The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2
Synopsis
The final installment of the Hunger Games trilogy (quadrilogy for the moneymakers!) meets, exceeds and fails to meet expectations. Just like the book, the movie is filled with surprised that are not expected. Katniss Everdeen faces her biggest challenges yet in this installment (the choice between two love interests, the choice between two authority systems and the choice about her role in the war to name a few). The Hunger Games series intrigued me from the first movie. I read all the books and then watched the following installments of movies. They were all good in their own way.
This final installment is slow...painfully slow at times. The beauty of the movie is found in its constant dashing of hope and the sheer unwillingness of Katniss to accept despair. Katniss is faced with choice after choice and her choices give the movie its up and down feeling. Her ability to fight is powerful, and keeps you engaged. Sadly, I think the movie would have been better as one movie with the first part of Mockingjay as this installment could have been much shorter. The other characters seem by-products in this movie with little development paid to each of them. Additionally, each step of the way heroes become villainous and villains become heroic. This is part of the Hunger Games meta-narrative.
The main actors each perform powerful roles. Jennifer Lawrence is excellent as Katniss and Josh Hutcherson carried the Peeta role well. The others have little to work with and their screen time and lines are sporadic and disjointed.
You find the depth and surprises of Mockingjay Part 2 in little lines interspersed throughout the movie. They are said without fanfare, but if picked up, speak volumes about the movie. The obvious ones are about truth and lies (everyone lies to Katniss in some way...except Peeta who uses Katniss as the means to tell what is real or not). The Hunger Games and reality tv metaphor continues as does the larger discussion of what a free vote is. Katniss's choices right to the end make the movie powerful and sad, especially her last choice with Peeta. Less noticed lines like "If you die, let it be for a cause, not a spectacle" is powerful. Said in what might be a throwaway speech, it becomes a consistent metaphor right to the final speech of President Coin who announces the death of President Snow as more than a spectacle.
In the end the whole thing is a spectacle as all Katniss has ever wanted is to enjoy a peaceful life. Something each of us wants...and this for me is the most powerful metaphor. We are all Katniss (or at least we want to be)...courageous in volunteering to save others, skillful in our fights, looking for love, trying to avoid being a symbol for a political party, but entering the fight when we must and in the end wanting to raise our families in peace and quiet.
Her final line leaves us with the question that needs answering, as she speaks of nightmares she says, "Did you have a nightmare? I have nightmares too. Someday I'll explain it to you. Why they came? Why they won't ever go away? But I'll tell you how to survive it. I make a list in my head, of all the good things I've seen someone do. Every little thing I could remember. It's like a game. I do it over and over. Gets a little tedious after all these years, but there are much worse games to place."
Her solution to the nightmares is a game...what is ours to the nightmares of our time. And echoing in the back is the statement about death...die for a cause not a spectacle.
Score
Mockingjay Part 2 scores a Crescent Moon. The Hunger Games Series is a New Moon.
Scoring System
Wolves are thought to commonly howl at the moon. So, the better the moon, the greater the howl. Description of scoring system below.
Full Moon - best you can get, must watch and must own
New Moon - great movie, worth seeing and buying
Crescent Moon - average to above average, good to watch, but may want to wait for DVD
Sliver Moon - below average, not worth seeing and only get it on DVD when you have nothing better to do, like having a root canal
Moonless Night -not even worth mentioning - avoid at all costs!
