“THG Mockingjay Part 2” Review // Exciting yet unsatisfying

 

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“Katniss Everdeen. A small town girl from District 12 who survived the Games and turned a nation of slaves into an army!”

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The Hunger Games Mockingjay: Part 2

Release Date: November 20, 2015

Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Screenplay: Peter Craig, Danny Strong, Suzanne Collins
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Rating: PG-13

I don’t think I need to go into the plot for this movie, you all know what it is and what it’s about, so I’m just going to dive into my review.

If you haven’t read the books or seen this movie, don’t continue, there ARE spoilers

The movie did not stray too far from the book. Major changes included the way Katniss gets to the front lines; there’s no long training scene, she just simply sneaks away on a medical transport. I’m okay with that, it made the movie progress faster. A few characters weren’t introduced, which I’m also okay with because we’re in the 4th movie, we don’t need even more new characters. I understand that they have to tweak a book to make it an appealing movie, so usually I’m not too bothered by those type of changes, as long as it sticks to the overall theme/plot (unlike Insurgent, which basically changed the entire book’s plot).

This movie was fast-paced and action packed, it definitely kept me interested – unlike it’s predecessor, Mockingjay Part 1, which I actually include in my list of worst YA book-to-movie adaptations. It had moments of suspense and times it tugged at your heart-strings a bit. However, I left the theater feeling a little underwhelmed. While I did enjoy the movie, there are a few things that left me feeling that way:

Lack of emotion: There are some very important scenes in this book that completely change Katniss’ life (obviously). While in the book they made me want to cry like a baby, but the movie fell short. For example, her goodbye to Gale was so anticlimactic that I didn’t even realize that was her goodbye. I remember hating him at the end of the series, but in the movie I felt nothing. Another time I felt there was something missing was when Prim dies. It happened so quickly (I know, it had to), but afterward I felt like Katniss just didn’t care. However, the moments I mentioned might also have to do with my second problem…

Jennifer Lawrence’s Acting: I think I’m in the minority when I say she is just a horrible actress. Remember that movie Twilight? Remember Kristen Stewart and how everyone made fun of her because she made one face through the movie? Well, that’s how I feel about Lawrence. She has 2 faces through the movie, the blank stare, and the cry face. I can’t handle it. There is one scene in the movie where she completely breaks down, cries and there is spit flying everywhere and my thought was this: “Was she saving all of her acting skills for this ONE scene? Where was it the rest of the movie?” Even her rally speeches lack emotion for me.

The Ending: I mean, the very end, the epilogue. They could have done without it. It was comical… while some people in the theater went “awwww”, I held back a laugh. It was one of those scenes that worked in the book but didn’t translate well in the film. If you’ve seen this movie let me know what you thought about the ending.

With all that said, I actually did like how this series was wrapped up, as imperfect as it is. Although, I do have to add that I’m pretty upset that we didn’t see her in the red get-up, it was pretty awesome.

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