Mockingjay I (Film Review)

[selenak]

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

Comments

[bats_eye]

Yes, me and my dad went to watch this yesterday and were likewise very impressed. Lawrence is terrific and the film truly gives her room to breathe in it

[selenak]

Yes, there wasn't anything I would cut, either, and I agree re: Hobbit movies (both on enjoying them and the orc fighting being able to be cut down a lot).

the way Katniss's one act of martial heroism comes too late to actually save the hospital but is shown front and centre in the video, that her use is as a propoganda piece to be used by the rebel leaders not as a fornt line soldier, it's an unusually brave tack to go with your heroine.Yes, and I'm so glad they kept this from the book because that was one of the main things I found so refreshing about it. The classic tactic would have been for Katniss to mutate to rebel leader and master strategist in the last part, leading the battles - and it would have been both completely unrealistic and untrue to who she is as a person. She's been through the arena, yes, but she's never been trained as a soldier, let alone a commander. Her attachments are to people, not causes, and while she's outraged by the injustices of the Capitol, she wouldn't know how to plan military attacks against

[reverancepavane]

Having intentionally not read the book I felt that the film Peeta managed to convey that he was actually protecting others - it wasn't so much personal cowardice but the desire to protect the off-screen hostages (either the other victors or family). The luxury was stage dressing and he was on a very short leash. Actually the soldiers of Sector 13 were far more pronounced cowards given thy were still effectively hiding

[selenak]

Cressida was excellent I suspect she will be taking a more active role given the unfortunate passing of My Seymour.

Very likely. I mean, they said they have enough footage of him for Mockingjay II, but even if they don't they can rewrite so Cressida takes over some of his stuff in a way that makes sense.

It took the extra movie to hammer through the fact that they are not playing a game any more. No one is.

Yes indeed, and there wasn't a scene I'd consider expendable in this one.

[fallingtowers]

That's a great review, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I sometimes have the feeling that there's a bit of a Hunger Games backlash in fandom (which is probably inevitable for any popular franchise, or maybe it's just limited to a couple of spaces that I frequent).

Anyway, it's nice to see someone give the movies the due that they (IMNSHO) deserve. Good point about the colour symbolism - it didn't really strike me how many negative associations the colour white carries, but it's kind of obvious in retrospect.

It's also funny that you bring up "shell shock" as a point about Katniss. I recently had a lengthy RL discussion about THG, and we talked a fair bit about Katniss's passivity and mental state in Mockingjay, and I also brought up WWI and the history of PTSD.

I kind of find it both funny and annoying that so much of the criticism of Mockingjay focuses on Katniss's lack of agency and various nervous breakdowns in gendered terms. To read: You shouldn't write a female character who is so limited in her choices, so ignorant in

[bats_eye]

The way that certain elements of the media have taken the desire for more strongly charactised interesting female characters (which katniss without question is) as a desire for physically and mentally perfect female characters is reliably frustrating.

The writer of gone girl made the same point about how her evil antihero is deemed bad for women in a way that dexter and tony soprano or walter white are never accused of being bad for men.

And it trickles down to the authors is the worst of it, I think Abigail Nussbaum made a point in her review of the first book of just how many good qualities Collins has to give Katniss in order to get people to sympathise with her given her role, and it's still not enough for some, whereas a male main character in a novel about the same kind of material (shellshocked combat veteran, etc) is allowed to be far more flawed without risking losing the audience's sympathy.

[fallingtowers]

...certain elements of the media have taken the desire for more strongly charactised interesting female characters (which katniss without question is) as a desire for physically and mentally perfect female character.

Yes, I think you're on to something there, and it bugs me to no end. It's a different way of putting women on a pedestal, and I find it especially frustrating that it sometimes comes from people who loudly claim to be feminist. Which is why a female character should never ever do something that doesn't measure up to an imaginary gold standard of role model behaviour, whose goalposts keep shifting every day.

I think Abigail Nussbaum made a point in her review of the first book of just how many good qualities Collins has to give Katniss in order to get people to sympathise with her given her role, and it's still not enough for some.Yes. THIS

[selenak]

Ironically, this reads very much as a female character with a male-encoded narrative to me: the young recruit, fresh from the trenches and too damaged to fight. So it's kind of encouraging to see that I wasn't simply making that up.

No, absolutely not. And I think if Katniss were a male character there would be praise about the realism of the story in allowing him to suffer the consequences of being put through so much. (Just a quick thought: I don't know whether you've watched Iron Man III or read the reviews, but something eveyone I read praised was the good continuity of letting Tony Stark go through PTSD following Avengers and nearly dying. Everyone thought that was a great touch.) How many people loved Regeneration, both the book and the film? How often is the shellshocked WWI soldier archetype evoked this year alone?

Speaking of, yes, right, Craiglockhart Hospital!