The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 - Movie Review

(I do not own this poster)

Glad we are finally here. The conclusion of The Hunger Games Franchise. The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2.

Was it good enough?

Sadly, not quite.

Don't worry, I’m going to point out a few positives. I’m not going to completely destroy this movie; there are flaws and issues I still need to address, however.

Film Synopsis -  Realizing the stakes are no longer just for survival, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) teams up with her closest friends, including Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and Finnick for the ultimate mission. Together, they leave District 13 to liberate the citizens of war-torn Panem and assassinate President Snow, who's obsessed with destroying Katniss. What lies ahead are mortal traps, dangerous enemies and moral choices that will ultimately determine the future of millions.

The Pros

It was better than the book - As a Hunger Games fan, I am a hundred percent sure that the movie was better than the book. The book was convoluted and boring. The plot dragged, exhausting you as you go along, and you don’t feel the same force of threat as you felt from the Capitol from the second book, Catching Fire, my favorite in the entire trilogy. The Duology of Mockingjay represented us quite a few moments taken from the book, and the only difference is that the good moments were represented well than in the book.

They humanized Peeta’s character - Part 2 had more scenes with the character of Peeta. This is Josh Hutcherson’s best performance in this entire saga. They humanized the character Josh Hutcherson played, giving him layers to his character. You sympathized him and you felt sorry for him. I didn’t buy the romance between Peeta and Katniss in the first movie; Catching Fire successfully captured the love between them, and the final movie also did the same. In the end, I just had to accept it.

Finally, some action-packed sequences! - Mockingjay Part 1 focused more on the political subtext than the action. As I understood fully, Part 1 was the build-up to the finale. Part 2 is the movie where things finally happen. Some scenes were tension-filled, fast-paced, and exciting all at the same time. The sewer scene reminded me largely of the movie Aliens (1986) and I simply loved it. The final action sequence was explosive. Thank you, Francis Lawrence, I am glad you were shoved into the director’s chair for the final 3 movies.

Cinematography - Scenes were filmed way better than Mockingjay Part 1. There were also less shaky cam in action sequences! Francis Lawrence represented the action sequences much better than Gary Ross, The first movie’s director. It obviously improved over The Hunger Games and Mockingjay Part 1, but it sadly cannot beat how great Catching Fire looked.

(Impressive background of a large building, and the way it was shot was great)

Jennifer Lawrence - Jennifer Lawrence continued to impress me on her roles. She was born to play the role Katniss Everdeen. She was perfect right from the start from the first movie, and as the finale came, she hasn’t stopped making us not care for her character. She was extremely swift, and played her character with ease, and played it in such a realistic way, there is not a second I thought: “I don’t think she meant that.” Adored her ever since her feature film Winter’s Bones.

(Never ceased to disappoint me. Well done, Jen, you made her come to life.)

Neutral

The character of Katniss - We all love Katniss mainly because it’s Jennifer Lawrence. Thanks for admitting it. However, if you take away Jennifer Lawrence and have someone else playing Katniss instead, you might see a huge gap of difference. After all four movies, I have come to a conclusion that Katniss’ character is… well, boring. She’s a boring character with nothing of interest to really say. The only thing I feel like the book did well was a bit of humor, the tongue-in-cheek from Katniss’ character. In the movie, there's none of that. I will give it credit that Katniss’ character is not generic, so in the end it didn’t bother me a lot. The thing Catching Fire did extremely well was Katniss’ character. Her post-traumatic stress from the 74^th Hunger Games was interesting, and made us care for Katniss’ character by a lot. I wasn’t bothered as much about making Katniss’ character an interesting one, since Catching Fire existed. If it didn’t, I might possibly push back a little from liking Katniss.

The Sewer Scene - I don’t want to push to spoilers here. I loved the sewer sequence. It was possibly the best scene in the entire movie. If not, then it’s Top 2. I will say, however, in the end after thinking about that scene, an element of it didn’t feel like it should have existed in The Hunger Games universe. You might know what I’m talking about if you watched the scene.

The Grim, dark, and poignant atmosphere - This is possibly the darkest movie in the entire franchise. You don’t feel, even the slightest or the lingering of hope in this movie. It is a sad and depressing movie, and I find it slightly unacceptable. It weighs down the movie’s climatic experience, and I almost didn’t want to watch it. However, I will give it credit that The Hunger Games universe was never a happy world. What the other movies did well, though, was occasionally funny moments coming from characters we liked and went through for four years four movies. You can feel absolutely nothing from this movie. I understand what this movie aimed for; that not everyone has a happy ending. You can already feel that, from people like me who have read Mockingjay, and also from the beginning to end of the movie, you can already feel that coming. It seemed to do well preparing you the slap in the face to the audience.

