Mockingjay I (Film Review)
Spoiler-free version, for anyone curious whether or not the decision to split the final volume of the trilogy in two would come across as "we want to milk this cash cow a bit longer" or would be justified by the end result, it's definitely the later. There is no "post" in Katniss' PTSD, so I'd rather describe her as shell shocked (come to think of it, Katniss really has a lot in common with the WWI soldiers for whom the term was coined, more below cut), and since this film doesn't have to cover as many events as the previous ones, it has the necessary breathing room to convey this - great performance by Jennifer Lawrence, too - and to show the effect Current Events are having on everyone else, too, again, more below the cut. Also, what I hoped for re: the movie using the liberty of not being stuck to the first person pov the books are a bit more was indeed the case. If Mockingjay had been filmed as one single movie, all of this - Katniss' state, Panem's state, the fleshing out by scenes where Katniss isn't present instead of, as in the book, having her learn the result of those via reports - would have gotten short shrift, and we'd have been the poorer for it. Now, on to spoilery reflections.
I'll first talk about the movie without book spoilers, so movie-only watchers can read it safely, but the last section in spoiler white (since I've now mastered the technique) will be with book spoilers and some speculation.
Probably the most striking thing to anyone not already familiar with the story from the books is that this movie presents a formula break, i.e. no more attempts to repeat the game scenario, the arena has well and truly shifted, and we're in a war film now. And not in any war movie, either. What I meant re: the Katniss as WWI soldier above is that she's not doing much actual fighting (though there is fighting done, more in a moment) - instead, she's barely out of the previous horrors, will eventually have to go back, and in between is in a questionable recuperative period, in short, she's Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfried Owen in Craiglockhart Hospital, especially Sassoon, becoming a spokesperson for an not entirely trusted cause. The new asthetics of the movie - District 13's drab uniforms (even for civilians) and tight space in underground caverns, contrasting with the colourful fascist glamour of the Capital and the open spaces of the arenas - heighten that WWI association, though they also carry with them something of Maoist China or Stalinist Russia, of course.
In my review of Catching Fire, I complained that the movie didn't take the liberty, in its final sequence, to go outside of Katniss' pov to actually show us District 12 being bombed, Peeta and Johanna getting captured etc, but instead let, as in the book, Katniss find out per report. I withdraw this objection retrospectively now, because the sequence of Katniss visiting the bombed-into-smithereens District 12 for the first time is harrowingly effective and probably wouldn't be as much if the audience had been prepared for the result. (It's also entirely silent, trusting Jennifer Lawrence's acting to convey all that Katniss feels at this sight, and all the more effective for it.) What this movie does and the last one didn't, however, is to actually show us the various districts starting their rebellion. This may be partly due to simple target audience necessity - you would not have any fighting sequences otherwise, and at least part of the audience would feel cheated - but it's very effective and makes it believable the revolution is well and truly taking off and has a shot at winning despite the Capitol's superior technology.
