The final installment of The Hunger Games series came out and reminded me of the important lesson that not every young adult book turned into a movie needs a finale in two parts. It worked for Harry Potter because the books kept getting longer and longer with each installment until you could use the final book as a bludgeoning instrument. Harry Potter had other differences too, like good writing, but I won’t dive into a comparison. Instead I’ll talk about what the movie did right, what it got wrong, and what caused my overall “meh” feeling about the movie. I always assumed this went without saying but some comments to some past Facebook posts made me realize that it’s not obvious. So let me say that my reviews are my opinion and if you liked something I didn’t like then good for you. Honestly. I’m glad you have found something you like that brings you some measure of joy. But if you don’t like my reviews, don’t read them. But thank you if you at least tried. Now on to the review.
See that poster? She’s wearing red. It’s ironic because she was one of the few people in the movie who wasn’t a redshirt. Before I even saw the movie it had been described to me as over two hours of sadness and death. This was only half true as I didn’t care about most of the characters enough to be sad. I’ve written reviews for Hunger Games movies before but I think that was before my time at Somewhat Nerdy. Also, I think I may have skipped Mockingjay Part 1 because I remember starting to write something but I don’t think I even finished it. So let me restate what I said on my old blog. The Hunger Games movies try their best to make me care about characters so I’ll feel something when they die but they do little to endear them to me. There were only four characters that I would have cared if they died and everyone else didn’t matter. This last movie was supposed to make the reality of the war against President Snow tug at our heartstrings but all it was was a predictable example of why sometimes one is better than two.
This didn’t have to be two movies. Not at all. In fact, if they had made it into one movie, it may have actually been better. There were two deaths that would have matter more and held a greater impact. The whole movie felt lackluster. Part 2 should have been this amazing culmination of everything they fought for but instead it felt like fizzled firework. The final assault on Snow’s mansion was a little tense but it didn’t have a payoff and as for the big ending, it never came. Okay, the movie did have an ending but for how big the others ended this one felt like sugar free dessert. There was no satisfaction. Even if I didn’t see it coming from the very beginning, it was still an oddly underwhelming ending.
The acting was just okay. The people who did the best jobs were Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, Julianne Moore as President Coin, and Donald Sutherland as President Snow. I think Jennifer Lawrence is a great actor but Katniss Everdeen is a boring character with as much personality as the Neutral President from Futurama. I blame the bland writing from Suzanne Collins. Katniss Evergreen wasn’t a character. She was a blank slate so young readers could put themselves in the book. So again, it’s not Jennifer Lawrence’s fault that her character sucks. She did the best she could. I would like to point out that Elden Henson (Daredevil TV show) did a good job as Pollux. He didn’t get a lot of screen time but the last scene he was in was one of the best ones in the movie. When the credits rolled I was left wanting. I guess you could say I was still hungry.
Let me preface this next part by saying I don’t believe Suzanne Collins stole the idea for her book. I think it was a coincidence. Even though I don’t like her writing, credit is due to Collins for taking an old idea (Battle Royal) and doing her own thing with it. As a fellow writer I’m glad she completed not one, but three novels and got them published and found an audience. I just wish that when they were turned into movies that they would fix the problems the books had. Make Katniss Everclear a human being with feelings and facial expressions. Do something to make me care about the side characters (besides Rue). And finally I wish they didn’t fiveshadow (which is my new term for blatantly obvious foreshadowing) the ending. I would have liked to have been surprised.
There were some things the movie did right. The movie looked great. The Capital was massive and looked real enough that it didn’t take me out of the movie. There were quite a few scenes that built tension really well and actually made me squirm a bit. Peeta and Snow were well developed and anytime they were on the screen it just made everything better. And finally the scenes with Phillip Seymour Hoffman CG’d in made me sad because he’s a fantastic actor we’ll never see again so I believe the film makers deserve credit for handing the use of CG tastefully.
I’ve mostly had bad things to say about this movie but it wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t very good. I didn’t hate it and I even quite enjoyed certain parts. But what frustrates me the most is that it could have been so much better. The Scorch Trials was a really good movie because the writers fixed the problems the book had. If only the Mockingjay writers did that was well AND didn’t split it into two movies it could have been amazing. This movie is worth viewing, but I’d hold off seeing it in theaters. It’s not visually impressive enough to warrant the price of a ticket. Save this movie for when it’s either on sale or streaming on Netflix.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 gets a 5 out of 11.