(Exactly how you felt when you left the theaters after the movie)

The Cons

The minor and supporting characters - As the last movie, I expected to spend a little more time with these characters before we say goodbye to them. In this movie, they appeared, and… that’s it. Not a moment you feel from them. Nothing memorable from them, and I feel kind of sad. As cutting the movie to Part 1 and Part 2, you can’t rely on one part of having that character but ignore it in the other part. They are two standalone movies. Other than the plot, everything is needed to make the Part 1 and Part 2 worth it. That is something I will get to later. 

Similar to Part 1, except having a few moments - What you expect from Mockingjay Part 2 was when all hell lets loose. No, it's not that. It still felt like a build-up. It's pretty ridiculous. The plot dragged way too much, and without feeling climatic, it suddenly came, rushing to solve all the loose ends of the Hunger Games universe. Very uneven, and doesn’t feel like the fitting end to a great Young Adult Dystopian franchise.

The Pacing - The pacing of this movie was a bit horrific. In the end, it was some sort of 2^nd build up for something bigger, and I looked at it with ridicule logic, as it is the FINAL MOVIE. When the final action sequence finished, the movie did everything to tie up all the loose ends, solving every question in a rushed pace, and it felt like a sorry conclusion to me. It wasn't that great.

The ending - I liked how the franchise isn’t afraid to show us that not everyone has a happy ending. However, the ending dragged, way longer than it did with the plot of the entire movie. When you hoped it ended here, it kept going. To a point to absurdity and indulgent cheese. I do not like how the ending was presented, and I find it quite offensive for the saga.

However, the biggest issue I have with this movie is

Why did you split Mockingjay into Part 1 and Part 2? - This is an excuse of Hollywood to make more money. It's quite sad, really. I was expecting from the studios to bring us much more, because of the disappointment of the book of Mockingjay, but they just had to split it into two parts. That is the most issue I had, and it completely ruined the potential I hoped for in Mockingjay. It is completely unnecessary, and a major disappointment.

They purposely dragged the scenes along by adding the most pointless, boring and uninteresting dialogue to make the scenes longer, while adding to the space out of the character’s reactions to what the character was saying. It dragged, and dragged, making the audience exhausted. There is just too much of the script, and for a movie without having the biggest fight for a conclusion, it was extremely tiring.

Mockingjay was the book where things happen. I have no idea why they should put it to Part 1 and Part 2. In fact, I liked Part 1 better than Part 2, only because even though it comes short on the action front, and I understand it is building up something big and great - and it left us in exhaustive and major disappointment as we realize Mockingjay Part 2 is also about a movie where things happen. There is no perfect end battle, it left us rushed and forced.

The final movie could have been perfect if it is left with this: You merge Part 1 and Part 2 together, cut out at least an hour and 15 minutes of pointless dialogue, and that way you have a good movie. You made every character mattered, there are more moments, if you merge them together, and overall a great movie.  I would buy this movie with a smile on my face for a Part 1 and Part 2 movie that is three hours long. Waiting for another year before the 2^nd part coming out just isn’t worth the wait.

See, that is the problem; don’t unnecessarily cut the last movie into two parts. Mockingjay isn’t that long of a book anyway, and it is not exactly critically acclaimed either; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was a perfect way of Part 1 and Part 2, because the entire book blends in good action and good dialogue, and managed to make most characters appear twice, to make them matter on both Part 1 and Part 2. The build-up of Part 1 paid off, and we don’t even have to wait for a whole year before Part 2 comes out, and Part 2 is full of memorable moments, along with a climactic battle that was a spectacle; a stunning end for a Harry Potter movie. 

 

(Forced meme? I'm sorry, but I actually liked it)

Conclusion

The movie had some of their moments, with strong performances from actors and good action sequences. However, in the end, for the most part, it was anti-climactic, sometimes boring, and extremely exhaustive. In this over-hyped conclusion to a Quadrilogy, the plot dragged way too much and rushed to solve all the loose ends.  This movie had moments, but I can’t quite give in the fact that all we’ve got was an above mediocre conclusion for such a great saga.

I’m going to have the balls to give this movie a slightly lower rating than usual. If you think I'm not, then your instincts are dead wrong.

The Pros - 5

Neutral - 3

The Cons - 5

Rating: RENT AWARD (3/6)

In the end, after viewing The Hunger Games Saga as a whole, I would have still called it impressive, even though The Mockingjay movies were disappointing. In the end, to what I would have definitely preferred Mockingjay Part 2 as the best one, after viewing it, I would have to go for Catching Fire instead. Catching Fire was the greatest of the entire Quadrilogy. I’m thinking of reviewing that movie later.

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