And so is Jennifer Lawrence (“X Men: First Class”) in the starring role as the arrow-slinging heroine in this ongoing expansion of the final book in the trilogy written by Suzanne Collins, now stretched out in this first of a two-part finale.
For those of you who have been living in a cave, “The Hunger Games” takes place in a dystopian future North America known as Panem where war ravaged the countryside until peace was resorted through the sheer will of a cynical leadership that placed its poor and wretched people into 12 “districts” and created an annual competition—“The Hunger Games”—which pitted two young representatives (between the ages of 12-18) from each district in a futuristic battle dome in which only the finest warriors survive in a battle to the death.
Enter the iron-willed Katniss Everdeen from District 12 where, with her partner Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), unleashed her bow and arrows to deadly effect. Her symbol, the Mockingjay, instantly because a sign of hope among the impoverished people of District 12 and beyond.
When we last left Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in the “Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” civil war has broken out among the districts when she once again was the last person standing in the Hunger Games battle dome and her would-be lover Peeta was captured and is now a pawn of the evil President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland).
Whew.
This is the first time I’ve ever had to provide a running commentary of past movies like “Harry Potter” but “The Hunger Games” demands it as the ongoing story is extremely interwoven and complex with varied sub plots galore.
Think “The Godfather Trilogy” and you get the idea.
And just one of the sub plots is truly worth mentioning yet tragic to see on the screen, that of Plutarch Heavensbee, the traitorous confidant to President Snow, played by the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman who died of a self-inflicted drug overdose earlier this year. It is bittersweet to see Hoffman, 46, on the screen as his talent will clearly be missed.
Clearly this is a Jennifer Lawrence film and rightly so. As the Academy Award winning actress continues to become more comfortable with the camera, we the audience are given a richer, more developed
Katniss. With District 12 firebombed out of existence, Katniss is now the full face of the rebellion and reluctantly takes on this role under the leadership of the rebellion’s leader, President Alma Coin (played dispassionately by Julianne Moore) and the advice of her most trusted allies, including Woody Harrelson returning as Haymitch Abernathy, himself a previous winner of the “Hunger Games.”
Throughout the “Hunger Games” films, you have the innate goodness of Katniss and only when she is pushed over the edge does she flight back and there is plenty of that in “Mockingjay Part 1.”
Like Captain America, Katniss is the living breathing symbol of freedom, of hope.
Take her out of the equation and the rebellion dies with her.
Casting aside all of the explosions, the shootings and the outbreak of war, this is Jennifer Lawrence’s movie and her reluctant transformation into all out warrior that brings the right stuff to “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.”
As in any great soap opera drama, questions abound. Will she rescue Peeta? Will the rebellion survive and take the final battle to the capital of Panem and a final confrontation with President Snow?
We don’t get all the answers in “Mockingjay Part 1.”
It’s only the set-up to the final round next year.
I, for one, simply cannot wait.
Long live the Rebellion!
Questions, comments or travel suggestions, write me at theruffolos@readingruffolos.com