The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is the third movie in a franchise of movies based of off Suzanne Collins’ trilogy of the same name, but even though it is the third film in a “trilogy” it won’t be the last movie in this series. On the contrary, there will be a fourth film, the second movie based on the way-too-short-to-be-two-films-book Mockinjay, in which the Hunger Games saga finally reaches its conclusion. Lionsgate will not be the first studio to turn their YA adult novel-based franchise finale into a two-parter (that honor belongs to Harry Potter) and I’m sure it won’t be the last, but it should be.

I understand the appeal to the studio, why not make the last movie into two movies and make twice as much money? Of course, they don’t want to just appear to be sellouts, so they argue that it’s all in the interest of being as faithful as possible to the book; in the case of Harry Potter the last book is so huge, they just claimed they wanted to get it all on film, and maybe that was the case, but this just simply isn’t true with Mockingjay, which isn’t a long book by any stretch of the imagination. I can’t speak for Twilight, as I haven’t watched or read those, but I imagine it didn’t need a two-part finale either.

Now, some might not be bothered by this, the more of their favorite franchise the better, right? Here’s my problem with it, this technique completely wrecks the flow of the story and robs the series of momentum. Nowhere is this more apparent than with Mockingjay part 1. The Hunger Games series made a strong, bold start, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the first one; the camera work was shaky and awful and the effects looked cheap, but I could see there was promise. Then the franchise really hit a home run with Catching Fire; the cinematography was on point this time and the dark tone really set up the next movie well, only for all of its momentum to be wasted on a film where nothing happens.

Those of you have seen the film may think this is a harsh assessment, but really think about it, what truly happens in this film? Is any real progress made? Does Katniss develop at all? Does anyone really develop? The answer is not enough for this to feel like a complete movie and once again we’re left with half a story and a cliffhanger that wasn’t originally written as one. It’s not as bad as the ending of The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (you’re really going to end before the dragon finally does something? Really?) it still leaves the audience feeling underwhelmed.

The real shame here is that the movie is actually pretty well done, and in terms of an adaptation it betters the book in every way, much the same way the previous two movies have; as such, those who have read the books will probably enjoy this one a lot more than those who haven’t. This exposes another problem with the two-part finale strategy; it leaves those who haven’t read the novels out to dry. How many people who haven’t read the books, but have enjoyed the first two films came out excited to watch the third movie, only to find that it’s mainly all set up for the next movie? For those who don’t know what happens in the finale that’s highly disappointing and it’s probably the reason for the overall lower enthusiasm for this film compared to the first two movies.

The good news is that there is another movie coming next year, and at the very least it seems fully “set up” now to be a good one. Let’s just hope that this finale actually delivers on its promise and feels like a complete story, because I’m growing tired of all of these extra parts in what used to be trilogies, and I don’t think I’m the only one.

-Ryan Maples

Rating: 6.5

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1951265/?ref_=nv_sr_1