'The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1' Reviews Are Mixed; Too Much Focus on Peeta?
One of the most anticipated young adult fiction films, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1," has met cinemas and eager fans went and watched the film. While most young adult audiences may enjoy the ruin of a dystopian oppressive leadership such as the Capitol, adults may not like the film, according to reviews.
The third "Hunger Games" film has taken the direction of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows," splitting the book into two films. BBC's Owen Gleiberman said that "Part 1 is basically all dragging exposition" after mentioning that at this point in the movie, Katniss is no longer sure she wants to be "the poster girl for revolution."
Everything that happened in the previous two films has lead up to the rise of the oppressed districts with the real possibility that the Capitol may be overthrown. The resistance asks Katniss if she is willing to become the icon of the revolution but she seems neither pleased nor interested. As Gleiberman points out, Katniss instead asks "What about Peeta? Is he alive?"
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"This moment has an unmistakably kitschy ring to it, and it speaks to the quintessence of young-adult fiction and why no real adult should take it seriously (though more than ever, they do). Civilization hangs in the balance, but what's really at stake is Katniss' feelings for Peeta – the dewiest of junior love stories," Gleiberman writes.
At the end of the previous film "Catching Fire," Katniss fired an arrow that shattered the forcefield covering the contest. Katniss had apparently "did more than bring down the Hunger Games," according to the critic. She "effectively eliminated the premise of reality TV as a death match – and the critique of it – that had been the liveliest element in this series so far," he wrote.
Gleiberman felt that the director "hasn't figured out how to turn the ragtag masses of Panem into anything more than a sodden tableau of oppression."
"I sould like I'm missing the point: it's all about Peeta! I just wish that wasn't the point," he concluded, giving the film 2 out of 5 stars.
