Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Haymitch Abernathy and co are back for the fourth and final time in Mockinjay – Part 2.
The big finale of the franchise and the most action-packed of the lot, right? Well, not exactly. After the slow build up of Part 1, I had higher hopes for Part 2 but it did not live up to my expectations. I found myself losing interest halfway through the film and I thought it was dragged out when they could have cut a lot of it out. Personally I think they could have made Part 1 and Part 2 in to one film but of course, like all big book-turned-blockbuster franchise, they knew they could make a lot of money going for the classic 2 part ending.
Part 1 ended with love interest, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), retrieved by the rebels but he is now brainwashed and despises Katniss (Jennifer Lawrance). After trying to strangle her to death, he is now confined to a room where he is strapped to the bed. Part 2 begins where we left off with Katniss struggling to talk after Peeta’s attack. But the girl on fire has to recover quickly as she still has a battle on her hands with President Snow (Donald Sutherland) in a bid to rebel against the Hunger Games and stop it from taking place ever again.
The emotional parts however felt rushed. I will try to avoid spoilers but there were a possible 2 or 3 big dramatic key points in the film that had no real feeling to them. A lot more could have been done to create a bigger impact for the audience and made us walk away remembering the film afterwards. Mockingjay – Part 2 was highly concentrated on the visuals and whilst some scenes looked fantastic, that took away from the deep, heartfelt moments that could have been.
I also found there wasn’t enough Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) throughout the film. In the book, he is such a big character but I found he didn’t have much screen time in Mockingjay – Part 2. And we can never see too much Liam Hemsworth. Jennifer Lawrance was flawless however and once again gave a wonderful performance of Katniss Everdeen.
Overall, I found Part 2 to be at best mediocre. It wasn’t a bad film but it was neither memorable or exiting either.
Overall Rating: 3/5
Paradise Spice 