The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Who the hell is that woman on the right? I think maybe her name is Johanna or something. It basically doesn't matter.

I've been getting over a cold lately, and shortly after John and I sat down at the Regal Morgantown Stadium 12 to watch the latest installment of the Hunger Games tetralogy, I covered my mouth with my arm to cough, but ended up accidentally hawking up a giant, moist loogie right onto the arm of my sweatshirt. Have you ever done that in public by accident? It suddenly feels like everybody is watching and judging you, even though in reality it's likely that nobody noticed. I took off my sweatshirt and put it under my seat with the fabric of the arm folded so no errant blobs of loogie would escape during the film.

And if that anecdote seems wandering and pointless to you, wait until you see the first 35 minutes of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.

If you do go to see it, persevere through the awkward intro, for beyond it you will encounter several nuggets of young-adult movie goodness unfortunately suspended in a larger, amorphous plot-slurry during which our heroine Katniss Everdeen sometimes cannot play her critical propaganda role in a civil war because she is very busy trying to decide which of two boys she likes more. One of them is a vampire and one of them is a werewolf.

The movie does contain some worthwhile ideas, among them the concept that wars are fought in the media as well as on the battlefield, and control over the public's sense of why things happen can sometimes have as much strategic importance as what actually happens.

In case it's been a few years since you've read the books, let me remind you that Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen inhabits a dystopian future in which a wealthy, corrupt capitol city oppresses the hardworking people of twelve satellite districts, each of which contributes exactly one natural resource like wood or grain or sheep or something to the Capitol, enabling the people there to flounce about drinking champagne and wearing brightly colored wigs. Every year, just to demonstrate the concept of oppression in a teen novel way, there's a reality TV show called the Hunger Games in which kids from all of the districts must duke it out in a no holds barred death match that's like Battle Royale but with no schoolgirl uniforms. Katniss wins the Hunger Games in the first movie, but so does this little short guy with large moist eyes named Peeta. Peeta must remain alive so Katniss can spend lots more screen time trying to decide if she's in love with him, or with Gale, who this giant hunky expressionless dude played by Liam Hemsworth. Gale and Katniss like to go hunting together. This is not a euphemism. They really do go hunting, a lot. It's how they bond.

Then in the next movie, they do the Hunger Games all over again, but with an all-star cast from previous versions of the Hunger Games. That's basically the entire second movie.

Now, in the third movie, which is the first part of the third book, everybody has totally had enough of this softcore Orwellian reality TV bullshit and so it's time to rebel against the Capitol. The Capitol is pretty much run by one guy, and fortunately it's Donald Sutherland. He is one of the floating chunks of greatness in all the movies so far. He is a delicious villain. I imagine that the directors of the series were basically like, "good morning Mr. Sutherland. Do you see this scenery? Chew it as hard as you can. Really. Go for it buddy." Every time he comes on screen, he is so totally, totally villainous that it looks like he just got done tying a woman to some railroad tracks.

Another floating great part of the movie is Philip Seymour Hoffman, to whom the film is dedicated because he died partway through filming. It looks like they were going to shoot a few more scenes with him to tie some loose ends together, but his performance as we're left with it is coherent and powerful, a great final offering from a talented actor. As the rebel propaganda master Plutarch Heavensbee, Hoffman carries the film's most worthwhile idea, the notion that a war, among other things, is a story, and control over the story, over people's hearts and minds and therefore their behavior, is a vital part of the struggle. This talent for telling people how to feel about the violence that's happening around them is presented not as an extension of a person's moral character, but rather as a tool. Keeping in mind the age group that The Hunger Games is geared towards, it's nice to see a movie that encourages young adults to think critically about politics and the media.

Anyway.

Should you go see this movie? Eh, if you want. If you liked the books. If you want the fourth and final movie to make any sense to you at all. THG: MJ P1 is an uneven movie with some good parts and some meh parts. There is one totally cute part when a bunch of people are trapped in a bomb shelter and a cat chases a flashlight beam and makes them laugh. Come to think of it, the cat delivered a more nuanced performance than Liam Hemsworth. I hope they gave him a treat for doing such a good job. And by "him," I mean the cat. Mr. Hemsworth probably got several million dollars.