Jay and I finally got around to watching the Mockinjay, parts I and II. It was pretty much what I thought it would be, based on the first two movies: a big, fat bore.
It’s been so many years since I read the books that I had forgotten most of the details on how our hero Katniss gets from point A to point B but I did remember that she’s a 17 year old girl, pretty much devoid of personality and that’s just how Jennifer Laurence played her. I’ve seen Miss Lawrence in enough different roles to know that she’s a terrific actress. But really, Katniss is a snooze, especially for the hero of a war movie. Woody Harrelson, of whom I’m not really a fan, was the best. He’s the only character in the whole thing who seemed like a real person.
The movie is also really dark, not merely the subject matter but the lighting and art direction. It was like trying to watch a movie being projected onto a brick wall. It’s a dark subject, I get it. May I actually see it, please?
Over all, I’d say the series of four movies they made out of the books were just not my cup of tea. Too plodding, too overwrought, too teen agey. I remember being 17 well enough to recall finding all of life too plodding, overwrought and angst filled and I never had to go to war so I get all that…but it makes for a pretty damn dull movie.
The emotional heart of the story is supposed to be the relationship between Katniss and her little sister, Prim. It’s Prim’s name that is drawn for the games and Katniss volunteers to take her place, which is the impetus for the entire story. In the books, as well as the movies, that relationship is then shelved for the more commercial (really? Ever heard of Frozen?) but predictable love triangle until the very end, when the sister card is played again in a ham-fisted attempt at plucking the heart strings. I never felt the least bit emotionally invested in the character of Prim or the bond between the sisters. There’s an episode of Band of Brothers centered on the company medic. He has a lovely conversation with a little French nurse. The next time he catches a ride into town, the church/hospital has been bombed. Seeing her blue head scarf in the rubble was more wrenching than anything that happened in the Hunger Games. Because Steven Spielberg is talented.
In the Hunger Games, Prim was just that blond chick who turns up every 40 minutes or so, usually doing something irritatingly stupid like risking her life during a bombing raid to save her cat.
If I had volunteered for a sole survivor cage match to save Margy and she then cavalierly put her life on the line for a cat, I’d have beaten the blond off her.
Of course, if I had volunteered to take Margy’s place it wouldn’t have been because I loved her so much but because I was sure I would win the games; I hadn’t survived 17 years of Woody, JP and Joe to be taken down by some lumberjack out of district 3. At 17 I was little, fast, quiet and meaner than a rattle snake. I was also a ruthless bitch and Peta would not have bought himself a second by professing his love for me. I was awful. My whole family would have gotten rich betting on me.
So there’s that.
I realize that middle aged moms are not the demographic the studio was going for but don’t teens deserve great movies that will actually hold up? I think they do.
I also really hated the composition of nearly every shot in the thing. The ultra-close-up is worst trend to come out of the last few decades of film making. Get the damn camera out of the actor’s noses, please! I’d rather be able to see the tops of their heads and their chins than every drop of sweat on their faces, no matter how artfully applied. It’s just bad composition and lazy story telling.
So my review boils down to this: I was relieved when the dumb thing was over.
Then I watched two episodes of Happy Endings. So, so funny!