Taking further advantage of the ability to leave Katniss' pov, the movie gives us more Snow (Donald Sutherland continues to be in evil form, and I continue to love that the movies include his granddaughter with the Katniss-fangirling hair style as a physical presence because of the great set up this is), more Plutarch Heavensbee, more Effie (she gets Fulvia's role from the novel here, which makes sense since the previous films never fleshed out Katniss' prep team but did flesh out Effie) and most importantly, more Alma Coin than Katniss' first person pov in the novel could have left us see. Coin is the big new addition to the cast, and I think what the movie is doing with her is more subtle than what the book does, but it's impossible to discuss just why without spoilers for the second half of the novel, so more on her below. For now, let's just say Julianne Moore does a great job, and that the movie by giving us scenes like the one where Coin during the Capitol's bombing attack keeps her head and figures out the most effective strategy instead of panicking and playing her hand too early show why she rose to the top to begin with, and why her people respect her. As for Plutarch, he continues to be the character whose background and pov I would be wildly curious to learn, even if Philip Seymour Hoffmann were not playing him. Which he does and so well you're not thinking of the actor's fate while watching, not until the credits bring it home again he's gone. That the rebels are as wise to the needs for effective propaganda and as ruthlessly determined to use Katniss as the Capitol was is such an important (and refreshing) plot point in the book, and Plutarch, ex game master and current propagandist in chief is the embodiment of that ambiguity. (As are Cressida, played by Natalie Dormer whom it is always a pleasure to see, and her film team.) The movie points out how emotions for a "good" cause are manipulated in exactly the same way they are for a "bad" one, and Plutarch's scenes with Coin, persuading her after her early disappointment in Katniss that they do need her for their propaganda, are a mirror to his scenes with Snow in the previous movie. But the film doesn't treat him as a superior all knowing puppeteer; his humanity effectively conveyed both in his scenes with Effie (in which Elizabeth Banks rocks, btw), where we see him visibly doubtful, then putting his game face on before entering her room, for example, or his reaction to the bombardment of 13 where he's with Coin in the command center but extremely uneasy and barely repressing panic, which makes sense because Plutarch, child of the Capital, has never lived through something like this before (only on the other side of it as a game maker). It makes Plutarch a real person, not just a plot point about the moral ambiguity of the rebels. One more example: during Coin's speech after the successful rescue operation of the Victors, Effie, who is standing next to him, notices he's eagerly mouthing Coin's drafted-by-him speech with her (dystopian reminder of a West Wing scene where Toby Ziegler does this with Jed Bartlet), and her expression is priceless. (The Plutarch and Effie dynamic the movie comes up with is a great addition which does not exist in the novel.) I just hope they have enough footage shot with PSH to include Plutarch's reaction to certain upcoming events, because again, the book due to Katniss' first person pov couldn't tell us but I do want to know, now more than ever.
I mentioned earlier that the movie trusted its audience in getting what Katniss feels during her walk through the ruins of District 12. One of my criticisms is that it doesn't have the same trust re: Peeta in Capitol propaganda interviews. Yes, in the book Katniss-as-narrator describes his increasing haggard appearance (hinting at what gets revealed later in the book, and here at the end of the movie, i.e. that he was tortured and brainwashed throughout his time in the Capitol), but this is a visual medium, so Katniss' exclamations of how his voice changed and how he looks are doing double duty and seem overdone. Otoh, maybe not: a friend of mine who hadn't read the books still thought Gale was right about Peeta selling everyone out due to cowardice and for love of the luxurious Capitol life, as did the critic of the Süddeutsche Zeitung (both of whom are shipping Katniss/Gale, though), so I suppose the movie people had reason to want to be clear on Peeta not doing this for larks and because he's just that easily swayed. As I had guessed, the movie ends with the revelation of Peeta's brainwashing after he, Johanna and Annie were successfully retrieved (if you want to make a break in the Mockingjay story, this is certainly the only point where you can and it makes for a cliffhanger ending while still wrapping one part of the story up), and the intercutting between Coin's "Yay us!" speech and Katniss, herself still showing the result of Peeta's almost strangling her, staring at him raving in his straight jacket through the glass window, their faces overlaying each other through the glass, makes for an effective gutwrenching final visual. (Also a thematic point about just how damaged they both are at this point. Spoilery for the second half of the novel thought:I always thought that one major reason why Suzanna Collins had Peeta go through the "hijacking" (i.e. brainwashing) and torture was because the relathionship between him and Katniss, if it had continued the way it was through the first two books, would have been too uneven otherwise, with Peeta - though he did kill in the arena - the least damaged of the Victors, not morally compromised, and able to be unquestioning supportive guy while idolizing Katniss. Peeta post brainwashing, otoh, is as messed up and shell shocked as Katniss.
