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Author
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Topic: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 11-24-2014 04:06 AM
Part three in a trilogy of... four.
Following Hollywood’s tradition of squeezing the most out of the franchise by bringing you the sequel, the sequel to the sequel, the prequel, the remake, the reboot and "recentish”, the "splitquel"*.
* May be substituted by a more "robust" sounding word.
The room was packed to the brim. The recently overhauled reserved seating system selling some seats twice didn’t help... After some playing of musical chairs and by generally shuffling people around, the feature could be started with a delay of about 10 minutes.
I primarily remember Part 1 of the Hunger Games series from the terrible cinematography. The sickening use of shaky camera work was primarily abandoned last year and fortunately hasn't found its way into this year's movie. Maybe swapping out the director after the first movie did have its merits.
The picture is very sharp and detailed in 4K, a nice bonus if you want to sit close to the screen and hate blurry and/or pixelated images. Although entirely recorded using digital cameras, a distinctive "film look" remains. There’s still hope for the "all digital" workflow, not screwing entirely with the DNA of feature "films".
For those like me, who were just a little bit fed up with the Hunger Games itself, after they were the main attraction in the first two movies, the good news is: Besides some minor flashbacks, there are no Hunger Games in this Hunger Games movie.
In this year's sequel, we see how District 13 (a.k.a. the rebels) readies itself for the battle against the Capitol (a.k.a. the big bad Empire). We follow the transformation Katniss Everdeen from underground rebellion hero to become the female version of Che Guevara in this fictive, unfolding revolution.
So, it’s all filled to the brim with action then? Sorry, no can’t do... Because even after two movies have passed, we still have this love triangle going on and lots of more or less moving, overly emotional stuff, including repeating the same shot of the remains of District 12 at least twice. We need to drag this last book out over at least 5 hours of screen time, remember?
As expected, the movie ends on a cliffhanger, although it would be a greater cliff (or hanger?) if it would've ended about 5 minutes earlier, after the screen went dark (grey), but I guess that would've upset the audience too much.
This movie certainly has some good acting, although I would wish we could trade Liam Hemsworth for somebody less teddy bearish and bring some depth in this cardboard cut-out of a personality. But, Philip Seymour Hoffman will surely be missed. There was apparently still some unfinished footage before he sadly passed away, so it remains to be seen if they find an elegant solution for this in the last part.
Overall, this might not be a great movie, but it’s good entertainment. The bold message this series tries to convey mostly falls flat due to the unsophisticated delivery, but it certainly is a good companion to popcorn. Also, this thing is highly popular, it might just save the year for many of you.
It also proves once again that you can have blockbuster openings outside of blockbuster seasons.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 11-25-2014 11:58 AM
quote: Marcel Birgelen
So, it’s all filled to the brim with action then? Sorry, no can’t do... Because even after two movies have passed, we still have this love triangle going on and lots of more or less moving, overly emotional stuff, including repeating the same shot of the remains of District 12 at least twice.
You do realize this movie is being marketed towards the ladies, right?
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
In theory at least, ladies love kissy smoochie relational stuff in stories. Action, explosions, etc.? Not so much.
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Mike Blakesley
Film God
Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 11-25-2014 12:00 PM
I had never seen any of the Hunger Games movies, but some friends of ours had always raved about them, so over the last two Sundays we watched the first 2 films in preparation for this one.
I found myself enjoying the movies more than I thought I would, considering I'm not usually a fan of dystopian stories.
This is an OK movie but as other reviewers have stated, it feels stretched-out. I do enjoy Donald Sutherland doing his usual creepy-old-bad-guy persona...he would have made a good Star Wars villain.
In fact this movie has a lot of parallels to Star Wars. The whole "rebel alliance" thing...the evil leader who plots against the underlings...one hero leading the charge to blow up the Death Star, I mean destroy the Capitol...it all feels done before.
That said, the movie has a few good action scenes and the ending is a real good cliffhanger climax, but it's sort of unsatisfying. Also I don't understand why they don't put "To Be Continued..." at the end of these Part 1 movies.
I can see doing the two-movie thing if the source story is a long involved narrative like the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings movies, but this....well, they could have made one great movie (and the conclusion could indeed be great) but I have a feeling the next one is going to be about a half-hour of 'set-up' followed by two hours of battle scenes. And the tag line will be something like "The final battle is not a game."
You just know that every movie based on a book is now going to be run through the "Can we tell this story in two parts?" filter. I can see the remake of Jaws in my mind. Part One will be all about how Mrs. Brody falls in love with Hooper, the shark expert and will have a sad ending when he goes away with Quint and Chief Brody to catch the shark. Then Part Two will be "the battle to the end" where the big question won't be whether they kill the shark, but which of the two men Mrs. Brody loves will survive.
But anyway....since this is only half a movie I'll give it three half stars. We'll see if Part Two can earn the other half.
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Marcel Birgelen
Film God
Posts: 3357
From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 11-29-2014 07:25 PM
There have been multiple topics about the pros and cons of reserved seating.
While I'm not entirely against it, the implementation is often awkward.
The biggest cons, even if it's done "right":
- It makes the movie-going experience less spontaneous.
- You cannot easily change your seats after you realized your choice actually sucks, for whatever reason.
- Some see their reserved seats as a license to arrive late. While latecomers in a non-reserved setting will usually choose seats that are easily accessible, in a reserved setting they usually disturb a whole bunch of other people to get to their seats.
The biggest pros:
- If you know the auditorium layout, you can choose your optimum seats and have some varying level of guarantee you will also be getting those seats.
- You don't have to come early to be able to pick a good seat.
Now, my personal rants:
- Reserved seating is often just another way to artificially inflate ticket prices with bullshit nobody ever asked for. Reserved seating should always be a complimentary service, not something you need to pay for.
- If you do have reserved seating, let people know you actually have it...
- If you do have reserved seating, then enforce it. All too often theaters leave it to the patrons to fight it out.
- Systems where you can choose your row, but not the actual seat in your row are amongst the most awkward semi-reserved seating systems out there.
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