Rated M for mature themes, violence and a horror sequence, the final instalment of the uber-popular Hunger Games trilogy is more scary movie than young adult adventure.
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“Hunger Games” is also one of the only major film franchises to incorporate a female heroine in Katniss Everdeen, who has not only been a role model for little girls but has helped make Jennifer Lawrence into the biggest actress in Hollywood. “But I didn’t really feel it so much character-wise at the end of Hunger Games, because these movies have been my life for so many years”. Not only was I a fan of the films in the series, but of the books themselves.
There are a handful of action scenes that are done pretty well, but for the most part the movie just seemed to drag on and had me wondering when something was actually going to happen. The first film and “Catching Fire” are still the best of the series, but fans of the films will like the finale, and fans of the books will like that the filmmakers stayed true to the original storyline. This is a far cry from the shaky cam madness of the first “Hunger Games”, and perhaps the only real improvement to the later entries in the series. All these actors, including Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth, are actors who can carry an entire movie but instead of having them do wonders together, they’re given individual moments.
Moreover, Mockingjay Part 2 pushes the boundaries of the much-maligned 12A certificate. We saw a depressing Katniss and a disgruntled Peeta. “I don’t see a man being called a brat”. In this movie, Katniss Everdeen belongs to a poor family. On the one hand, it would nearly definitely be a bittersweet, lovely goodbye to the franchise… but on the other hand, it would feature the horrifically violent deaths of a whole bunch of children, most notably Katniss’ (Jennifer Lawrence) own sister, Prim (Willow Shields).
The film is directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Peter Craig and Danny Strong. You realize right away that she will never be happy unless Peeta is with her and this movie does a fantastic job of connecting this lover’s triangle with Katniss, Peeta and Gale while concluding it without unnecessary drama. It is a game of cat and mouse as Snow has set up pods all throughout the Capital as he is treating this war just like the Hunger Games.
Q So this was really lucky, then, to work together for so long.
“Mockingjay, Part 2” is out, fans will flock to theaters all weekend to see how the epic saga comes to a close.
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“It was absolutely the most miserable three weeks”, director Lawrence says.
