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| Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part I |
First off, Mockingjay, the final book in The Hunger Games Trilogy, was not my favourite. I had issues with it from the get-go and it felt overlong. And the thought of it being split into two for the movie version seemed painful.
But Catching Fire, which was an excellent film, gave me hope and I wasn’t disappointed. Of course, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 was, exactly what its name suggests, merely an interlude to an expectedly more explosive finale and it fails to utilise the extra time to build on some of the important characters in the book. It is nonetheless a better watch than it was a read.
It differs from the book on many counts, some of which pay off, like it did with adding bits and pieces to Peeta Mallark’s (Josh Hutcherson) character in Catching Fire. Some of the departures will make fans of the books if not angry, then definitely unhappy.
Most of Mockingjay the book is told from the perspective of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) which keeps us a bit clueless about what is happening outside District 13 and in every situation where Katniss is not there. In the film, they have included various scenes that occur even without the presence of Katniss. The rebellion scene we see in District 7 as the lumberjacks scurry up the trees with the peacekeepers shooting at them, and then detonate bombs, is one of the added bits that add character to the film. The scene where another district blows up the dam and electricity source to Panem is also stunning. And the scene that shows President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), the leader of the rebel movement, responding to the air attack by President Snow (Donald Sutherland) to retaliate against the uprising is another scene from which we learn a lot about some of the characters in play.
When District 13 mounts a rescue operation for Peeta and the other winners of the Quarter Quell in the book there is no communication between District 13 and the rescue mission. In the movie, however, we get to see the whole operation in progress through a video feed. It made a world of difference in adding some much-needed action to the film.
Katniss visits District 12 much later and even then it was Plutarch’s (Philip Seymour Hoffman) idea to get her in the spirit of rebellion. It did not have any effect on the film as such except for, maybe, taking away Katniss’s agency.
Peeta’s appearances on television are a little different from the movie, including the time where he warns District 13 of the attack. In the book, you see Peeta’s blood spatter on the screen before it goes black... in the film it goes black even before that. Again, a pointless change.
We are glad they brought fan-favourite Effie back for the film (she is not seen till the end of the book when she preps Katniss for President Snow’s public execution), but they hardly gave her much to do.
Katniss and President Snow have a chat trying to upset each other while the rescue of Peeta is in progress. It wasn’t there in the book and it wasn’t necessary in the film.
The Gale-Katniss equation has been killed off as well. Gale means more to Katniss in the book than he does in the film. In the book, Katniss has to make a clear decision about who she wants more, Peeta or Gale. Here, it seems like she has already made a decision about choosing Peeta and it undermines the feel of the film.
But my biggest problem is with the way they have portrayed Alma Coin. Yes she comes across as an ice queen and as someone who is ruthless, but she is portrayed as an out-and-out hero. Which she is not. Her interactions with Katniss seem peaceful when they are supposed to be fraught with tension. After all, it was her attitude and the extremely strict discipline in 13 that made us dislike her.
But there is an entire movie (Mockingjay — Part 2, next November) to go and it has the best parts of the book. It can only get better, right?
