So I disappeared for a while from writing movie reviews because I was busy writing and producing a web series. I was putting in sixteen hour days on set writing on the fly, helping direct scenes, and various odd jobs that needed done. The process was incredible with a huge team of awesome people working as hard as any crew could work with only the best of attitudes. And in the end, despite all the incredible effort, I won’t be totally sure of how people will react until it goes public.

What is completely sure is how much work and time and effort went into even a small film shoot like that. So when I watch a film like The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, I can’t even understand how it’s even possible. These things are herculean efforts of unreal complexity. The sheer enormity of just things like managing all the people involved is unfathomable. You add up a huge cast, massive sets, CGI of gigantic proportion, huge sound design, lighting, etc…. And to have it be as enjoyable and interesting as Mockingjay 1 is pretty incredible.

Who does your decorating evil President Snow?

Does that mean Mockingjay 1 is the best of The Hunger Games movies? No. And to a certain extent I’m getting somewhat annoyed that the final books of all these young adult fiction novels keep getting turned into two movies. Part 1 feels like just that: a part 1. With a year between films I don’t exactly remember all the details of the tiny characters. In an uncomfortable moment in an elevator, my friend Yo Kid K informed me I’m a bad moviegoer for not re-watching the previous films to reacquaint myself. My lack of clarity on the past only partially matters. What you need to remember is that there’s a girl, whom everybody finds inspiration from because she survived the Hunger Games twice. Also, she gave the middle metaphorical finger to President Snow, the president of the society of people with money.  Her name is Katniss Everdeen. She fell in love with the young and attractive Peeta who was captured while she was being rescued in the previous film.

There. Now you are caught up.

Who does your hair resistance President Coin?

Now that Katniss is in the care of the resistance, she needs to be convinced to lead the people against President Snow. They basically want to launch a public relations campaign to rouse the spirit of the downtrodden, using Katniss as the ad campaign cover girl. But she’s a hard sell. And by hard sell, I mean she’s willing to let the resistance die unless they agree to save Peeta. A constant reminder of which is Peeta’s appearance on national tv in increasingly ugly states where it’s clear he’s being tortured into compliance against the resistance.

So off we go – the resistance with their own president, employing Katniss to fight back at the government and their president.

It’s all very entertaining bang bang, shoot with arrows, cry on TV, save the boy, been double crossed stuff. I was never bored. But I was sometimes distracted by how drawn out the story felt. Does that make sense? I felt the movie went right along at a decent enough clip, but I wasn’t sure it landed anywhere that mattered to me. Maybe it’s because it didn’t feel like there was a goal. They did attack the government headquarters but it was to save Peeta, not really themselves. I guess the bigger goal of “win the war” happens in part two. In part one, Katniss’s sister goes back to save a cat during a big security lock down amidst battle. Ostensibly anyone caught outside the blast doors will die. Katniss goes after the sister. And thus the entire resistance is put at risk for finding a cat. These things are distracting.

It’s a decent film. Just a slight let down after Catching Fire was so good.

Let’s all blow stuff up, except you “camera man to my left.”

Watching Katniss get manipulated to find motivation to help the resistance is kind of weird. Like – I get that she never asked for this stuff… but didn’t she watch the previous films? She needs to be motivated? Seriously? And having a camera crew follow her around while she shoots spaceships down with her bow and arrow is awkward. Or having President Snow target her specifically is strange: demoralize Katniss and the resistance fails. This is the belief of everyone in the film. Young Adult fiction… yup.

Mockingjay Part 1 ends with a cliff hanger amidst grand set design, big sound design, great costume design, and evil plot design. They should release part Part 2 at the four month mark. Just long enough for this one to be out of theaters but not long enough for me to forget important details.

Anything this well made is fun to watch almost regardless. Luckily the remnants of the superior second film and a compelling enough story about the downtrodden finally fighting back against their oppressors keeps things interesting. At 123 minutes it feels like 120. Just about as long as you’d expect.