This is quite a coup, isn’t it? The Hunger folks took the worst book in the trilogy and spilt it into two films as if that would help … and it did. Huh. How does that work? What’s the worst book you ever read? Let’s pretend, for the sake of argument, it’s Jane Eyre. Now Jane Eyre is a fine novel, Brontëphiles, no need to get up in arms. I’ve read it twice. But suppose you thought it was awful and everybody accepted that it was awful … and to combat this, the producers made it into two films instead of one. Wouldn’t you be, wouldn’t we ALL be, just a tad confused?
Oh, ah’m totally juiced for Jane Eyre: part 2, the Maddening.
The final installment of the Hunger Games series is a somber one. I’m sure we didn’t expect mirth and carnival rides from a franchise that opened with a theme of children fighting to the death, but just in case, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 had none of it all the same. When we last looked in on Panem, Mr. Pocket Bread was strangling Ms. Mockingjay. Ah, l’amour. The Clockwork Orange-like brainwashing of Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) is a running theme in Hunger Games, Mock 2. It essentially comes down to the idea that Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) can’t live with ‘im and can’t live without ‘im. Plus, without
Peeta around, there’s nothing for Gale (Liam Hemsworth) to be jealous of.
Like Mock 1, the Panem civil war is being fought both for real in the districts and on TV through propaganda. District 13 President Coin (Julianne Moore) proves just as interested in fighting the media battle as the real battle – Katniss is dead? Let’s make her a martyr. Oh, she’s not? Well, get her to sing again or something. Meanwhile, Kat lives up to her name, being strong-willed, deadly and completely untrainable. Given orders to stay put, she smuggles herself aboard a transport to the front in District 2 and has an enemy gun to her head within hours of landing. Can’t say the woman is boring, now, can you?
This leads to the bulk of the movie where a small unit of rebels including Katniss, Peeta and Gale all fight block-by-block towards the President Snow (Donald Sutherland) sanctuary. In true Hunger Games form, the small militia sees almost nothing in the way of resistant humans and rifles, but instead faces a series of deadly choreographed traps. One especially bleak underground trail has a real Aliens feel. Hey, I
knew folks were gonna die, but I didn’t expect it to be scary; what’s up with that?
The truly distinguishing feature of Jay Deux is the Peeta/Gale love triangle. After three films of waffling, Katniss needs to decide — maybe one will die during the rebellion; wouldn’t that be nice? This choice comes at the expense of most of the supporting cast – Woody Harrelson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stanley Tucci, Elizabeth Banks and Jeffrey Wright are barely more than footnotes in film four. And as for plot: Civil war? Traps? Armies? Monsters? Death? Screw that. C’mon, Katniss, pick already. We’ve been waitin’ four movies. Who gets your love? The boy next door, or the one you went through Hell with? The hunk or the basket case? Honestly? I never quite got how the book concluded on this issue; the movie makes a better case, and for that, I’ll take the somber.
Billion dollar franchises have a way of promoting and enhancing careers, so instead of some pithy film wrap-up, I leave you here with how the Hunger Games has uplifted the careers of its players:
♪Are you, are you
Splitting up film three?
How could extra hours
Make the book worthy?
Strange things franchises do
For monopoly
Stranger that it’s better
Splitting up film three♫
Rated PG-13, 137 Minutes
D: Francis Lawrence
W: Peter Craig, Danny Strong and Suzanne Collins
Genre: Justice by arrow
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Li’l Katnisses
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Li’l President Snows
♪ Parody inspired by “The Hanging Tree”
