be allowed to be that person) to feel for her. The strong one who doesn’t know what to do about her feelings for Peeta. And there was no-one to give her decent advice, because they’ve all been broken. I have been convinced of Katniss/Peeta by now.
I loved the moment of connection with the Lady President and then the juxtaposition of the rousing speech, surely aided by Plutarch and Effie, performed by a Moore who I thought was channelling Hillary Clinton, with Katniss following her heart and getting it pummelled by the sight of beserker!Peeta for it – even if it made for a downer ending.
There wasn’t quite as much action as I was expecting, but I suppose that that will come in the attack on the Capitol that is sure to happen in Mockingjay 2. Although what we saw was shot finely (well, I found the opening scenes murky, tbh). Some things were just a bit too obvious (although maybe I’m influenced by having watched the Catching Fire commentary so recently, like I was prepped for seeing the significance of Snow’s grand-daughter unbraiding her hair). The pacing was okay – I rather enjoyed the space and time given to exploring Katniss’s feelings as she discovered more about this world after she let that arrow fly. I’m expecting pay-off and some healing for Katniss and Peeta, while she gets to be the weapon and the fire does burn Snow. (And maybe more than literally seconds of Johanna.)
The cinema was packed and a couple of people did the whistle at the end, which I haven’t come across before.
My response?
A little mixed, even more so than with Catching Fire, although I suspect like with CF, it’s based on the original story. The emotional through line was great, JLaw’s Katniss has me hooked, and watching her be emotionally battered, picking herself up, have to be manipulated into being the Mockingjay icon, fight in her own way, be traumatised some more while being not entirely self-aware – feelings all over the shop. Especially as it’s watching a girl play this part in a story. (I was thinking of the supporting roles that women are likely to play in all the other films out at the mo that I want to see). But I don’t know if it’s having to expand the POV from solely Katniss’s yet not too much, but the plot didn’t quite work. I cheered (metaphorically) when Moore’s Lady President turned out to be a warrior and quite rightly told Plutarch he was out of his depth. But maybe Collins was in writing the rebellion?
For instance, the twisty reveal of Peeta as literal weapon, rebuilt to kill Katniss was excellent, until I thought about how just a really short while ago, he was reacting to seeing her broadcast as non-tortured Peeta would, the ‘real’ one who wasn’t spouting the Capitol’s script. Could they have been so sure they’d broken him if they’d broken him after that? The rebellion’s plan(s) were revealed scattershot, to some extent, as Katniss learned of them/was part of them, but for all the talk of ‘the secret weapon’ I almost believed that they were going to fight the peacekeepers with singing at the dam. Fortunately, no, but would the Capitol really be so dependent on just one source of energy, on so few peacekeepers, even if they thought they had the technological ascendancy and all the power? And all that tech ascendancy couldn’t have mainly been because of Beattie (sp?).
But to step away from the overthinking, whew, it was emotional. It’s still Katniss and Prim who get to me the most. Watching an older and wiser Prim and the role-reversal, to some extent, from Prim doing Katniss’s hair to talking her down from her night terrors, which were so much worse than Prim’s had ever been, I realised a bit that they’re like Jo and Beth March, except the Jo figure gets to save Beth, and so Beth gets to grow up and help Jo in her own way. The analogy is only partial, obviously, but it explains the dynamic nicely for me. And it was heartbreaking that Prim was planning her future as a doctor, while Katniss’s mind wasn’t able to go there because of Peeta, because of Snow and the war, because she was again being manipulated as the Mockingjay, for a better cause, mind you, but still.
I’m a bit torn on the satire. I think it could have stung even more, although I snickered at the sequence from the return of turbaned Effie (OH, EFFIE, also now I get the Effie/Haymitch) to the wind machines to Haymitch talking sense. Plutarch’s attempts to fight the war solely as propaganda – I just felt that even more could have been done of the propoganda, but then I’ve always felt that about the Games. Based on modern reality TV, you’d think the amount that they’d film would be far more intrusive outside of the arena.
And Katniss IS much better when she’s being herself, even if she kept being checked by the firepower at Snow’s disposal and his deviousness. Took her a while to see she was being toyed with, but her response to the bombing of her home district, the hospital she’d just visited and the carpet of white roses was powerful (Lawrence is magnificent), and showed that she is just a girl, even if a remarkable one. I love her clinging to the belief that Peeta should have been saved because she sees him as a better person, though his facility with words was so twisted in this film, without realising that she’s the symbol people rallied behind and needed in a way he could never be.
I love that she is a girl, the agent and object, deconstructed, the hero, the protagonist. The one with a family, the one with broken-hearted, loyal Gale who can’t get it, with Haymitch (and to an extent, broken Finnick) who do, oh, and Beattie, her Q, who has drawn even ridiculous Effie to her, who pulled the soldier who was a Cinna replacement (in that he could see who she really was and argued for her to be allowed to be that person) to feel for her. The strong one who doesn’t know what to do about her feelings for Peeta. And there was no-one to give her decent advice, because they’ve all been broken. I have been convinced of Katniss/Peeta by now.
I loved the moment of connection with the Lady President and then the juxtaposition of the rousing speech, surely aided by Plutarch and Effie, performed by a Moore who I thought was channelling Hillary Clinton, with Katniss following her heart and getting it pummelled by the sight of beserker!Peeta for it – even if it made for a downer ending.
There wasn’t quite as much action as I was expecting, but I suppose that that will come in the attack on the Capitol that is sure to happen in Mockingjay 2. Although what we saw was shot finely (well, I found the opening scenes murky, tbh). Some things were just a bit too obvious (although maybe I’m influenced by having watched the Catching Fire commentary so recently, like I was prepped for seeing the significance of Snow’s grand-daughter unbraiding her hair). The pacing was okay – I rather enjoyed the space and time given to exploring Katniss’s feelings as she discovered more about this world after she let that arrow fly. I’m expecting pay-off and some healing for Katniss and Peeta, while she gets to be the weapon and the fire does burn Snow. (And maybe more than literally seconds of Johanna.)
The cinema was packed and a couple of people did the whistle at the end, which I haven’t come across before.
