The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

Dustin: 3.5 of 5 stars Nick: 3 of 5 stars Average: 3.25 of 5 stars (Woozy canary)

Dustin: The Hunger Games - Part 4: Mockingjay - Part 2 is the last installment in The Hunger Games trilogy for real this time. Jennifer Lawrence reprises her role as Katnip Evergreen in her personal quest to kill President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and bring balance to Panem.

Nick: I have to admit I am so happy this series is finally over with until of course they remake it in 10 years. Though I must admit I’m waiting for this whole YA franchise-into-movies thing to end even more. The Hunger Games is easily the best out of all the genre, but it still tries so hard to evoke drama that it feels more like a soap or Lifetime film rather than a drama on the silver screen.

Dustin: I’m getting tired of these YA movies too. Admittedly, I’ve only seen this series, the first Divergent movie, and The Host. They all pretty much follow the same formula, and I mentally check off each item as I sit through them. Pretty girl with bland personality who turns out to be somehow more specialer than everyone (check), some kind of training montage (check), two hunky male love interests (check, check). The best thing I’d say about the Hunger Games movies is that they do the formula better than the others.

Nick: I’m in agreement for the most part but there are so many grandstands and speeches in this film meant to give hope or drive a character forward that it becomes an even more diluted version of the drama it’s trying to create. As well every time there was a character telling another “Don’t worry everything is going to be alright,” I turned to my mom and said, “So, that character is going to die!” and they sure enough did. Also whenever there is a wedding between two tertiary characters one of them will surely end up dead. (R.I.P. Remus and Tonks)

Dustin: That’s a pretty famous trope.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 should have been combined into one film called The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Both movies had long spells that just dragged. I remember spending a lot of time during this one with my head resting on my hand just waiting for the movie to get to the point.

Nick: Though Harry Potter did the same thing with more of a reason (700 pages), it also stalled in its first Part 1 (my least favorite in that series) and the same happened with Hunger Games. The first part was such a drag with no uptempo, while this film drags a lot between its interesting action sequences. The best thing about this series is the casting of brilliant, established actors like Sutherland, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Philip Seymour Hoffman and of course Lawrence while mixing with lesser known brilliant actors like Jena Malone, Elden Henson, Robert Knepper and Elizabeth Banks. They all do a good job, but their dialogue (which isn’t their fault) sometimes made me laugh for the wrong reason and kept me from EVER being truly instilled in the drama. Though Sutherland truly is remarkable as Snow.

Dustin: The all-star cast certainly lends these films some street-cred. I hated President Snow, and that is a testament to Sutherland’s performance. I couldn’t even recognize the smartalek character I loved in MASH (granted, that film is 45-years-old).

It’s interesting you compared this to the last Harry Potter, because like Harry Potter, this movie also had a pointless epilogue, which I will go ahead and spoil because it was truly pointless. Does the audience really care Katnip will go on to get married and have two kids?

Nick: It should have ended right before that with her in bed with the man she loves, but I think it went on to do that to end the film on a happier note, which I’m assuming the only thing the writer could think of was “Let's give her kids! Everyone is happier with kids! Especially two people with extreme PTSD.”

Dustin: I also thought when it cut to black right before the epilogue that was a perfect ending point. I groaned when the sunny meadow came up. The scene right before that was tender, but also had an ellipsis. The tweenage girls who are the most devoted fans of the series might wanted a happy note to end on, but I didn’t find the epilogue convincing, and it was pointless to boot. I could imagine if Stanley Kubrick had directed these, the epilogue would have been Katnip and Peeta in some kind of couples counseling for PTSD.

Nick: The most jarring concept to me was the character of Tygress. I only assume that’s how it’s spelled considering what series we are watching. Why couldn’t it have just been a normal (for Hunger Games) looking person instead of a seemingly spliced half-tiger, half-human character, which I had not seen any character look like throughout the series. Maybe I missed the spliced characters from before, but it sure didn’t stick out like Tygress (Taigriss).

Dustin: Well, there are people with body modifications in the real world too, and it’s jarring to see them at the mall, liquor stores, job interviews. But that is a funny point. Right after they take shelter with Tigris (thank you, Hunger Games wikia), Katnip and Gale put on a disguise to slip into the crowd taking shelter at President Snow’s mansion. Their disguise is a large black hooded jacket. I’m sorry, but I think the Storm Troopers, I mean, Peace Keepers, would be well within their rights to shoot them and ask questions later. In a city where outlandish makeup and hairstyles are the norm, they go with the most suspicious-looking cover ever. Were the writers lazy or just stupid?

