YMMV / The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Whether the rebel attack on the District 5 hydroelectric dam is a Suicide Mission or not. It’s clear that the rebels set timers on the explosives, but the scene is edited in such a way that whether or not they were able to get clear before the explosion & ensuing flood can feel a bit confusing.
  • While it's later revealed that he spared his cousin Tigris rather than having her killed or doing it himself, would Snow's own interests in making sure any dissension is dealt with promptly by means of execution extend to his own family too? Did he always hold this ideal and just make an exception for Tigris or did he develop this ideal after that? Would this mean that his granddaughter when untying her Katniss-inspired hairstyle thinking she'd be as expendable as anyone else when push came to shove is not insanely unfounded after all?
• Award Snub: Not anywhere near as controversial as the one for "Atlas" by Coldplay in the previous movie, but there was still a fair amount of disappointment toward Lorde's "Yellow Flicker Beat" not being nominated regardless.
• Awesome Music: Lorde's intense and focused "Yellow Flicker Beat" perfectly concludes the movie while setting the stage for the next one in the process.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Cressida. Being played by Natalie Dormer helps.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The film came out around the time when a grand jury chose not to indict the Ferguson, Missouri police officer who shot Michael Brown. Some of the resulting protests turned violent and Katniss' line "If we burn, you burn with us" has shown up in graffiti and in Tweets supporting the riots.
  • Protestors in Thailand have been arrested for using the Three-Finger salute seen in the films, and some showings there have reportedly been cancelled or banned.
  • In the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minnesota, Katniss's speech after the District 8 bombing got traction again, being used in compilation videos of the following protests that reached across all 50 US states and overseas countries.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Boggs protests on the make-up they put on Katniss for the propo shoot, point out that she's a teenager but they made her look 35. Jennifer Lawrence has made three films with David O. Russell, all in which she plays women older than herself, including American Hustle (mid-30s) and Joy (2015) (30s and 40s). X-Men: Apocalypse is another offender, where she's playing a character at least twenty years older, but can shapeshift to stay youthful looking.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Honestly, how many people bought "The Hanging Tree" on iTunes because of James Newton Howard?
  • The hospital scene for Cr1TiKaL's extremely minimal appearance (only his hand is visible during the signing part).
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Katniss' skype call to Snow. "President Snow? It's Katniss. President Snow? Can you hear me? President Snow? President Snow? President Snow?"
  • The hospital scene due to Cr1TiKaL being a background character in it.
• Narm: Has its own page.
• Padding: Some fans weren't happy with the book being split into two films and resulting in a lot of the first film just hanging around in the bunker waiting for the real story in Part 2. At times you can tell there wasn't enough material for two movies made of the book. In fact, much of the bunker scenes in Part 1 could be lost with little to no consequence.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Foggy Nelson fought the oppressive Capitol before joining Matt Murdock in Hell’s Kitchen. As did his twin brother Amos Burton who became a space mechanic.
  • Mahershala Ali wasn't an unknown at the time he starred as Boggs, particularly for fans of The 4400 and House of Cards. But his role in the Mockingjay films came just one year before his Best Supporting Actor-winning role in Moonlight (2016), which sent his career skyrocketing and made him much more generally recognizable.
• Signature Scene:
  • Katniss threatening Snow ("If we burn, you burn with us!")
  • Katniss singing "The Hanging Tree"
  • A hijacked Peeta strangles Katniss.
  • "President Snow? It's Katniss. President Snow? Can you hear me? President Snow? President Snow? President Snow?"
• Signature Song: "Yellow Flicker Beat" was intended to be this, but got pretty handily upstaged by "The Hanging Tree", which is almost certainly now the true holder of this title.

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