Movie Review: Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

Action/Adventure

Rated – M – violence

Duration – 137mins

Release – November 2015

Director – Francis Lawrence

Cast – Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Donald Sutherland, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Woody Harrelson


Mr Knight

I’m sad to say this will be the most negative review I will have and ever have written. One thing I can say for the Hunger Games saga is that they should have stopped making them after the first two. Mockingjay - Part One was in one word… Painful. Mockingjay - Part Two was no exception. The one thing it did overcome compared to its predecessor is that this part has much more action than the boring first.

Many things made me roll my eyes watching this one. Firstly, no behaviour or action or word spoken was done in this film with any common sense! Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) tried to kill Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) by strangulation after a good old fashioned brain washing by President Snow (Donald Sutherland) in part one. In this film, in a highly dangerous mission they decide to bring him along!! He is still highly unstable, wants to kill Katniss, and they bring him along! Ridiculous and poorly explained.

Spoiler alert, he murders someone in front of everyone trying to get to Katniss, and not one character says anything about it for a good five minutes and it was Peeta who broke the silence, and still, THEY BRING HIM ALONG!!

Secondly. I’m not a military man, but every tactical decision made and action in this movie makes me think they didn’t even get a consultant to guide the actors to look semi-professional and believable! They also have a tendency in this film to leave someone or anyone behind when the going gets tough. It’s disturbing.

Make up and costumes, whether they are described the same in the book, are sub-par. If I had to look at Julianne Moore’s terrible contact lenses and completely unnatural looking grey hair-do with white fringe for one more minute I would have walked out of the cinema! Not to mention the crappy grey jump suits everyone wears.

I think when it comes to teen movies they keep the script simple which makes for a terrible movie. Maybe it’s to keep to 13 year olds not confused. Either way, after the Harry Potter films got better and better, my standards for these teen sagas is perhaps too high. Just like my distaste for Twilight and the Insurgent movies this one seems underdone. I suppose when I feel some TV shows are better written with better actors I wonder why I bothered going to the cinema to see these ones.

The positives. Donald Sutherland still has a presence. He has a great evil smile and years of experience and talent over the rest. Liam Hemsworth has come along in leaps and bounds. He reminds me a bit of how I used to feel for Leonardo DiCaprio. I didn’t like him young, but the older he got, the better his movies and the more I loved his work. And lastly, seeing Philip Seymour Hoffman on screen again, possibly for the last time, rest his soul.

In this review I never said what the movie is about. To be honest, if you haven’t seen the previous three then this one is not for you. For those who have, the movie follows Katniss in her struggle with the Rebellion to take back the Capital and take revenge against President Snow.

The verdict. I’d wait not for DVD, but for TV. Too much hype for a movie with zero depth, written by amateurs. 





 

Mrs Knight

It’s hard to form my own opinion on this one, considering Mr Knight complained the whole way through and then continued to rant for an hour afterwards…But I have given it my best go and tried not to listen to him too much…

Without having read the book series, I think the biggest mistake was splitting the third book into two films. One of my biggest complaint was the length, there wasn’t enough happening for it to be split into two parts. I understand they were trying to build suspense in some of the battle scenes, but it was too predictable and I was left agitated wanting them to get to the point. Then other scenes felt too rushed.

Part 2 sees the war escalate and our hero Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) lead the rebellion to build an army against President Snow (Donald Sutherland). This meant there was a lot more action than Part 1 which made it immediately better. Unfortunately I found Katniss character weak in both the Mockingjay films so I wasn’t cheering for her like I was in the first two Hunger Games.

Mr Knight hit the nail on the head by pointing out the one thing it missed – humanity and chemistry. I felt nothing for the characters. In the first two I was cheering for Katniss, Peeta and other members. However, this film I felt nothing. Conversations were forced and unbelievable. The “love triangle” didn’t seem to exist as I felt Katniss’ love for Peeta was a friendship or sibling love and in no way romantic. Without being able to cheer for the characters meant I didn’t care if someone got hurt or died.

Despite all of this I would like to point out that I really wanted to like it. I LOVED the second one and really enjoyed the first. This one, like the others, is a simple popcorn flick. Don’t think about it too hard or over analyse it. It was entertaining enough, it just fell short in some areas. If you’re not a fan of the others though, don’t bother.