Speaking of intercutting: another very effective cinematic alteration to book events was the intercutting between Finnick's "I was a Capitol sex slave, so were other Victors, and here's a hit list of President Snow's Top Crimes"' speech and the rescue operation for the Victors, which not only removed the potential staticness of a confession speech - Finnick's tale is tremendously affecting in the book, but in a film if you have someone monologuing without moving, it's tricky, but also heightened the suspense especially for an unspoiled audience who doesn't know all three Victors will be retrieved and that in fact Snow planned for this. (Not to mention it removes the clumsiness of Katniss having to hear this via reporting, too.) The brief Katniss/Snow conversation the Finnick's confession/retrieval operation sequence leads into where she's trying to stall to buy the retrieval team escape time and you think he can't resist the chance to gloat until he reveals he actually knows what she's doing was fantastic, too, and made me look forward to the final big Snow and Katniss scene in the next movie.
Which brings me to lots of speculation and spoilers for the second half of Mockingjay, book and film:As I said, Alma Coin is characterized with more subtlety in the movie than in the book, where her hostility to Katniss and the awareness that as effective a propaganda tool as Katniss is, Coin is too control obsessed not to want to be rid of her once victory is accomplished mark her as an antagonist from the get go. Here, Coin's initial hostility is earned by Katniss outright refusal to cooperate at the start when so much is at stake, and she drops it once Katniss is doing Mockingjay duties, is friendly without overdoing it so it doesn't feel fake, and later showing downright compassion in a movie-only scene where Katniss is waiting for news from the retrieval team. You also see her acting as a competent leader, see above, who's earned her people's support, and her wry sardonic dialogues with Plutarch show a self awareness about using him using her. At the same time, there are also indications as to what will happen; Coin's public speeches are filmed in exactly the same way Snow's speeches are, with identical aesthetics (minus the drab surroundings of District 13, of course, her white hair echoes his - and white generally is a negative colour in this 'verse, associated with Snow as it is, which is also why Peeta is dressed all in white for his first propaganda tv spot - , and if you've read the book, you know that the way the Capitol's destruction of the hospital in District Eight galvanizes both Katniss and the population won't be lost on her. Not for nothing is the camera showing Prim in her new medical staff dress during Coin's last rallying speech. All of which will make it imo both more suspenseful and gut wrenching when Snow during their last confrontation tells Katniss that it was Coin, not him, who ordered the destruction of the medical unit (and thus caused Prim's death), because for a movie audience, it will be far more questionable whether or not he's telling the truth. And it probably will be for Katnisss, too. In the book, what settles it for her is Coin's subsequent suggestion of one more Hunger Game with the Capitol's children as punishment and to satisfy everyone's revenge urge, but she tends to believe it before that because her distrust and dislike of Coin, and awareness she would have been more use to Coin as a dead martyr at this point than as a living inconience, is too well entrenched not to. Based on this first part, I can imagine Mockingjay II will have both Katniss and the audience far more emotionally torn about Coin, with Coin's suggestion re: revenge Hunger Games coming as a genuine emotional betrayal and only then settling that she's as bad a prospect for Panem as Snow. Given the big twist of Katniss killing at the end not her arch nemesis through three volumes, Snow (though he does die), but the leader of the rebellion, Coin, establishing Coin as a character the audience to some degree cares about was really important and I applaud the fact the movie managed this.
Lastly, unspoilery trivia thoughts:
- Haymitch's reentering the narrative with in the "and thus a revolution dies" scene of Katniss' bad acting during the propo was a demonstration of how you make your audience long for one of their favourites for just the right amount of time before letting him reenter in style
- the musical setting of Katniss' Hanging Tree ballad isn't at all like I imagined it, but incredibly effective
- Egeria as Snow's new right hand woman doesn't have many lines but is played by an excellent actress who conveys just how afraid of him she is while trying to come across as a self assured minion
- as in the book, Gale has a far larger role here than he does in previous volumes, and is mostly Devoted Best Friend, but at one point reminds me why I could never ship Gale/Katniss. "Because that's the only way I can get you to pay any attention to me. When I'm in pain. Don't worry, Katniss. It'll pass." Oh, screw you, Gale.
