Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
Year: 2015
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Mahershala Ali, Natalie Dormer, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman & Donald Sutherland
Runtime: 137 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 08/07/20
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Mahershala Ali, Natalie Dormer, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman & Donald Sutherland
Runtime: 137 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 08/07/20
Where ‘Part 1’ films often feel too bloated with largely insignificant conversations in an attempt at building tension for the explosive finale, ‘Part 2’ films often feel like they don’t work as a film because it’s pretty much all action with very little story. Mockingjay Part 2 doesn’t fully buck this trend, though it certainly tries to appear more meaningful than just an extended action sequence.
Picking up where Mockingjay Part 1 left off, Katniss is hospitalised due to Peeta attacking her. After having done some research on him, the medical crew of District 13 determine that Peeta has been tortured with Tracker Jacker serum and now has false memories of Katniss which has prompted him to want to kill her. The Mockingjay propaganda is also working in unifying the Districts against The Capitol and all that remains now is for the resistance to make one final push through The Capitol and tackle President Snow head on. The problem is that The Capitol has been rigged with traps akin to a Hunger Games arena, so getting through without knowing where the traps are is going to prove difficult. Thanks to plot convenience Katniss’ crew thankfully have such intel and so begin to work through The Capitol as they negligently set off every trap they come into contact with despite knowing it’s there. Peeta is sent along for the journey with Katniss despite nearly killing her just a few days before and everyone seems fine with this for some reason, other than Katniss understandably. The order for him to join her comes directly from President Coin who begins to show her true colours, and so Katniss must intervene from allowing her to take over Presidency of Panem once Snow is out of the picture.
So, Mockingjay Part 2 clearly stumbles at the same hurdles other Part 2 films generally do which is that there’s not really enough story to spread out over a 2-hour film (or in this case, 2 hours 20 minutes!). Luckily to counter this problem the source material is infamously slow paced, so the first 40 minutes of the film is still just Katniss & Co. chilling in an underground bunker being sad. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite have the same urgency that Part 1 had with the conversations and so it feels like much of the first act of the film can be ignored and you won’t really miss much. Once the gang get into The Capitol the obligatory action set-pieces come into play and they’re actually pretty good for the most part. The problem is the story comes to a grinding halt here as nobody says or does anything that advances the plot besides the characters physically moving closer to their objective. The film’s final act really picks up quite a bit, but some may feel it pulls a Return of the King as it is almost entirely very long series of epilogues to close the story out. They are good epilogue’s I’ll give them that, but the story essentially ended with around 30 minutes of the film left.
Picking up where Mockingjay Part 1 left off, Katniss is hospitalised due to Peeta attacking her. After having done some research on him, the medical crew of District 13 determine that Peeta has been tortured with Tracker Jacker serum and now has false memories of Katniss which has prompted him to want to kill her. The Mockingjay propaganda is also working in unifying the Districts against The Capitol and all that remains now is for the resistance to make one final push through The Capitol and tackle President Snow head on. The problem is that The Capitol has been rigged with traps akin to a Hunger Games arena, so getting through without knowing where the traps are is going to prove difficult. Thanks to plot convenience Katniss’ crew thankfully have such intel and so begin to work through The Capitol as they negligently set off every trap they come into contact with despite knowing it’s there. Peeta is sent along for the journey with Katniss despite nearly killing her just a few days before and everyone seems fine with this for some reason, other than Katniss understandably. The order for him to join her comes directly from President Coin who begins to show her true colours, and so Katniss must intervene from allowing her to take over Presidency of Panem once Snow is out of the picture.
So, Mockingjay Part 2 clearly stumbles at the same hurdles other Part 2 films generally do which is that there’s not really enough story to spread out over a 2-hour film (or in this case, 2 hours 20 minutes!). Luckily to counter this problem the source material is infamously slow paced, so the first 40 minutes of the film is still just Katniss & Co. chilling in an underground bunker being sad. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite have the same urgency that Part 1 had with the conversations and so it feels like much of the first act of the film can be ignored and you won’t really miss much. Once the gang get into The Capitol the obligatory action set-pieces come into play and they’re actually pretty good for the most part. The problem is the story comes to a grinding halt here as nobody says or does anything that advances the plot besides the characters physically moving closer to their objective. The film’s final act really picks up quite a bit, but some may feel it pulls a Return of the King as it is almost entirely very long series of epilogues to close the story out. They are good epilogue’s I’ll give them that, but the story essentially ended with around 30 minutes of the film left.
