Katniss is back and ready to wrap this shit up! Who will she pick Peeta or Gale? Will she defeat the capital or die trying? Will the second part of the third movie make it ok that we had to wait for so long? All these questions are answered in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 2.
If you haven’t seen the first 3 movies in this quadrilogy (trilogy for 4 movies?) stay away because you will be confused; but fans will appreciate that this film starts off right where we left Katniss who was almost killed by a crazy Peeta (Spoilers). From there we join the rebellion as Katniss rallies the troops to take out the empire…. I mean capitol. I don’t want to give too much away but that’s the basic plot.
Fans of the books will be happy with this adaptation, stretching the movie into two parts lets the plot follow the source material closely. The problems I had with the film’s story are the same problems I had with the books and the previous movies. One structure issue is that I never bought into the Gale vs. Peeta love triangle; I think the real focus should be Katniss’ love for her sister. This love triangle always overshadows the sister relationship and I think this is even truer in these films vs. the books.
The action scenes for Mockingjay part 2 are some of the best in the franchise, giving real stakes to the rebellion. Strong acting fills in the gaps between action sequences and the chemistry between the veteran casts sells some of the weaker dialog. In my screening there were some moments where people laughed because the lines got a little too cheesy during serious moments, but overall I think the cast worked well with what they had.
(mild SPOILERS for the ending)
My favorite part about the movie was how well they visualized the ending of this story. The key scenes from the book leap off the page perfectly into the movie and are powerful to look at. They also tweaked the epilog of the book and gave that a little more time to build so it was more believable and felt more complete by the time the credits roll. I think fans of the books will love it and people who just saw the films will be satisfied! #TeamPeeta
Overall I loved this franchise and although I wish Mockingjay could have been just one movie, I liked this final installment. Fans of the books will be happy, film fans will be happy, I am happy. Mockingjay gets 4 arrows to the heart out of 5.