Mockingjay: Part 2 Review
By Ashley Butcher
If you are expecting Mockingjay Part 2 to be the non-stop action-packed finale of the Hunger Games saga where Jennifer Lawrence leads a rebel army into The Capital to finally defeat President Snow, do yourself a favor and lower your expectations. With the exception of a handful of scenes, Mockingjay Part 2 is incredibly boring. Most of the film consists of long scenes where characters are either waiting for something to happen or talking. When Katniss and her soldier squad finally make it to The Capital they are days behind the actual fighting. They walk for a short period of time, evade a trap called a “pod”, then stop to sleep. This sequence of events occurs multiple times in a row; just when the action starts to pick up, they take a break. These breaks in the action don’t further the drama or develop any of the characters; they are just frustrating.
The unfortunate part about this movie is that there were some really great scenes; they were just drowned out by the dullness that filled the rest of the 130 minutes. Some very important deaths lost their emotional effect because you had to look back at the other three films to remember why you even cared about those characters. This could have been avoided if Mockingjay wasn’t split into two films. Mockingjay Part One was very slow paced, but it seemed like it was leading up to an action filled finale. Instead, Part Two continued at an equally slow pace and didn’t pick up until halfway through. If these two were condensed into one film, a lot of the unnecessary dullness could have been cut out.
On the bright side, Jennifer Lawrence’s performance was great. The supporting cast was solid as well. One of the most charismatic performances was actually Donald Sutherland as evil President Snow, who brought some life to the monotony of the rest of the film. The production design was wonderful, the costumes and set were quite impressive to look at, and the film was beautifully shot for the most part. In the end, there was only so much to work with when the source material was stretched so thin. What should have been an epic ending to the blockbuster Hunger Games saga, simply fell flat.
Grade: C+