Mockingjay is a film that should not have been split into two parts. The book barely justifies being around 400 pages long let alone having what is essentially a 4-hour 30-minute film dedicated to it. It’s not like they spend a lot of time utilising some of the more interesting character developments of the second half of the book anyway, because most of The Capitol sequence is dedicated to running away from things.
To top this off its perhaps the least faithful adaptation of the entire series with character motivations changing all because it justifies having the film be two parts.
I also hate how Katniss is still in love with Gale! It makes literally no sense come this point in the story. He’s a massive asshole throughout the entire film (add that to the severe gaslighting in Catching Fire) and ultimately ends up being the one to kill Katniss’ sister because he was too busy being the solider that gets to organise bombing passes. Whilst that’s finally the straw that breaks the camel’s back, it angers me that the love triangle is brought to the forefront so much in Mockingjay because Gale is such a terrible person, and Katniss never really shows him any true affection anyway. It wasn’t even all that different in the book so it can’t be justified for that either.
Again, this is primarily the Jennifer Lawrence show. With her being a heavily established A-lister at this point and the film’s most bankable star I’m sure they were trying to milk her screen time for every penny’s worth. It’s acceptable because Lawrence is a great actress, but you begin to question why the other characters are there because most of them don’t talk and the one’s that do often don’t really contribute anything worthwhile. It’s great to see Josh Hutcherson back as Peeta. He was mostly absent from Mockingjay Part 1 as he was the McGuffin that Katniss needed to find. He also gets to play the most emotionally complex Peeta yet as he is unsure what is real and what isn’t, making for some really good scenes that could swing either into a slower and sadder style drama scene, or a high-octane action sequence because he’s trying to kill someone.
The final verdict is Mockingjay Part 2 is really only worth watching if you’ve come this far. You may as well see it through to the end, and it’s a good end too, but you have to sit through two unremarkably average hours to get there. You’ll likely forget most of the film in less than a day, which is a shame as it’s such an underwhelming end to an otherwise pretty good series.
To top this off its perhaps the least faithful adaptation of the entire series with character motivations changing all because it justifies having the film be two parts.
I also hate how Katniss is still in love with Gale! It makes literally no sense come this point in the story. He’s a massive asshole throughout the entire film (add that to the severe gaslighting in Catching Fire) and ultimately ends up being the one to kill Katniss’ sister because he was too busy being the solider that gets to organise bombing passes. Whilst that’s finally the straw that breaks the camel’s back, it angers me that the love triangle is brought to the forefront so much in Mockingjay because Gale is such a terrible person, and Katniss never really shows him any true affection anyway. It wasn’t even all that different in the book so it can’t be justified for that either.
Again, this is primarily the Jennifer Lawrence show. With her being a heavily established A-lister at this point and the film’s most bankable star I’m sure they were trying to milk her screen time for every penny’s worth. It’s acceptable because Lawrence is a great actress, but you begin to question why the other characters are there because most of them don’t talk and the one’s that do often don’t really contribute anything worthwhile. It’s great to see Josh Hutcherson back as Peeta. He was mostly absent from Mockingjay Part 1 as he was the McGuffin that Katniss needed to find. He also gets to play the most emotionally complex Peeta yet as he is unsure what is real and what isn’t, making for some really good scenes that could swing either into a slower and sadder style drama scene, or a high-octane action sequence because he’s trying to kill someone.
The final verdict is Mockingjay Part 2 is really only worth watching if you’ve come this far. You may as well see it through to the end, and it’s a good end too, but you have to sit through two unremarkably average hours to get there. You’ll likely forget most of the film in less than a day, which is a shame as it’s such an underwhelming end to an otherwise pretty good series.