The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) ✦ Full-Length Watchalong Reaction
Added 2024-09-04 21:15:08 +0000 UTCI LOVE A GOOD PART ONE. We'll see you back here for Part Two next week! I'm looking forward to your comments. I can definitely understand why they've split this part of the story into two movies. [Direct link here.]
Thanks for watching!
✦ KL
Comments
I'm eager to pay more attention to Plutarch on rewatches! Theodore T-Bag Bagwell does sound like a super sketchy name LMAO. Good thing the character turned out to be a snake. I feel so bad for Peeta, dude. I'm sure the books are worse. But completely agree with you too! Thanks for all the details!
kaiielle
2024-09-18 21:07:25 +0000 UTCI agree, that rescue scene needed more time! And you know, now that I think about it some JLaw scenes were very emotional, but I didn't really notice it as being too over the top. She's been through a lot, understandably at this point she'd have a lot of emotions to let out, if she's bottled any in til now.
kaiielle
2024-09-17 00:58:02 +0000 UTCTotally valid!
kaiielle
2024-09-17 00:56:35 +0000 UTCPart 1 is such an uncomfortable watch but it also feels so real and the emotion so raw. Katniss seeing the destruction of District 12 and Peeta's slow decline with each broadcast are probably the most heartbreaking parts for me. I can't imagine going home and seeing everything reduced to rubble, skeletons everywhere, scorch marks and ash in place of everyone and everything I used to know. The thing that I appreciate about these films is that it starts small and grows bit by bit. In the first film, we focused on Katnis and Peeta with Gale on the side and a tiny bit of the unrest after Rue died. In the second film, we saw the effects the Games have on the survivors. And now in this one, we see the consequences that the Districts as a whole are facing because of the new rebellion. We felt sorry for Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch in Catching Fire because of the PTSD they had but now we feel sorry for literally everyone! Gale, Prim, and Mrs Everdeen had to watch their home be destroyed and their friends die. What's left of Districts 12 and 13 are forced to live underground, barely surviving. Meanwhile the Capitol is sitting pretty like nothing's wrong. I wonder if there was some rich family reading newspapers like "ha! silly rebels, bunch of folly I say". (Not sure why I went 1910's there LOL) Plutarch is so smart. His ability to use reverse psychology and not be caught is amazing. He's able to size up his opponent and patient enough to play the long game with them. He fooled Snow last movie and Effie this movie and had a constant back and forth with Coin. Yeah, that whole simulated green screen stuff was never going to work. It was too obviously fake. Taking her outside, making her film the propaganda in a real zone facing real tragedy and daring to defy the odds to say what she needed to say spoke to people way more than any CGI flag would. Of course, if Natalie Dormer was coaching me, Mahershala Ali protecting me, and Foggy Nelson was flashing his big goofy smile, I'd probably be in a slightly better mindset too rather than someone just shouting what I'm supposed to be feeling. You know someone's a snake if their advisor is Theodore T-Bag Bagwell. Robert Knepper is one of those actors that excels at being slimy. Taking Katniss to the hospital was a brilliant idea. It's sad that those people were punished by death but it also gave Katniss what she needed to be the Mockingjay. Stuck underground, bombers above, ceiling cracking... I'm sure no one shat themselves at all. At least the cat's having fun. So many great goosebumps moments this time around! "If we burn, you burn with us", "The Hanging Tree", and Snow stating he knew about the rescue mission - full body chills! Poor Peeta. He was tortured, brainwashed, weaponized, and now has to be unmade yet again to be put back together. How much can one mind take? The imagery of Peeta thrashing and screaming is heartbreaking. But it's also genius from a filmmaking point of view. We grew to love him over two movies and in this one, everything we loved was slowly stripped away and now being left with a violent, hollow shell fighting his restraints in order to complete his mission of killing Katniss rips apart all our good memories of him. We started with bleakness with a ray of hope and now it just looks bleak. We can't even rally with Coin because we're too busy grieving who Peeta was. Looking forward to the finale, can't wait to see your reaction to it!
Nathan Jasper, the Artist Formerly Known as Primary
2024-09-04 23:49:03 +0000 UTCI haven't watched the reaction yet. (Looking forward to it.) But I'll just say that while this is still a good movie, (and while I love the series as a whole) I think this entry is the most flawed. For one, the pacing kind of drags. Most people see this as a sign that they shouldn't have split up the final book into two movies, but I actually disagree. I think it would've felt more satisfying if they'd simply fleshed out the mission to save Peeta and Johanna. (As it is, we don't really see any of it.) I also don't understand why they went for the cryptic, "artsy" beginning - which makes the movie seem ponderous within the first few minutes. Also, while Jennifer Lawrence is great throughout this series, I think in a couple too many scenes here she was directed to react a little too hysterically to the situation. (Not that it's not realistic. But sometimes in a movie it can be a lot for the audience if that same emotional note is hit repeatedly.) This isn't her fault. I can easily imagine her doing these scenes with various deliveries, and for whatever reason, the director always chose the "emotions set to 11" ones. That said, I loved all the almost-meta commentary about propaganda and the media, and how Haymitch, Effie and Plutarch had to come together to fashion a public image of Katniss that she really wasn't feeling. Plus, the part when she took down the airship was straight-up awesome.
WastedPo
2024-09-04 22:00:20 +0000 UTCYeah, it's still got heart, and cast (Jennifer Lawrence is a queen!), and social commentary, and all the goodness. These last two are probably tied for second place in the trilogy, as far as I'm concerned.
Steve Mercier
2024-09-04 21:40:45 +0000 UTC👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 This movie slaps!
William
2024-09-04 21:23:24 +0000 UTC
