The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Parts 1 & 2

[BlackFox]

Saw this last night, thought it was ok, better than part 1, at least it had some exciting moments and Lawrence was her usual watchable self but it wasnt as good as the first two films. The pay off for the build up did feel abrupt as others have said and the "war" didnt seem to last 2 minutes.

Not terrible but a rather flat end to the series.

 

[Gold Samurai]

Saw this last night, thought it was ok, better than part 1, at least it had some exciting moments and Lawrence was her usual watchable self but it wasnt as good as the first two films. The pay off for the build up did feel abrupt as others have said and the "war" didnt seem to last 2 minutes.

Not terrible but a rather flat end to the series.

Well that's good. Part 1 was incredibly boring.

Katnis spends 80% of the movie underground in a bunker. The action we do see is from a helmet camera infiltrating a city and Katniss and the hospital

 

[Rocketman]

So this franchise is finally over, right?

 

[terry78]

It appears to be finally over. Unless she pulls a Rowling and does a prequel or something like showing us what led to the Games.

 

[ComicChick]

It appears to be finally over. Unless she pulls a Rowling and does a prequel or something like showing us what led to the Games.

i still would've liked to have seen Haymitch's games, the 2nd Quarter Quell. There's a short fan made movie that was pretty well done imo

 

[BlackFox]

Well that's good. Part 1 was incredibly boring.

Katnis spends 80% of the movie underground in a bunker. The action we do see is from a helmet camera infiltrating a city and Katniss and the hospital

Yeah it certainly had more moments at least in this film that kept it from being as boring as the first one, for me at least. There's probably a pretty damn good film that can be made out the last two films if they cut huge bits of nothingness that plagues them (the cat playing with a light beam in part 1 springs to mind).

The first two movie are clearly the strongest episodes though of the franchise.

Shame but I spose some franchise's struggle after just one film so there's that at least.

 

[sueb1863]

Maybe someone will fan edit the two parts into one more exciting movie.

 

[Legendver2]

Just watched it yesterday morning. Overall, it was a pretty satisfying conclusion, although it was super depressing happy ending. It was a shame that Aquama.....I mean Finnick...died. I really liked his character. Also, were those the same mutts from the first film? I remembered them being more hyena like. These look like some HR Giger nightmare.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

This series really went out on a whimper. Sad really, because the first two films really pulled me in.

 

[Drizzle]

That's how the books were too. It started off strong and got less interesting with each book. I don't think they'll be revisiting this franchise again anytime soon since it grossed more than $50 million less than the first one did on its opening weekend. I also think that this is the straw that breaks the camel's back when it comes to splitting book adaptations into two movies.

 

[Quasimod0]

Saw this tonight. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it at all. The pacing was weird, there was lots of sitting around, the last "battle" was very anticlimactic, and the movie was pretty depressing. The scene underground with the Mutts was really well done and had some great tension, and I liked the ending with Katniss.
I'd give the movie like a 7 or 7.3/10

 

[henzINNIT]

Good send off, not great. Shame it didn't go out on a high, but I've thoroughly enjoyed the series regardless.

Someone on fanedit.org is already planning a streamlined edit of Mockingjay, combining both parts into one film. I'd be curious to check it out once it's done.

 

[Slushy]

Hated The Hunger Games. Enjoyed the Hell out of Catching Fire. Couldn't care less for Part 1, but for a film series I wasn't too fond of, Part 2 was a satisfying conclusion.

PROS:

Spoiler

- Katniss's slow descent into madness as the film progressed and that great depressing speech she gave with a gun held to her head.

- The Capitol's booby traps.

Welcome to the 76th Annual Hunger Games.

- Coin being a villain. I had no idea and if Boggs hadn't warned Katniss, the twist would've been more impactful. WOW!

- How they handled Heavensbee was well done.

CONS:

Spoiler

- It sucked seeing Caesar being evil.

- The Sewer Mutts scene was straight out of an Aliens movie.

- Finnick dying. I really enjoyed his character and its a shame he got killed off.

