Movie Review: The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part Two (2015)

Hello All,

Before we begin I’d like to make a correction. I mislabeled Mockingjay Part One as a movie review instead of the complete series. I rushed into getting it done and I labelled it without thinking and I apologize.

So this weekend saw the release of the last Hunger Games film, titled Mockingjay Part Two (Obviously). I managed to squeeze in a showing after my original plans took longer than expected so I did manage to see it just in time thank god. So, after all these years and all this build up, how does the send off to one of the biggest young adult series end? Let’s find out shall we?

Plot Summary - After recovering from the end of Part One, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and the revolution prepare the final march onto the capitol, with many obstacles to overcome along the way she now finds herself with one last mission: To Kill President Snow Personally.

Pros - Since this is their last hurrah, the cast gives it their all and do it well. The last bit of character development and where everyone ends up is all well thought out and done well. The film also manages to capture the hard reality of war as well, as it manages to be rather bleak and somber about all of it, instead of everyone marching in heroic victory. It even manages to keep the story interesting for the most part.

Cons - Okay, some of what I might complain about might just be that I haven’t read the books, but since this is the movie version, the movie itself still needs to make itself accessible to non book viewers. So that’s my little rant.

    When they are in the capitol they talk about how traps are laid out all over, and yet we really only see four of them. Only two of them were really interesting, one had me completely baffled. They get attacked by these pale humanoid creatures with no eyes, and were not given any explanation as to what they are, so when they lose comrades it makes it feel empty because you’re confused as to what just happened. There’s also another character that they come across who's been modified to look like a tiger, and I think we’re given a hand explanation as to why. Also how Peeta and Katniss interact, and I know they’ve been building it up over the series, in the end it doesn’t feel like they’re in love it feels like they’re settling for each other. The ending also just kind of wanders off, it’s supposed to be an unknown future type of thing but it just left me feeling nothing really. While the story was interesting for the most part there’s also a lot of big things that are simply glossed over.

Final Score - 6/10

The best I can figure is that the movie will satisfy books fans, but as for someone who has only seen the movies I can honestly say I’m a bit disappointed. I guess I expected a lot more than what I got and while it’s better than the first movie, it’s not the greatest ending to a series I’ve ever seen.

DVD Review is next, and I’ll tell you why when the time comes.

Until then, I’ll see you folks at the movies.