- during the first scene with Finnick, the audience member next to me whispered "who is he again?"; partly because the movie expects you to recall who Finnick is as opposed to giving Katniss an "As you know, Bob" line like "oh, Finnick, my fellow Victor from the Games whom I both distrusted and allied with in the arena in the previous movie, how are you?" , but also because he's a nervous wreck fearing for Annie during the first part of the movie, in stark contrast to his self assured appearance in Catching Fire. It belatedly occured to me this is also an effective way of not making the audience wonder why Plutarch doesn't use Finnick as well as Katniss for propaganda spots earlier than he does.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1031193.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
I'll first talk about the movie without book spoilers, so movie-only watchers can read it safely, but the last section in spoiler white (since I've now mastered the technique) will be with book spoilers and some speculation.
Probably the most striking thing to anyone not already familiar with the story from the books is that this movie presents a formula break, i.e. no more attempts to repeat the game scenario, the arena has well and truly shifted, and we're in a war film now. And not in any war movie, either. What I meant re: the Katniss as WWI soldier above is that she's not doing much actual fighting (though there is fighting done, more in a moment) - instead, she's barely out of the previous horrors, will eventually have to go back, and in between is in a questionable recuperative period, in short, she's Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfried Owen in Craiglockhart Hospital, especially Sassoon, becoming a spokesperson for an not entirely trusted cause. The new asthetics of the movie - District 13's drab uniforms (even for civilians) and tight space in underground caverns, contrasting with the colourful fascist glamour of the Capital and the open spaces of the arenas - heighten that WWI association, though they also carry with them something of Maoist China or Stalinist Russia, of course.
In my review of Catching Fire, I complained that the movie didn't take the liberty, in its final sequence, to go outside of Katniss' pov to actually show us District 12 being bombed, Peeta and Johanna getting captured etc, but instead let, as in the book, Katniss find out per report. I withdraw this objection retrospectively now, because the sequence of Katniss visiting the bombed-into-smithereens District 12 for the first time is harrowingly effective and probably wouldn't be as much if the audience had been prepared for the result. (It's also entirely silent, trusting Jennifer Lawrence's acting to convey all that Katniss feels at this sight, and all the more effective for it.) What this movie does and the last one didn't, however, is to actually show us the various districts starting their rebellion. This may be partly due to simple target audience necessity - you would not have any fighting sequences otherwise, and at least part of the audience would feel cheated - but it's very effective and makes it believable the revolution is well and truly taking off and has a shot at winning despite the Capitol's superior technology.
Taking further advantage of the ability to leave Katniss' pov, the movie gives us more Snow (Donald Sutherland continues to be in evil form, and I continue to love that the movies include his granddaughter with the Katniss-fangirling hair style as a physical presence because of the great set up this is), more Plutarch Heavensbee, more Effie (she gets Fulvia's role from the novel here, which makes sense since the previous films never fleshed out Katniss' prep team but did flesh out Effie) and most importantly, more Alma Coin than Katniss' first person pov in the novel could have left us see. Coin is the big new addition to the cast, and I think what the movie is doing with her is more subtle than what the book does, but it's impossible to discuss just why without spoilers for the second half of the novel, so more on her below. For now, let's just say Julianne Moore does a great job, and that the movie by giving us scenes like the one where Coin during the Capitol's bombing attack keeps her head and figures out the most effective strategy instead of panicking and playing her hand too early show why she rose to the top to begin with, and why her people respect her. As for Plutarch, he continues to be the character whose background and pov I would be wildly curious to learn, even if Philip Seymour Hoffmann were not playing him. Which he does and so well you're not thinking of the actor's fate while watching, not until the credits bring it home again he's gone. That the rebels are as wise to the needs for effective propaganda and as ruthlessly determined to use Katniss as the Capitol was is such an important (and refreshing) plot point in the book, and Plutarch, ex game master and current propagandist in chief is the embodiment of that ambiguity. (As are Cressida, played by Natalie Dormer whom it