What I Thought of Mockingjay Part 1

Photo Credit: To Hollywood and Beyond

Don’t read this like I’m writing some in depth movie review. Cause I’m not. I’m just going to ramble a bit about what I liked about the movie.

SPOILERS WILL BE INCLUDED

First, I wrote a post a few weeks back saying that I was going to reread the series. Yeah…I’m a liar. I did take the first book off the shelf and put it on my bed, but I never opened it. Mostly because I was more worried about some job stuff. So I went in a little bit blind. I’ve read the book, duh, but that was more than two years ago. I’ve read plenty more in the time since. Now to the movie.

The cast. Holy crap. Natalie Dormer (Cressida), I’m in love. Seriously, if she kept her head half shaved or whatever forever I’d love it. And Mahershala Ali (Boggs). Great casting. I know him from House of Cards, and I like him as President Coin’s right hand. I’ll talk about President Coin in a second.

I have to admit that the movie definitely starts a bit slow. Too slow? Eh. But I fully expected this to be the case. You almost have to when you’re splitting the book into two movies. Starts off slow but has just the right amount of action. Such as the scene released just this week in which Katniss witnesses a bombing first hand. That was a great part and her speech right after was the Girl on Fire we’ve all come to love.

District 13 was EXACTLY how I imagined. Looked great. I would have liked for them to give us more vision into the other districts. What we do get is nice, but it’s still pretty minimal. The attack on the dam is INSANE! One of my favorite parts of the movie because you see so many people sacrifice themselves for the handful of others who need to get through to destroy the dam. It really shows how important the revolution is to everyone.

Two things before I get to President Coin. I felt like Peeta’s role in this movie was greatly reduced from the previous two. Obviously being separated from Katniss is mostly to blame for that, but of the two hours I would be very surprised if he had even a half hour of screen time. And President Snow also seemed a bit more absent. I know, I know. They’re in 13 trying to plan everything out, but still.

Okay. I have some things to say about President Coin. Julianne Moore is great. You know from the first interaction with Katniss that she’s in control. But something that was really apparent to me throughout the movie is how similar President Snow and President Coin really are. Like holy crap. Obviously I’ve read the book and I know how it ends, but it was like they wanted to make sure you knew how similar they are. When you look at the shots of them speaking to their people, very similar. When you look at how Coin uses Katniss and Snow uses Peeta, very similar. I think they did this single part of the book even better than Suzanne Collins. Or perhaps I just appreciate it more after seeing it rather than reading. I don’t know. But kudos to Francis Lawrence and company on President Coin.

Overall, a very nice adaptation. As good as Catching Fire? Not in my eyes. But I do think it is a step above The Hunger Games.

Now go see it!

Oh, and we got there a little later than planned so I didn’t get to see all the other people arrive, but I did see some girls dressed as tributes! Should have snapped pictures.