The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

My friend keeps telling me that I should never see the private photos of Jennifer Lawrence that were leaked on the internet a few months ago. He said that he raced to his computer to see them for himself and once he did, he realized that they were far more graphic than he anticipated. Now she's forever ruined in his eyes because he can never get that image out of his head. Well I immediately let him know that the description of what he told me he saw on his computer was already planted in my head from the very first time I saw her on screen. As a matter of fact, every time I see Jennifer Lawrence anywhere, I always run through a gambit of scenarios where that image winds up being the final result! This explains why I go see young adult movies like The Hunger Games on opening weekend; it's certainly not because of the cheesy love triangle, although that may or may not have been a scenario in my head to.

They really should run a "last week on the Hunger Games" intro before each one of these movies because I never remember a darn thing from the previous movie. It's just like all of those Harry Potter movies that came out, sure they were fun but they contained nothing of true substance that sticks with you, so you immediately forget everything you just witnessed in the theater the second you walk out. Heck, my buddy actually read the books and he feels the same way.

But this movie apparently picks up right where it's predecessor left off and now Katniss is with the resistance. She is struggling with the fact that she survived the last games and that she had to leave Peeta and a few of their friends behind to do so. The rebel leaders are trying to convince her to be the face of the resistance but she is hesitant given the fact that she feels she let her friends down. But after the leaders show her how the Capitol destroyed her home district, she eventually agrees and a full on revolution is about to take place.

And that's it. For two hours an MTV camera crew follows her around as she looks at rubble and random sick people as she goes from district to district and they film her as she says fresh things like "fire is catching!" There are very few battle scenes, which is odd for a movie about a revolution but there is one cool Call of Duty esque scene where a rescue mission enters the capitol during a blackout.

Outside of that, the only other event that inspired any action was when Katniss started singing what sounded like a Tracy Chapman cover, some song about a hanging tree. I would have preferred some Rick Ross or maybe Bow Down by Westside Connection; now that would've gotten me pumped up to go bomb some fools!

Also, when Julianne Moore was given one of her many awkward motivational speeches, they really should have ended with a rave/orgy scene like in The Matrix Reloaded. All they needed to do was replace Moore with Shaq and have him yell "Can you dig it!" over and over again. My buddy suggested that if they did that, then Kobe would also have to be President Snow.

The point is, this movie really shouldn't have been this long. They could have easily condensed it to 45 minutes and made the Mockingjay one long movie but we all know that they broke it up to make more money.

So be like me and the rest of the idiots out there and go see it; if for nothing else to hear the Chapman cover song. Believe it or not I actually liked the movie and I rate it as FRESH.