is always a pleasure to see, and her film team.) The movie points out how emotions for a "good" cause are manipulated in exactly the same way they are for a "bad" one, and Plutarch's scenes with Coin, persuading her after her early disappointment in Katniss that they do need her for their propaganda, are a mirror to his scenes with Snow in the previous movie. But the film doesn't treat him as a superior all knowing puppeteer; his humanity effectively conveyed both in his scenes with Effie (in which Elizabeth Banks rocks, btw), where we see him visibly doubtful, then putting his game face on before entering her room, for example, or his reaction to the bombardment of 13 where he's with Coin in the command center but extremely uneasy and barely repressing panic, which makes sense because Plutarch, child of the Capital, has never lived through something like this before (only on the other side of it as a game maker). It makes Plutarch a real person, not just a plot point about the moral ambiguity of the rebels. One more example: during Coin's speech after the successful rescue operation of the Victors, Effie, who is standing next to him, notices he's eagerly mouthing Coin's drafted-by-him speech with her (dystopian reminder of a West Wing scene where Toby Ziegler does this with Jed Bartlet), and her expression is priceless. (The Plutarch and Effie dynamic the movie comes up with is a great addition which does not exist in the novel.) I just hope they have enough footage shot with PSH to include Plutarch's reaction to certain upcoming events, because again, the book due to Katniss' first person pov couldn't tell us but I do want to know, now more than ever.
I mentioned earlier that the movie trusted its audience in getting what Katniss feels during her walk through the ruins of District 12. One of my criticisms is that it doesn't have the same trust re: Peeta in Capitol propaganda interviews. Yes, in the book Katniss-as-narrator describes his increasing haggard appearance (hinting at what gets revealed later in the book, and here at the end of the movie, i.e. that he was tortured and brainwashed throughout his time in the Capitol), but this is a visual medium, so Katniss' exclamations of how his voice changed and how he looks are doing double duty and seem overdone. Otoh, maybe not: a friend of mine who hadn't read the books still thought Gale was right about Peeta selling everyone out due to cowardice and for love of the luxurious Capitol life, as did the critic of the Süddeutsche Zeitung (both of whom are shipping Katniss/Gale, though), so I suppose the movie people had reason to want to be clear on Peeta not doing this for larks and because he's just that easily swayed. As I had guessed, the movie ends with the revelation of Peeta's brainwashing after he, Johanna and Annie were successfully retrieved (if you want to make a break in the Mockingjay story, this is certainly the only point where you can and it makes for a cliffhanger ending while still wrapping one part of the story up), and the intercutting between Coin's "Yay us!" speech and Katniss, herself still showing the result of Peeta's almost strangling her, staring at him raving in his straight jacket through the glass window, their faces overlaying each other through the glass, makes for an effective gutwrenching final visual. (Also a thematic point about just how damaged they both are at this point. Spoilery for the second half of the novel thought:I always thought that one major reason why Suzanna Collins had Peeta go through the "hijacking" (i.e. brainwashing) and torture was because the relathionship between him and Katniss, if it had continued the way it was through the first two books, would have been too uneven otherwise, with Peeta - though he did kill in the arena - the least damaged of the Victors, not morally compromised, and able to be unquestioning supportive guy while idolizing Katniss. Peeta post brainwashing, otoh, is as messed up and shell shocked as Katniss.
Speaking of intercutting: another very effective cinematic alteration to book events was the intercutting between Finnick's "I was a Capitol sex slave, so were other Victors, and here's a hit list of President Snow's Top Crimes"' speech and the rescue operation for the Victors, which not only removed the potential staticness of a confession speech - Finnick's tale is tremendously affecting in the book, but in a film if you have someone monologuing without moving, it's tricky, but also heightened the suspense especially for an unspoiled audience who doesn't know all three Victors will be retrieved and that in fact Snow planned for this. (Not to mention it removes the clumsiness of Katniss having to hear this via reporting, too.) The brief Katniss/Snow conversation the Finnick's confession/retrieval operation sequence leads into where she's trying to stall to buy the retrieval team escape time and you think he can't resist the chance to gloat until he reveals he actually knows what she's doing was fantastic, too, and made me look forward to the final big Snow and Katniss scene in the next movie.
