| Directed by | Francis Lawrence |
| Produced by | Nina Jacobson Jon Kilik |
| Screenplay by | Danny Strong Peter Craig |
| Based on | Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins |
| Starring | Jennifer Lawrence |
| Music by | James Newton Howard |
| Cinematography | Jo Willems |
| Edited by | Alan Edward Bell Mark Yoshikawa |
| Production company |
Lionsgate Color Force |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
| Release dates | November 21, 2014 (US) |
| Running time | 123 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $250 million |
The early 2000’s was about the wizards of Harry Potter, the late 2000’s was about vampires in Twilight and the early 2010’s is the butt-kicker female archer of the Hunger Games. And treading the path of its predecessors in splitting the final book in halves, the first half of Mockingjay, well, is high in its dramatic moments but somehow just short in a cacophonous scale. Still, the always flawless Jennifer Lawrence further usurps herself like none other into Katniss Everdeen emotionally and dynamically, to stems herself as one, if not, the best all-round versatile actress out there.
“Third time’s the charm.” Almost every time a franchise reaches that milestone, it’s about riding off into the sunset leaving that trail of charm to its fan base. In a filmic sort of trend, with Twilight’s Breaking Dawn, Hunger Games’ Mockingjay, and soon both the Hobbit’s Battle of Five Armies and Divergent’s Allegiant, it’s now vastly becoming an idiom applicable only for the stone-age men. To the more faithful Hunger Games fanatics, perhaps, Mockingjay part 1 covers the “why?” well down to the last meat of the bone, but it’s one that sends expectations skying for a grand-stand, action-wise answering the “what?” finish come November 2015.
With that, there’s this conception that Mockingjay Part 1 irons out the more elaborate, action-packed chapters of the novel in order to issue forth a further in-depth catalogue into the Panem universe. On the scale of the scenic and atmospheric feel, it succeeds in conveying the chilling, almost post-Nuclear War-like dystopian destruction into the silver screen that somehow rings comparison to both the grainy landscape of war-stricken Germany in Saving Private Ryan and even the sense that it tears off the leafs of the zombie apocalypse movies visually.
Moreover, some of the action set-pieces, more war-oriented just like the setting, was as perfectly set up as before. Though, for a sliver of criticism, it only comes in spurts as well as being on a blockbuster Richter scale, a less exciting affair compared to the gladiatorial set-pieces on the previous two. Safe to say, element-wise, Mockingjay Part 1 reintroduce a darker Panem in the right manner, though there’s just that feeling that Part 2 will, and honorably should, be bigger.
Being high on the dramatic moments, it falls down to the all-round sparkling display of the flawless Jennifer Lawrence. Slowly, she has emerged as on reptilian terms, a chameleon in terms of her capability to play an assortment of film roles. From the demure blue villainess in the X-Men reboot saga, a manic obsessive widow in Silver Linings Playbook to the jealous, troublemaking wife in American Hustle, her role in the Hunger Games for the third calling as the bowgirl Katniss Everdeen just bulges up her ever blooming career. She almost able to singlehandedly kept the ship afloat, emotionally, dynamically, to comically should be said. Some of the highlights, being her heroic propaganda speech in the midst of District 12 ruins or her moments with Prim emotionally, dynamically being her gesture that spells action-heroine, and comically, when she awkwardly fluffed her lines trying to make the propaganda speech in front of the green screen, showcase her vast range of acting skills to immerse herself into Katniss, a bigger-than-life heroine that’s also flawed and none too different to people in real life.
Apart from Jennifer Lawrence, Philip Seymour Hoffman is a nice sight as well as Plutarch, leaving tears as the late actor showed one last time his acting charm. Also, the plus point, Liam Hemsworth getting more screen-time as Gale Hawthorne, though there’s this hitch he’s stereotyped into the kind of rebound character like Jacob in Twilight. Above all, it’s pretty much Jennifer Lawrence’s rare calling for the Oscar to give her another nomination, now on a larger-scaled film.
In the end, Mockingjay Part 1 is both a dramatic and visually intriguing look into the vastness of Panem, with the small but being falling short in action-wise the wow factor. Still, Jennifer Lawrence stole everyone’s thunder flawlessly as Katniss. Hope bigger for 2015. 7/10. (ed, 2014)
suburbia666 