There’s a terrific stretch in the middle of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 that takes the engaging political world building Catching Fire started, and flips it on its head. Where the first two films satirized the low-hanging fruit of reality television romance, Part 1 gets itself into more complicated, murkier territory by toying with the idea of filmmaking as political propaganda. When Katniss delivers a bold challenge to The Capitol for the camera, it’s earnest; when she watches her words cut into a manifesto that’s edited like a movie trailer, she sees herself as a sock puppet for one side of the conflict the way Peeta is for the other.
There’s a miasma of grimness to Part 1 that can stultify, particularly in the first half hour (mass graves and mass shootings uneasily settle in with the PG-13 violence). Filtering the bleak world of Mockingjay through Katniss is the best decision the film makes: Lawrence, one of the biggest movie stars in the world, brings a relatable, earthy air to Katniss. Caught up in a world-threatening war waged by outsized characters, she’s still a weary survivor at heart, her personal choices driving her political ones, with the former always bearing the brunt of repercussions from the latter.
Mockingjay – Part I does a great job of always relating the greater battle back to how it affects Katniss, but at a cost to its overall function as a film. Hints of cheeky self-awareness don’t excuse dialogue that’s heavy on franchise symbolism (“It’s on the nose, but so is war,” Hoffman says at one point like a verbal wink to the audience). Engineered moments of action prove more frustrating than the lack of action they’re meant to breakup, including a race against time so that someone can literally Save the Cat. The climax, a dull, protracted affair that sidelines the film’s star, is the biggest reminder that splitting Mockingjay into two halves serves interests other than those of Katniss and the story.
Stewing on the darker themes of The Hunger Games while knowing resolution won’t be coming until a year from now is a problem only compounded by the franchise’s consistently lacking visual palette. Without the Games as a getaway, Mockingjay can make you go stir crazy within the muddily lit and claustrophobic confines of District 13. But if you’re planning to spend two hours in bland concrete bunkers and interchangeable mounds of rubble, you won’t find better company than here. With expanded roles for Hoffman and Jeffrey Wright, and returning characters like the preening Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and dried up, dried out Haymitch (Woody Harrelson), Mockingjay – Part 1 can sell you a lot of weak dialogue and questionable plotting, and look good doing it.
From a telescoped perspective, Mockingjay – Part 1 ends having not pushed the narrative of The Hunger Games much further than it was by the end of Catching Fire. It’s the deep breath in, the kindling meant to send the franchise off with a bang come this time next year. Diehard fans will relish the extra time spent in this world and with these characters, but casual viewers won’t be as enamoured with a film that often plays like a warmup round. Although, by always keeping its hero in the spotlight, and exposing her, and the audience to a conflict that’s ashen grey instead of black and white, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 satisfactorily sets the stage for The Hunger Games and Katniss to take their final bow.
