It is unfair that the Hunger Games gets lumped in with Twilight, Divergent, and other wanna-be franchises because it has similar elements. Suzanne Collins’s novel and Francis Lawrence’s movie adaptation has such higher aims than petty love triangles. The first two Hunger Games entries tackles systemic oppression, reality TV, and political gamesmanship. Mockingjay Part I builds on those themes by placing them during a political uprising. Yes, this film is clearly part of a larger finale, but Part I glides on its stellar cast to set the tables for what should be a rousing finale.
Mockingjay Part I opens a few days after the events of Catching Fire. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is a shell of her fiery self, filled with nightmares of the games and her missing partner Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), who resurfaces as a political tool of President Snow (Donald Sutherland). To save Peeta, Katniss agrees to become the symbol of the rebellion lead by gamemaker Plutarch (Philip Seymour Hoffman), President Coin (Julianne Moore), and Katniss’s District 12 love interest Gale (Liam Hemsworth), who has moved himself up the ranks of the uprising.
Mockingjay Part I uses the propaganda film as its theme, giving the movie a fresh spin. This franchise prints money, so nobody would have blamed director Francis Lawrence from including a gigantic battle featuring all of the series regulars. However, such a sequence would have no stakes; with a Part 2, there’s no real threat of a major player dying. Instead, the director boldly sticks to the themes of the book, and focuses the story about how to sell an uprising instead of fighting to win one. The movie mines a good chunk of humor filming Katniss trying to rally troops then creating tension watching weaponless masses fighting gun wielding oppressors due to the videos sent out. This choice gives new (Coin) and fringe (Gale, Prim) characters a chance to build personalities and complexity before the big finale. In addition, the escalating body count clearly tolls on Katniss and Peeta, giving each more layers separated before their eventual reuniting.
Despite the great direction, Mockingjay Part I cannot be seen on its own. The movie’s a table setter. President Coin, Gale, and Prim (Willow Shields) need the drawn out screen time because they will clearly be really important characters going forward, but that process takes time and trust from the audience, which can drag the film at times. The film’s cast is bursting at the seems: characters no longer greatly important (Elizabeth Banks’s Effie or Woody Harrelson’s Haymitch) to the central story are given sections to shoehorn them in. More importantly, Peeta and Katniss are forced to watch each other on TV screens when they clearly work best playing off each other. Mockingjay Part I positions the board for Part 2 to be a rousing finale, but mostly arbitrarily picks an ending point.
The reason to see Mockingjay is the plethora of acting talent. Newcomer Julianne Moore and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman machinate behind the scenes, generating compelling political strategizing. Moore gives Coin enigmatic and cold qualities very similar to equally enigmatic and cold Donald Sutherland, so as to have us on her side but warily. Liam Hemsworth needed to sell Gale’s charisma and talents in Part I for the love triangle part of the story to carry any weight. Hemsworth does enough to keep Gale in the conversation, giving him channeled strength and commanding stoicism. Natalie Dormer and Willow Shields are fine enough, and Woody Harrelson, Sam Claflin, and Elizabeth Banks do their best with limited screen time. Josh Hutcherson is great with about 15 minutes of screen time as Peeta, selling so much pain and anger being trapped in the Capital. As always though, Jennifer Lawrence steadies the whole ship. Katniss is a girl with immense personal strength, fierce devotion to her family, friends, and morals, and love interests that don’t define her existence. If ever there was a better modern role model for women, I can’t think of one. Lawrence captures the growing shades of the girl on fire, putting some unhinged pieces alongside Katniss’s steely resolve.
Francis Lawrence earned the right to direct the final Hunger Games film. Mockinjay Part I was mostly designed as a cash grab, but Lawrence uses the movie to build a host of compelling characters as the rebellion continues to grow. Jennifer Lawrence and company continue to deliver the goods; I cannot wait to see what the filmmakers do for the big finish.