Nick: I think the writer(s) were constantly lazy. When the twin sisters were left in the building of the rebels’ last known location they could have carried the wounded sister to the building across the street with them and left her there, which would have been at least a logical move. Also the most combat-ready character with the most experience is the one who runs head-first into a possibly mined area and dies. Also when the character who has been brainwashed and is hitting his head against his own gun you might want to put him in handcuffs. Also when Gale tells Peeta I’ll take you out if that time ever comes, so you mean the guy in your squad that he just killed wasn’t enough? I feel like I could go on and on and I don’t know who to blame, the writer of the book or of the movie? I get it, it’s nitpicking, but when the entire film can be nitpicked it’s kind of a problem.

Dustin: I have a feeling the problem stems from the books. I doubt these movies strayed too far from the source material given the fanbase they had to please. I think a lot of the writing had to come from the hack mind of Suzanne Collins. Men simply don’t talk like the characters in this movie. Two male rivals don’t sit down and talk about their feelings, or ask others what they’re thinking. Especially when they come from a dystopian future where you have to play everything close to the chest as your true thoughts can get you killed.

Nick: Long Live the End of The Hunger Games! Both the game and the book and movie series. Another part I found amusing was when Coin was afraid of the support Katniss had and was hoping she would die, yet she gave her the honor of killing Snow in front of all the unified forces. Would that not make her even more popular?! Also, the fact Coin stood on a ridge right above Snow with her hands outraised made that scene so ridiculous. It would have been better if she was standing far far behind Katniss on a ridge over-looking the scene and Katniss turns around and lets the arrow go quickly. Instead of a close up on Katniss, her obvious lifting of the arrow and letting that arrow go towards Coin. It was a very bland moment that should have been huge! It might have been bland because it was so obviously going to happen with everyone talking shit on Coin while later in the film she became a tyrant like Snow. I also love the way people die in films like this so beautiful and gracefully. Julianne Moore falls from the high-up ridge after being shot with the arrow and falls on a thin piece of cut stone laying there as if she had died of a heart attack.

Dustin: There was one set piece I loved in this movie, and that was the one regarding the lizard mutts chasing Katnip and the gang through the sewers. It was an intense, nightmarish scene that got my heart racing. It was like something out of a different movie.

Nick: It was a very well filmed and intense scene, but also had many obvious moments. When the new leader was the only character left on the other side of the stone wall while not a single other character aiming their gun through the hole to protect her! (These are all trained in combat people, besides Peeta). And also the death of the character who was married early on in the film. The way it was filmed kept telling me this is the scene where he would die. Maybe only film students would notice that, but it kept showing him more and more isolated. While it’s also a thing that a tertiary character who is kicking a lot of ass in a battle will more than likely end up getting hurt or dead and he of course was the only one kicking ass!

Dustin: I also liked the twist at the end. I won’t spoil it, but I guess it shouldn’t have come as a surprise Julianne Moore’s character (Hillary Clinton) turned out to be a duplicitous politico. Or that the rebels would turn into Robespierres as soon as they took over. I guess I did spoil it…

Nick: I already spoiled it! But not really! From early on the film sets up Coin as the real enemy who needs to be defeated by end. And she is, but in a very bland scene that lacks any true emotional weight.

Dustin: Suzanne Collins spoiled it when she consciously ripped off Battle Royale.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

Dustin: 3.5 of 5 stars Nick: 2 of 5 stars Average: 2.75 of 5 stars (Woozy Canary)

Dustin: The new Hunger Games movie doesn’t actually feature any Hunger Games. This is a welcome direction for the series, as the second movie had a “here we go again!” feeling. This time around, survivors of the Hunger Games join the Rebel Alliance in District B13 to overthrow the Big Brother government oppressing the world.

Nick: I normally disagree with Matt Zoller Seitz, from rogerebert.com, he basically wrote my review of Mockingjay Part 1. The only part I disagree with is when he cites Harry Potter as another book that needlessly became two movies. The Mockingjay book is under 400 pages, while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is more than 750. One of these is a more obvious cash grab… The films lacks action. It keeps promising action, but when we get to the scene it’s either after all the action or we follow Katniss who is nowhere near the action.  

Dustin: I actually thought this movie was better than Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (my least favorite of the Harry Potter films). Both seemed like half a book stretched out to a movie. The first act of Mockingjay, especially, was slow and should have been trimmed. I haven’t read any of the Hunger Games books, but for the most part, it seemed like there was enough story here to make two movies. But I’ll reserve judgement on that until I see Part 2. Having said that, I thought Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was the best of the Harry Potter movies, so I sort of forgave them for splitting the book in half.

