The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

For the converted and faithful readers and viewers of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy, this review will probably mean very little.  There are plenty of reviews out there that will tell you how faithful this film is the final book in the series, and whether or not it's a satisfying adaptation.  I recommend you search them out.  This is a review for the unconverted, or those who have followed the films only. 

Mockingjay Part 2 marks the end of the saga of Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), who started the series out as a simple girl who was forced to participate in a cruel and deadly game to save her sister's life, and has now become a propaganda tool for a rebel army, and a symbol of hope for millions.  Much like Mockingjay Part 1 from exactly one year ago, this is a fascinating idea, and one which this film series never seems to truly face and confront head on.  We never truly get a sense of how Katniss feels being used by these people as a symbol.  We get some glimpses that she is uncomfortable with it, yes, but I can imagine so much more emotion and turmoil being wrung from the idea than these films give us.  And that's really the problem that I have had with this entire film series.  I simply don't have that much investment in these people.  This series wants to be a powerful and tragic story where a lot of innocent young lives are lost.  But it's not enough just to show some young people getting killed while fighting for what to believe in.  They have to have personality and weight if the filmmakers want us to feel for them.

Let's start with Katniss herself, since she is the main character.  Even now as the story has reached its conclusion, I still feel like I know about as much about her as when these movies started.  She doesn't have the strong personality and spirit to carry an entire story.  Maybe she does in the books, and something got lost on the way to the big screen.  I find this surprising, because Jennifer Lawrence is an absolutely amazing actress, and I have loved her in just about everything I've seen her in...except in these movies.  She seems to be going for stoic, but comes across as wooden, at least to me.  It often seems like she shows the same look on her face when she's looking at her conflicted lover Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), as she does when she is witnessing the atrocities of war.  I get that she is handy with a bow and arrow (a bit too much at times), and that she is seen by many as a positive female heroine in a genre dominated by men.  I just think I would be more impress if this movie gave her more interesting things to say or think about.

And just like I said in my review of The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials just a couple months ago, a lot of these post apocalyptic teen stories like this and Divergent are just starting to look the same to me.  I'm willing to admit the problem may be with me.  I just can't get excited about another movie where young actors walk around city ruins and fight back against a tyrannical dictator, while a love triangle plot brews.  The Hunger Games has always delivered a better cast than the others in this genre, with names like Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Julianne Moore and the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman.  But much like Jennifer Lawrence, nobody seems to be giving their best here.  Nobody's bad necessarily, it's just that these movies never allow these great actors to truly stand out.  It's sad to think that this is the last time we will get to see Hoffman up on the screen, and a majority of his role requires him to stand around and stare at what's going on.  To be fair, the filmmakers could only work with the footage they had shot with him, but it still feels like he deserved a better exit from the screen than what's here.

Of course, none of this will matter to the fanbase this franchise attracts.  They have made the previous films (which I all thought were kind of mediocre on some level, with the second film being the closest to a success) all major blockbusters, and I expect no different here.  The movie should bring in big numbers, at least until Star Wars hits next month.  But I still find myself asking the same questions that I asked walking out of the earlier films.  The first question is usually, "Is that all there is?"  For a major event film, this movie feels curiously small.  The closest thing to an action sequence involves the heroic rebels battling these mutant sewer creatures that seem more than a little inspired by the monsters from the Alien movies.  There's a lot of padding here.  There's also a lot of talking in hushed whispers, and self-important tones.  Again, I'm willing to admit the problem may be with me, but I just have a hard time taking this franchise seriously.  It obviously wants to be very heavy and dark, but I just never felt anything.

There is just something stilted and muted to me about these movies.  The characters, the way they talk...Nothing comes across as being natural.  Now, obviously, I don't expect total honesty from my Sci-Fi stories.  Heck, I don't even require it.  But it helps if it feels like there's some genuine emotion, or if I can feel a palpable heart behind it all.  Everything feels kind of shortchanged.  The main villain, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) again never quite feels like the dangerous tyrant that he should, and actually seems kind of weak and pathetic here.  There's a moment late in the film that is obviously supposed to have huge meaning to Katniss, but it doesn't have the dramatic impact that it should.  For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I must be vague, but it kind of revolves around the whole reason Katniss got involved in this whole mess in the first place.  A lot of the big events that are supposed to happen in this movie just seem to lack impact, which really surprised me.  Even if I haven't been the biggest fan of these movies, I was at least somewhat invested in how this was all going to end.  The last half hour or so of this film feels like an extended anticlimax.

That being said, all the loose ends are tied up, and there's even an epilogue that I kind of liked, and felt had more emotion than a majority of the film.  There is no doubt that the fans will be pleased, and I'm sure they'll pick up on little things that the books emphasized more, but the movie simply glosses over, so I probably missed it.  If you fall under this category, I give you permission to ignore this review, and go have a good time.  Pay no mind to me this time.  It's okay, I'll understand.  I'm willing to admit I missed the boat on this whole Hunger Games thing, and just never got behind it.  If you did, I'm not going to stop you from seeing this.

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