Mockingjay
Jan. 25th, 2018 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWe decided to knock out both Mockingjay movies in one day, which I think is the best way to watch them because they are really not complete stories in their own right - surely there had to be some way to cut them down into one movie? Surely.
I'm not sure what it would have been, and I suspect it would have involved deviating significantly from the book. At very least, a lot of material would have had to be cut. But - I can't believe I'm saying this - in this case, I think the problem is that the movies are too faithful to the book. The acting is still great, the production values high, the pacing well done, but the story is nonetheless a mess because the book, itself, is a mess.
The problem, basically, is that Katniss is an action heroine who has drifted into a modern war story - where the advanced weaponry makes individuals mere pieces in the war effort, and leaves little room for individual heroics. Even the propaganda heroes are replaceable cogs. What do you mean, District 13 sat on its hands waiting for Katniss to recover before they started making propaganda pieces? The war has to be coughing up martyrs left and right! USE THEM.
My impression is that Suzanne Collins has a lot of things to say about celebrity culture - which is why the first two books are good - but doesn't understand war, armies, why soldiers are usually supposed to obey orders, and why "but I really want to go to the front! I PERSONALLY NEED TO BE THE ONE TO KILL SNOW" is not a good reason to disobey direct orders to stay put. For God's sake, Katniss. You are not the only person Snow has wronged.
The movie seems to treat Coin's displeasure at Katniss going rogue as foreshadowing for Coin's own Dark Side turn, but Coin is 100% right - in fact quite restrained! - and all Katniss manages to do is get a bunch of people killed who might otherwise have survived. (Forever bitter about Finnick.)
But the biggest problem for me is still the ending. I could buy President Coin turning into a dictator over time: it's 100% plausible that she might declare herself interim president of an interim that just... keeps... stretching, because Panem never seems quite ready for that election. And, as time passes, she becomes stricter, more intolerant, the penalties for disagreement become higher, etc...
But that would take a long time, right when the story's supposed to be wrapping up, so instead we have President Coin deciding to throw one final Hunger Game to punish the Capitol. This seems like something she might (might) consider it if there were a public clamor from the Districts to make that happen, but instead she says she came up with the idea herself.
The authorial manipulation just strikes me as too obvious: Collins wants Katniss to have one last Big Damn Hero moment, so she makes Coin do something obviously evil so Katniss can shoot her.
And - speaking of court martials Katniss ought to face - I just flat out DO NOT BUY that Katniss would get off scot-free for killing Coin. (In the book, she does get in some trouble; the movie elides it, probably because they realized that there was no way to make these paltry consequences look realistic so they might as well ignore the whole issue as hard as possible.) Even if the rest of Panem doesn't care very much, the people in District 13 seem to love Coin. Surely they would be baying for Katniss's blood.
And no, I don't buy "the people of Panem love her too much to let her be punished!" Part of celebrity culture is the glee with which we rip celebrities apart once they have fallen. Especially given that the idea for the new Hunger Games hasn't been announced yet - Katniss looks like she's just shot Coin for no reason. What a beginning for the new, more peaceful Panem. It would be child's play to present Katniss as a bloodthirsty, power-hungry maniac whose sense of human decency has been destroyed by the Games.
I'm not sure what it would have been, and I suspect it would have involved deviating significantly from the book. At very least, a lot of material would have had to be cut. But - I can't believe I'm saying this - in this case, I think the problem is that the movies are too faithful to the book. The acting is still great, the production values high, the pacing well done, but the story is nonetheless a mess because the book, itself, is a mess.
The problem, basically, is that Katniss is an action heroine who has drifted into a modern war story - where the advanced weaponry makes individuals mere pieces in the war effort, and leaves little room for individual heroics. Even the propaganda heroes are replaceable cogs. What do you mean, District 13 sat on its hands waiting for Katniss to recover before they started making propaganda pieces? The war has to be coughing up martyrs left and right! USE THEM.
My impression is that Suzanne Collins has a lot of things to say about celebrity culture - which is why the first two books are good - but doesn't understand war, armies, why soldiers are usually supposed to obey orders, and why "but I really want to go to the front! I PERSONALLY NEED TO BE THE ONE TO KILL SNOW" is not a good reason to disobey direct orders to stay put. For God's sake, Katniss. You are not the only person Snow has wronged.
The movie seems to treat Coin's displeasure at Katniss going rogue as foreshadowing for Coin's own Dark Side turn, but Coin is 100% right - in fact quite restrained! - and all Katniss manages to do is get a bunch of people killed who might otherwise have survived. (Forever bitter about Finnick.)
But the biggest problem for me is still the ending. I could buy President Coin turning into a dictator over time: it's 100% plausible that she might declare herself interim president of an interim that just... keeps... stretching, because Panem never seems quite ready for that election. And, as time passes, she becomes stricter, more intolerant, the penalties for disagreement become higher, etc...
But that would take a long time, right when the story's supposed to be wrapping up, so instead we have President Coin deciding to throw one final Hunger Game to punish the Capitol. This seems like something she might (might) consider it if there were a public clamor from the Districts to make that happen, but instead she says she came up with the idea herself.
The authorial manipulation just strikes me as too obvious: Collins wants Katniss to have one last Big Damn Hero moment, so she makes Coin do something obviously evil so Katniss can shoot her.
And - speaking of court martials Katniss ought to face - I just flat out DO NOT BUY that Katniss would get off scot-free for killing Coin. (In the book, she does get in some trouble; the movie elides it, probably because they realized that there was no way to make these paltry consequences look realistic so they might as well ignore the whole issue as hard as possible.) Even if the rest of Panem doesn't care very much, the people in District 13 seem to love Coin. Surely they would be baying for Katniss's blood.
And no, I don't buy "the people of Panem love her too much to let her be punished!" Part of celebrity culture is the glee with which we rip celebrities apart once they have fallen. Especially given that the idea for the new Hunger Games hasn't been announced yet - Katniss looks like she's just shot Coin for no reason. What a beginning for the new, more peaceful Panem. It would be child's play to present Katniss as a bloodthirsty, power-hungry maniac whose sense of human decency has been destroyed by the Games.