Which brings me to lots of speculation and spoilers for the second half of Mockingjay, book and film:As I said, Alma Coin is characterized with more subtlety in the movie than in the book, where her hostility to Katniss and the awareness that as effective a propaganda tool as Katniss is, Coin is too control obsessed not to want to be rid of her once victory is accomplished mark her as an antagonist from the get go. Here, Coin's initial hostility is earned by Katniss outright refusal to cooperate at the start when so much is at stake, and she drops it once Katniss is doing Mockingjay duties, is friendly without overdoing it so it doesn't feel fake, and later showing downright compassion in a movie-only scene where Katniss is waiting for news from the retrieval team. You also see her acting as a competent leader, see above, who's earned her people's support, and her wry sardonic dialogues with Plutarch show a self awareness about using him using her. At the same time, there are also indications as to what will happen; Coin's public speeches are filmed in exactly the same way Snow's speeches are, with identical aesthetics (minus the drab surroundings of District 13, of course, her white hair echoes his - and white generally is a negative colour in this 'verse, associated with Snow as it is, which is also why Peeta is dressed all in white for his first propaganda tv spot - , and if you've read the book, you know that the way the Capitol's destruction of the hospital in District Eight galvanizes both Katniss and the population won't be lost on her. Not for nothing is the camera showing Prim in her new medical staff dress during Coin's last rallying speech. All of which will make it imo both more suspenseful and gut wrenching when Snow during their last confrontation tells Katniss that it was Coin, not him, who ordered the destruction of the medical unit (and thus caused Prim's death), because for a movie audience, it will be far more questionable whether or not he's telling the truth. And it probably will be for Katnisss, too. In the book, what settles it for her is Coin's subsequent suggestion of one more Hunger Game with the Capitol's children as punishment and to satisfy everyone's revenge urge, but she tends to believe it before that because her distrust and dislike of Coin, and awareness she would have been more use to Coin as a dead martyr at this point than as a living inconience, is too well entrenched not to. Based on this first part, I can imagine Mockingjay II will have both Katniss and the audience far more emotionally torn about Coin, with Coin's suggestion re: revenge Hunger Games coming as a genuine emotional betrayal and only then settling that she's as bad a prospect for Panem as Snow. Given the big twist of Katniss killing at the end not her arch nemesis through three volumes, Snow (though he does die), but the leader of the rebellion, Coin, establishing Coin as a character the audience to some degree cares about was really important and I applaud the fact the movie managed this.
Lastly, unspoilery trivia thoughts:
- Haymitch's reentering the narrative with in the "and thus a revolution dies" scene of Katniss' bad acting during the propo was a demonstration of how you make your audience long for one of their favourites for just the right amount of time before letting him reenter in style
- the musical setting of Katniss' Hanging Tree ballad isn't at all like I imagined it, but incredibly effective
- Egeria as Snow's new right hand woman doesn't have many lines but is played by an excellent actress who conveys just how afraid of him she is while trying to come across as a self assured minion
- as in the book, Gale has a far larger role here than he does in previous volumes, and is mostly Devoted Best Friend, but at one point reminds me why I could never ship Gale/Katniss. "Because that's the only way I can get you to pay any attention to me. When I'm in pain. Don't worry, Katniss. It'll pass." Oh, screw you, Gale.
- during the first scene with Finnick, the audience member next to me whispered "who is he again?"; partly because the movie expects you to recall who Finnick is as opposed to giving Katniss an "As you know, Bob" line like "oh, Finnick, my fellow Victor from the Games whom I both distrusted and allied with in the arena in the previous movie, how are you?" , but also because he's a nervous wreck fearing for Annie during the first part of the movie, in stark contrast to his self assured appearance in Catching Fire. It belatedly occured to me this is also an effective way of not making the audience wonder why Plutarch doesn't use Finnick as well as Katniss for propaganda spots earlier than he does.
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1031193.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.