How do you waste one of the most exciting young actresses of our time — not to mention the time and money of millions of moviegoers?
“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1” accomplishes this by turning Jennifer Lawrence’s groundbreaking woman warrior, Katniss Everdeen, into pretty much a spectator in this insufferably dull penultimate installment, which thinly spreads a half-hour’s worth of plot over two plodding hours.
Like the next-to-last episodes of the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, this snoozy slog arbitrarily cuts the third book in Suzanne Collins’ trilogy in half for no good reason other than cleaning up at the box office one more time. Not that that will stop diehard fans, though those who get dragged along should be prepared for a good nap.
You probably know from the trailer that Katniss, who has given up the Hunger Games to become a full-time revolutionary, shoots down a bomber with an explosive arrow.
Unfortunately, that’s about all Lawrence gets to do in the action department. Mostly she mopes, makes speeches, cries, sings songs and tapes public service announcements on half of the revolution led by District 13 president Alma Coin (Julianne Moore, slumming with what looks like Meryl Streep’s leftover gray wig from “The Giver”).
Lawrence spends an unconscionable amount of time sitting in what resembles a huge parking garage listening to well-paid returnees Philip Seymour Hoffman, Woody Harrelson and Jeffrey Wright delivering boring exposition. And watching her former fellow tribute and love Peeta Mallark (Josh Hutcherson) — who’s been brainwashed at the behest of Panem President Snow (Donald Sutherland) — being interviewed on TV by smarmy Stanley Tucci.
Aside from Tucci and Elizabeth Banks as Katniss’ stylist, the camp and glam factor of the first two films has been dialed down to near-zero, and there’s the barest hint of political satire this time around. Instead, what we have is a rather grim and humorless version of the lesser action films derived from young adult novels that have flooded the marketplace.
And there’s a positive famine of action in this “Hunger Games” — the big set piece, an attack on a dam, is over almost before it begins. In the hands of returning director Francis Lawrence, an invasion of the Capitol is a non-starter. Drab and dimly lit visuals don’t disguise the fact that the special effects are very much less than state-of-the-art.
“Mockingjay” meanders its way as a lame romantic cliffhanger, but hopefully Jennifer Lawrence will actually be given something worthwhile to do next time around. That would actually be worth paying to see.