- Katniss not settling down with Gale. While Peeta is the love of her life and that junk, based on the performances I saw from all four movies, I found the love between Katniss and Gale to be believable.

 

[GwensNeckBrace]

The writing in this was horrible

 

[warhorse78]

Spoiler

- Finnick dying. I really enjoyed his character and its a shame he got killed off.

I think this is the main reason why I just don't want to watch this film.

Spoiler

This ended up being my favorite character in the series, and I'd wish they would have done an Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park stunt with the character.

-

Spoiler

Katniss not settling down with Gale. While Peeta is the love of her life and that junk, based on the performances I saw from all four movies, I found the love between Katniss and Gale to be believable.

The second main reason I am not too keen on the ending.

Spoiler

Look, sure, have Katniss run off with wonderboy, but I think it's despicable that Collins felt she had to bastardize the hell out of Gale to try and get people to stop shipping him and Katniss. I think it's the only reason she did that.

 

[DACrowe]

I finally got around to seeing it this weekend after bracing my expectations due to its lukewarm reception... and I've got to say this movie is really good. Not as good as the first two, but a huge step up from Mockingly - Part 1, and one of the better blockbusters this year (certainly better than the superhero entries).

I agree with the consensus around here that the third book (which I have admittedly not read) shouldn't have been cut in half. I could see a single three hour movie easily being made that streamlined both films. But despite this flaw, unlike the third movie, the fourth Hunger Games movie works for the very reason people around here seem to be apathetic:

This is startlingly anti-war. This anti-American foreign policy too. Thus the war cannot end with Katniss bravely storming the Bastille (so to speak) and killing Snow in his mansion... it ends with much of what Katniss doing becoming mooted by the sense of waste and violence. She spends so much time focused on killing Snow, she doesn't realize that Julianne Moore and the rebels are of the same cloth and that their tactics are almost as morally repugnant and certainly ambiguous.

Her sister dying and Katniss sleeping through the end of the war only to awaken to the cycle of violence continuing I thought was a brilliant stroke. And while on-the-nose, Julianne Moore wanting another Hunger Games was still a nice illustration about human nature's need for retribution and why international grievances last generations. Katniss "saving the world" by killing her leader and then getting exiled into an abandoned countryside? It's dark, it's downbeat, and it's kind of perfect for the tone of these movies.

I will agree it was too long and there were too many moments interspersing the war scenes to drag it over two hours, but this ending more than made up for it.

Overall, I have to say while the Harry Potter books are still the best YA series in modern children's fiction, these movies really do outclass those films not to mention everything else the "genre" (which seems too broad a term) has had to offer recently onscreen. Well done.

 

[DACrowe]

The second main reason I am not too keen on the ending.

Spoiler

Look, sure, have Katniss run off with wonderboy, but I think it's despicable that Collins felt she had to bastardize the hell out of Gale to try and get people to stop shipping him and Katniss. I think it's the only reason she did that.

I would disagree because [blackout]As someone who hasn't read the books I didn't see that coming. But Gale has always been more "political" and bloodthirsty than Katniss. It's a nice contrast of philosophies. Gale represents the way plenty of people talk right now, just listen to the saber rattling coming out of the GOP about leveling everyone in Syria. Gale represents that mindset, and with the death of Primrose, we are given an actual face to the "collateral damage" that such thinking creates. It's shocking and more satisfying than "she picks one but they all stay friends."[/blackout]

At least that is how I read the scenario.

 

[ComicChick]

Hated The Hunger Games. Enjoyed the Hell out of Catching Fire. Couldn't care less for Part 1, but for a film series I wasn't too fond of, Part 2 was a satisfying conclusion.

PROS:

Spoiler

- Katniss's slow descent into madness as the film progressed and that great depressing speech she gave with a gun held to her head.

- The Capitol's booby traps.

- Coin being a villain. I had no idea and if Boggs hadn't warned Katniss, the twist would've been more impactful. WOW!

- How they handled Heavensbee was well done.

