The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 [Movie Review]

Does every single YA book to movie series require a two part final movie?
Did it begin with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? I know it happened with Twilight (still the worst A-list movies I've ever seen), and it is happening with Divergent's Allegiance (also a really bad movie). I have no idea if the Maze Runner series will end the same way...

I'm not just evil, I'm overtly evil! I need a white cat to complete my ensemble.

I should start this movie review with my after movie experience. As I left the theater I overheard a conversation behind me between two girls, I think they might have been in college. 

2.5 out of 5 stars

Their conversation went something like "Oh my god, I had tears in my eyes when (something)." "I know, I was crying. It was sad."

The dreaded Boob-Armor. Found in YA sci-fi too.

That was not the same movie experience I had.
I laughed, a lot. Sometimes at the wrong spots. This was an unintentional comedy.

I mean it, there were so many unintentionally funny moments. I wish I could pick just one, but I can't. I did almost fall out of my chair when the biggest Trope of them all reared its incompetent head.

What.

There is a moment of purest absolute flat What. I'm not kidding. Catniss shoots down a jet plane (bomber) with a recurve bow and an explosive arrow. Not a compound even, not some super technological multiplies your strength by 1000x bow. A recurve bow and an explosive arrow.

What.

Ah, yes. Imperial Stormtroopers. I mean Panem Peacekeeprs.

But let us not leave off the great time honored traditional Trope of Going back for the Cat (or as TV Tropes calls it Heroic Fire Rescue). Just like when Jose Canseco couldn't play baseball because he had to save a cat in a burning house, our heroes Catniss, and Gale are almost killed because Primrose went back for the cat.

Ospreys are tough enough to fly, this would be painful.

Of course those were not the only moments of humor... there were loads of other ones. Including some actual intentionally funny scenes like the one where Plutarch is trying to get Catniss to act... and she can absolutely not act, at all. It was multiple layers of humor. Telling an actress who can act, to act like she can't act is some funny stuff. 

Then there is my technological confusion. 

The dead people in the red circle, one of the more dark and
impressive things in the film.

Does the Capitol of Panem lack any form of satellite tracking, satellite imagery? Are the planes from District 13 super stealthy magic planes - despite the fact that they are noisy as hell, and have two revolving rotors? Does District 13 have cellular / SMS texting service? I thought the Capitol was a technological powerhouse with its holograms and bio-dog-zombie things (first movie) and its genetically engineered bugs.  

Also, the 'bombers' sent by the Capitol (the ones up in the 'What' section) are more like ground attack aircraft, not bombers. They work more like the A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka: the Warthog). They have main guns they strafe the ground with, and what appears to be limited payload and ordinance.

This movie was just kinda painful all around. It was sluggish at times, there were silly scenes, but worst of all is the utter and complete shift of personality that takes place in Catniss. In the prior films she risked her life for others, was almost selfless as the heroine. Suddenly she is all selfish and centered on only one single person. All she cares about is the safety of one person - it takes a scene of a massacre to temporarily jolt her out of this. It was utterly irritating.

In many ways, I'm sad that this (and part 2) were Phillip Seymore Hoffman's last movies. He does a good job in the films.

Harrelson, Hemsworth, Hoffman, and Moore.

But of course, the worst part is that I'll end up seeing part 2. I cannot let a series go until I've seen the end, even if it is mediocre, or sometimes just plain bad. Considering I've never read the books (and have no intention of doing so), I cannot judge on how this movie is compared to the book. I've heard said that the Mockingjay book was the shortest... so it seems like a studio cash grab to make two movies out of the shortest book. It probably was. It probably wanted to just ride on the coattails of every other YA series that is doing it too... it is just too bad that not a single one of them have been as strong as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I cannot really recommend this movie. Maybe rent it before the next one comes out, or something?