Nick: I agree that Deathly Hallows: Part 1 was the worst in the HP series, and this film isn’t the worst in its own series, but I still like DHp1 more because the HP films actually had me caring about its characters enough to follow them through that very boring movie. While MJp1 was long and boring while following characters who never grow enough in order for me to care.

Dustin: There was actually a guy a few seats to my left who fell asleep. I imagine he just brought his daughters and then mentally checked out. Other than the first act, I didn’t think this movie dragged too much. Some scenes with the cat could have been cut, as well as the portions of Katnip Evergreen becoming the Mockingjay for the Rebel Alliance’s PR campaign. Overall, I found it suspenseful, and I enjoyed the scenes with the Storm Troopers.

Nick: Please stop the Star Wars analogies! The male characters in the love triangle might be the blandest options in love triangle history, and yes, I’m including the constantly awful Twilight. The characters just are bounce cards for Katniss, and when the characters are on screen all they do is look at Katniss while smouldering. Is she the only available woman of that age group? Because, damn, there are slightly more pressing issues going on!

Dustin: Agreed. The love triangle subplot, which I believe we also complained about with the last movie, seems like it was included as part of a formula. I can’t really describe the Liam Hemsworth character without only mentioning his appearance. Any character could have accomplished his basic part in the story without the inclusion of the love triangle.

Nick: I’d argue the love triangle is only a subplot since more time is given to it than the “plot.”

As you mentioned in the intro, I as well enjoyed the break from the Hunger Games, but it makes me wish they’d have started that with the second film instead of having us watch two Hunger Games, which was pretty pointless. I really enjoy Donald Sutherland as President Snow, but in saying that, his character is very much like every bad guy who thinks they have the upperhand. He barely gets any screentime to grow his character, but what he does with it is exceptional. I like the idea of what happens to Peeta, but I don’t like that being the conflict/somewhat resolution of the movie. I thought it was obvious what was happening to him after the first time he appeared, and yet the film treats it as if its a mystery. I also liked Katniss being used as a “Face” for the war, but that idea gets a lot of screentime, which kind of kicks you in the face with what the film is trying to say. There’s a lot of great ideas going on within the film, but it always ends with me saying but what if…

Dustin: I didn’t consider they could’ve just cut the second movie, but now you mention it, I believe they could have. Just like they could have cut Star Wars: Episode I since it doesn’t accomplish anything that Episode II didn’t, and I promise that’s my last Star Wars reference in this review.

Nick: Oh, and all the nicknames everyone has for each other is really annoying! Little Duck! Your sister is becoming a doctor, motherfucker! And you treat her like she’s 7!

The first part of the movie was actually the most engrossing for me, which I believe is the part you did not like. It was promising more would happen and yet nothing really came to fruition or changed. This left me very unfulfilled by film’s end or it might have been a film I enjoyed.  

Dustin: If we’d gone into this movie not knowing it was half a book made into one movie, do you think we’d be more forgiving of the pace?

Nick: I wouldn’t,but that’s because there is no conflict/resolution that actually starts within this film or ends. We say it’s rescuing Peeta, but is that really a big enough deal for one entire movie?

Dustin: I thought Katnip’s song in the middle was kind of catchy. For those who haven’t seen the movie yet, it basically plays to the tune of Pharrell Williams’s “Happy,” but replaces the word “happy” with “hungry.” (I don’t remember exactly how the song went, so I had to invent something that would sound catchy.)

Nick: That was my favorite scene as well. She is singing and everyone listens. The idea adds depth, but once again the camera does the wrong thing and does a one-shot that goes to every individual character multiple times while showing Cressida telling the cameramen what to do in that situation. Instead of going to each character for their reactions, which is very Shonen anime,  they could have had all the characters doing their own thing to the side of Katniss with a wide shot and then switch to a one-shot of the characters a couple of times. Though we do get more shots of Gale (Hemsworth) smouldering away, which we definitely needed.

Dustin: The Hunger Games - Part 3: Catching Fire - Part 1 is a decent continuation of the Hunger Games series, but suffers from “middle movie syndrome.” I should also mention it’s the second best movie featuring the talents of both Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julianne Moore.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Dustin: 3.5 of 5 stars Nick: 3.5 of 5 stars Average: 3.5 of 5 stars (Live canary)

Dustin: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is the second installment in the Hunger Games trilogy. It picks up one year after Katniss Everdeen has survived her ordeal in the last-man-standing battle royale of the first movie. Her willingness to sacrifice herself rather than give in to the rules of the game have given people hope that frightens President Snow. She has become too iconic for her own good, and must be eliminated.

What did you think of Catching Fire?

