Before I get started on this review, let me say that I knew this was coming. In the last Hunger Games movie I reviewed, I said that I thought separating the final book into two movies was a mistake.
And I was proven right.
Jennifer Lawrence returns as Katniss Everdeen to live out the second part of the Mockingjay novel, which if you’ve read it, you know it’s incredibly dark and depressing. The story finishes up the war between the district and the capital, as Katniss struggles with Peeta’s brainwashing and choosing between him and Gale. All the same characters are back, but more than a few don’t make it to the end.
The problem with this film is that there is literally no comic relief. Woody Haralson’s Haymitch is sadly absent, leading us to nothing more than a story of teen angst and overwhelming odds. It’s also a lot of repeat from the first two movies. And I mean a lot. The entire climax is yet another repeat of the premise that’s been repeated over, and over, and over again.
Also, the self-importance of this film is a bit much for me. It’s a bit like watching a college play about racism, where a bunch of idiotic newly political kids talk about race inequality like they discovered it. This is a film that thinks it’s more important than it is, rather than yet another movie about a dystopia that has heavy inequality between the upper and lower classes. The heavy handed sermonizing makes it sound like they’re the ones that discovered the fact that there was inequality between the classes to begin with.
The big problem here again, was the separation of the final book into two parts. As a result, the filmmakers were forced to stretch out the last half of a book into a full movie and the struggle to get it done shows.
I will say I was always dissatisfied with the ending in the novel series. I felt as though it started out strong and lost steam as the books progressed. I also found it annoying that whenever the author didn’t know how to transition a scene, she just has her heroine pass out.
I started to become concerned that Katniss was hypoglycemic.
The filmmakers did nothing to fix this. Instead, they followed the novel format, starting strong and then slowly running out of steam until the series close is decidedly anti-climactic.
It’s a disappointing finish for a story that should have been the ending of the last movie. And the studio is laughing all the way to the bank. Mockingjay Part Two came out on top at the box office, raking in an impressive $102 million. I can understand why they did it. I just wish they hadn’t.
In the end, I found this finale entirely disappointing and depressing. The Hunger Games started out strongly enough, but then failed to deliver in this final installment.
On the upside, at least it’s finally over.
WE GAVE IT : 3 STARS! Watch the Official Trailer and See the Official Movie Poster below