Spoiler

i'm not exactly sure i'd call Coin a pure villain, until she dropped the bombs in front of Snow's mansion and killed all those kids and her own people. she was just another Capitol leader in the making and Katniss realized it by the lengths she would take


CONS:

Spoiler

- It sucked seeing Caesar being evil.

- The Sewer Mutts scene was straight out of an Aliens movie.

- Finnick dying. I really enjoyed his character and its a shame he got killed off.

- Katniss not settling down with Gale. While Peeta is the love of her life and that junk, based on the performances I saw from all four movies, I found the love between Katniss and Gale to be believable.

Spoiler

Spoiler

again, i don't think Ceasar was evil. He was still a Capitol citizen and of course under their employ. he's going to say what he's told no matter what.

Finnick dying was one of my least parts of the series. i'm glad they finally let us see some of his fighting prowess which helped him win his games at 14.

Katniss and Gale loved each other but they grew apart. I didn't realize until later that it at the beginning how he and Beetee were actually planning out a tactic which is what Coin used at the end when she dropped the bombs, killings those kids and Prim. Gale liked to be part of the fighting resistance and wanted to be a part of that and the rebuilding. Katniss didn't want any part of that.

 

[ComicChick]

Her sister dying and Katniss sleeping through the end of the war only to awaken to the cycle of violence continuing I thought was a brilliant stroke. And while on-the-nose, Julianne Moore wanting another Hunger Games was still a nice illustration about human nature's need for retribution and why international grievances last generations. Katniss "saving the world" by killing her leader and then getting exiled into an abandoned countryside? It's dark, it's downbeat, and it's kind of perfect for the tone of these movies.

she didn't get exiled? wasn't that just her returning home to the Victor's Village in 12? one of the few (only?) areas not hit by the bombs they dropped there?

 

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

I've pretty much lost all interest to see this film. Shame.

 

[DACrowe]

she didn't get exiled? wasn't that just her returning home to the Victor's Village in 12? one of the few (only?) areas not hit by the bombs they dropped there?

I mean it was unofficial. Plutarch "pardoned" her, but he also sent her home to live in District 12. District 12 was bombed to hell, so it's really just her, Haymitch, Peeta, and the cat. Plutarch, Snow, and Julianne Moore all used Katniss in various ways and after the assassination at the end, she has no more use to anyone's political machinations. So while they let her live, she was sent far away from the Capitol to live where she would no longer have an effect on history or be on people's minds.

So while it wasn't official banishment, and she probably was happier to be living away from society, she was certainly implicitly kicked out of the Capitol and out of having a role in the world. I would not be half surprised if after a few years anyone who was not a victor or Effie even still remembered she was alive.

 

[Loki882]

Spoiler

Count me in as someone who doesn't like the thing with Gale. I didn't like it in the book (didn't buy it either) and I don't like it here. It feels like it was only done to make the Katniss/Peeta thing more palatable to the audience.

I DO like the irony of Primrose's death. This all started for Katniss when she volunteered in order to save her sister's life. And, in the end, her sister died anyway, it was tragically ironic and it worked for me.

 

[ComicChick]

I mean it was unofficial. Plutarch "pardoned" her, but he also sent her home to live in District 12. District 12 was bombed to hell, so it's really just her, Haymitch, Peeta, and the cat. Plutarch, Snow, and Julianne Moore all used Katniss in various ways and after the assassination at the end, she has no more use to anyone's political machinations. So while they let her live, she was sent far away from the Capitol to live where she would no longer have an effect on history or be on people's minds.

So while it wasn't official banishment, and she probably was happier to be living away from society, she was certainly implicitly kicked out of the Capitol and out of having a role in the world. I would not be half surprised if after a few years anyone who was not a victor or Effie even still remembered she was alive.

is that how it is in the book too? it's been at least 5-6 years since i read it, but i seem to remember her going back to 12 because that's what she wanted

 

[DACrowe]

I have not read the book, but that is how it played in the movie. I also got the sense she was happy to leave the Capitol, but it was certainly not her idea in the film.

 

[Warhammer]

So this is another example of why a third book shouldn't be split into two for greed? Or was it worth it?