Some thoughts on Mockingjay promotion...
The Hunger Games fandom has been pissed with how LionsGate has been handling the promotion for Mockingjay Part 1 and Part 2 - and I'll be honest, I'm very annoyed that we don't have more material to work with as fans savoring the last few months before the franchise ends.
But I think LionsGate's promotion has actually been brilliant, even from the first Mockingjay promotion, when we saw Peeta and Johanna with the Capitol propos.
In the books Katniss was dealing with the fallout from blowing out the arena, destroying District 12 and losing Peeta. Coin and Heavensbee are trying to get her to agree to be their figurehead. The Capitol doesn't have that same problem. They can force Peeta and Johanna into their propos. They're in full PR swing, trying to remind Panem that they depend on the Capitol and its generosity, remind them that there's not much of a revolution, just a rag tag bunch of rebels. So the first posters are Capitol propos - the district posters, Snow's speech, showing off the remaining victors, reflect that.
Even when Katniss finally appears in a Mockingjay Part 1 poster, her back is what's featured. She's reluctant and even knowing she has to play the game to protect Peeta, she's not in the full swing of things. But the revolution is becoming more visible. Districts are uniting and joining the cause. The star squad posters highlight that this is more sophisticated than just some rabble. Once Katniss actually engages in the propos (the bombing of the hospital) her interest in the actual revolution catches fire and the momentum of the revolution really starts, which we clearly see in the film.
And what happens after Peeta is brought to to District 13 and Katniss believes the boy she loved is gone? She throws herself completely into the war effort. She asks to be sent to District 2. To me this matches perfectly with her higher visibility in the Part 2 propos. Even in the ridiculous red suit (and I can't imagine how much distaste Coin must have swallowed when Heavensbee sold her on putting Katniss on Snow's throne), Katniss is doing her part. Losing District 12 and Peeta can't have been a worthless sacrifice. She's moving towards her endgame - end Snow.
For the movie fans, they don't have as much insight into Katniss as readers who have been inside her head. Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson do a great job of bringing Katniss and Peeta alive - but Gale's character doesn't really have much effect on the viewer. He's a love interest (kind of, and even LionsGate won't play it up to draw viewers, they're focused on the revolution aspect of the story), he hates the Capitol, he tried to save as many people as he could. IDK, I feel like we have a lot more insight in Effie than Gale - but then to Elizabeth Banks's credit she's way more compelling than Liam Hemsworth.
One of the best parts of Mockingjay is showing the production of a revolution - the way perceptions are manipulated. Even though the rebels have 'right' on their side, they're still playing a media war against the Capitol and it takes a lot to convince the Districts to unite against the Capitol when the Districts have been reminded daily for 75 years of the consequences of rebellion.
So it's very important to understand that at the end of it, things aren't magically better just because the rebels win and Snow is dethroned. Katniss realizing Coin isn't any better than Snow is more than just the victors voting to have one last Hunger Games with the Capitol's children. It's realizing that she's been manipulated, too. Even though Katniss knows she's playing a character for the war effort, even though she's inside the machine, she still doesn't see the whole of it until Snow tells her he wasn't responsible for the bomb that killed Prim.
There's a human cost to war - not just the lives that are lost, but the lives that remain after the smoke has cleared. Having that scene in Mockingjay Part 1 where Gale looks out over the graveyard that is District 12's ruins as he mourns the lives he didn't save... it's going to be striking when the viewer realizes he's willing to take as drastic measures to ensure his side 'wins.'
All of this to say... I kind of like how Lions Gate has tackled the promotion. I feel like it's actually better for people who have read the books because it underscores these things we already know. When we read 'Strategic thinking is our greatest defense against a surmounting threat. In Gale Hawthorne, we see a compassionate guardian, one who will safeguard the freedoms we stand for' we're aware of the irony, and what's being foreshadowed.
