THE HUNGER GAMES : MOCKINGJAY Pt. 1 - Tuesday 25th November 2014.

On Tuesday night this week I ventured to my local Multiplex with a couple of movies buddies to see the next instalment in this franchise - the beginning of the end as the final book in the series is split into two movies (a la 'Harry Potter' and 'Twilight'). And so the third film in the series and the first half of the concluding episode - 'THE HUNGER GAMES : MOCKINGJAY Pt. 1' left me feeling underwhelmed I have to say. This film is the meat in the sandwich well & truly, sitting between the spectacle and the bravura of 'Catching Fire' and what will undoubtedly be a climactic all guns blazing epic conclusion that is 'Mockingjay Pt. 2' . . . one year from now with its release on 19th November 2015.

Directed once again by Francis Lawrence, we have all the characters we have got to know over the first two films assembled once more, with a couple of new ones thrown in as the action takes us to someplace else. Following on directly from where the last film left us, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) awakens in a hospital bed with vague memories of how she got there and who she left behind . . . the believed dead Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). Recovering she learns that she is in District 13 which it had previously been thought was destroyed long ago, but not so apparently. District 13 is overseen by President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and is occupied by former military personnel and is housed deep underground. As a result it is relatively safe, secure, and out of sight hidden beneath a dense forest but houses a mass of military weapons, aircraft, and a large community with the necessary infrastructure to support it.

When the Hunger Games Arena was destroyed and the Quarter Quell overturned at the end of 'Catching Fire' our protagonists were carted off in opposite directions - Katniss to District 13 with Gale Hawthorn (Liam Hemsworth), Sam Claflin (Finnick Odair), Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour-Hoffman), and Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) - the latter 'drying out a mile underground'! Heading off to The Capitol captured by President Coriolanus Snow were Mellark and Johanna Mason (Jena Malone) and Annie Cresta (Stef Dawson) wife of Finnick Odair.

President Coin aided by Heavensbee want to use Katniss as their mascot for the uprising against The Capitol and everything that President Snow (Donald Sutherland) stands for. As a symbol of hope, strength, unity and power to spearhead the rebellion, Katniss is crowned 'The Mockingjay' and so a propaganda campaign is launched and broadcast to all other Districts to consolidate the rebellion efforts against The Capitol. Meanwhile The Capitol with its military strength and its own propaganda campaign has outlawed the Mockingjay, and anyone seen or heard supporting it will be punished by death. President Snow has also trashed all other Districts, killed many of their citizens and nearly razed those former dystopian communities to the ground - not much is left.

When Katniss learns via the TV propaganda campaign launched by The Capitol that Peeta and Co. are in fact still alive, a plan is hatched to break them out of there and engineer a cunning escape - if only it were that easy of course! With live pictures beamed frequently over the TV with Peeta on screen being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), Katniss soon realises that her love, Peeta, must have taken leave of his senses, given the anti-rebellion drivel coming out of his mouth! How can this be, horror of horrors! But within no time as Peeta loses weight before our very eyes on the TV screen and has an increasingly gaunt appearance, conclusions are drawn that he has been tortured and forced into submission. Katniss can't believe her eyes or ears, and nor can the rest of the populace!

And so Katniss becomes the poster girl for the rebellion and with Peeta languishing in The Capitol undergoing all manner of psychological torture, her attention becomes somewhat distracted by Gale Hawthorn and the increasingly obvious path of death and destruction that President Snow seems hell bent on. All of this seems to amble along with rousing speeches delivered by Alma Coin intermittently, discoveries of more fractured District communities, snippets of televised propaganda from both sides, and a few moments of action. One of the most 'gripping' scenes comes when The Capitol is bombing District 13 and all are nestled deep below ground in their bunker when Katniss has to go rescue her sister Primrose Everdeen (Willow Shields) who has gone searching for the family cat with bombs raining down and the time counting down to the automatic closure of the meter thick bomb proof bunker doors - will they all die because of a pesky flea bitten cat . . . probably not!

And that is about as exciting and as tense as it gets! Despite that, I understand completely that this film is setting the scene for the final instalment that is to follow, and that all this posturing lays the foundation for the grand finale and the big conclusion . . . but this lumbers along, it labours, it's pedestrian and it left me wanting more that just setting the framework for a film that I have to wait another 12 months for. Even the late great Philip Seymour-Hoffman to whom this film is dedicated, seemed at odds with some of the dialogue he had to deliver and almost had a constant smirk and cheesy grin on his face that says WTF am I doing here . . . but I guess the pay cheque is good, or maybe, this is what was intended for his character - you can decide!

There is no doubt that this film will be successful. With a budget of about US$125M (a reported US$250M for the two 'Mockingjay' films combined) it has already earned a global box office haul of just a nudge under US$300M at the time of writing this, and saw the biggest opening weekend of any film so far in 2014.



-Steve, at Odeon Online-