Nick:  Vast improvement over the original, and maybe the first movie that I enjoyed more than the book. The film gives a greater depth to the world outside the actual events of the Hunger Games, which is more terrifying to me than the games themselves. The Hunger Game in this film is more enjoyable as you don’t have a director who uses his technology to sap every motion out of every scene when the plot itself is daunting enough. When the character that reminds Katniss of her sister dies in the first film there’s this over-long scene of her freaking out while the score is blaring and the diegetic sound is muted. There are many instances of over-dramatic techniques applied by Gary Ross (The Hunger Games), a director I love compared to Francis Lawrence (Catching Fire), a director I abhor as he made my least favorite book adaptation of all time with I Am Legend.

Dustin: I liked the world of the movies as well. Both movies did a good job setting up the dystopian near future of America. This movie went more into that than the first did, and I really liked this movie up until the Hunger Games part, where they might as well have said, “Here we go again!” The tone leading up to the games this time around is a bit more depressing, but I didn’t like the “Been there, seen that,” feeling I got during the games. (Exacerbated by the feeling that I was seeing it for the third time, having seen Battle Royale long before.)

Nick: Battle Royale is a movie that’s so enjoyable it annoyed me when these books first came into the limelight. Suzanne Collins said she had never heard of the graphic novels nor the movie before she had crafted her stories.

Dustin: I find that very hard to believe. Just writing in the genre, she should have come across it. But the fact that they both take place in a dystopian near-future, feature kids participating in a televised fight to the death with rules to the game, plot points, overall structure and ending, I feel like The Hunger Games was blatantly plagiarized.

In Battle Royale there was a rule where certain sectors would become inhospitable at a certain hour. That rule was missing from the first movie, but comes in here. And by the time she wrote the second book, she should have been aware of Battle Royale, even if she supposedly hadn’t heard of it when she wrote the first one.

Nick: One thing about the series that is bothersome is the love triangle. In general, I’m not a fan, but depending on the story it can be utilized to great strengths. While in a story such as the Hunger Games it seems so trivial compared to what they face from the outside world. When so much screen time is taken to set up the romantic entanglements it takes me out of the story the creators are trying to craft.

Dustin: I agree the love triangle was an unnecessary element. So much is going on, it’s not needed. And it kind of gave me a Twilight vibe. Two hunky guys competing for the female protagonist, while coming off as puritanical and platonic.

Nick: It’s also so obvious in the sense that when Katniss volunteers and then Peeta is called why didn’t Gale just volunteer in his stead. It would make more sense if the man was chosen first, but that’s not the case, and the way Gale is crafted he could have volunteered, so in my eyes it’s his own fault when Katniss goes for Peeta. Totes Team Peeta! Just kidding, they should all die.

Dustin: This movie, up until the Hunger Games started back up, was a very good sequel and continuation of the first movie. A lot of little touches were appreciated. For example, in the first movie, Peeta tosses a loaf of bread to Katniss when she’s stuck out in the rain for some reason. The scene was shown several times to establish their relationship. At the beginning of this movie, Peeta is cutting bread and offers some to Katniss, but she refuses, which has a foreshadowing feel to it, but is subtle.

Nick: Is it foreshadowing or a reference to how she now has so much money and food that she doesn’t need handouts anymore? By the way, they never mention in either movie the winning district gets food if their Champion wins, which is why its called the “Hunger Games.”  

Dustin: There was a line in the first movie where Katniss tells her sister, “Don’t accept their food.” I thought maybe the more food rations you get, the more times your name is entered into the Hunger Games drawing and the better your chances of getting picked. But that was something I connected in my head. The movie shouldn’t make its audience work like that. I have a feeling the filmmakers took for granted how popular the books were and assumed the audience already understood certain things.

Nick: You thought the dystopia was well crafted in the original and yet you have this complaint. In the original, all the characters in the dystopia weren’t well explained beyond Seneca Crane. Effie Trinket and President Snow (Chancellor, Supreme Leader, Fuhrer) are much more fleshed out and given a chance to show their wonderful characters, as well as newcomers Jena Malone (Johanna), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Plutarch), Jeffrey Wright (Beetee) and Amanda Plummer (Wiress).

Dustin: I didn’t really question the Hunger Games title until you brought it up just now. I just thought I had it figured out and moved on with my life. I did think the dystopia was well done in both films. You had the clueless elites in the Capitol who binged and purged while people in the Districts were starving. They were wealthy enough to have the luxury of wasting their lives on celebrity worship. The commentators for the games were creepily similar to sports commentators before NFL games today, how they examine the minutiae of players’ performances, and it all looks so ridiculous juxtaposed to people slaving away in coal mines and eating squirrels and soggy bread.

Nick: But they never expand or grow. There are more people and more scenes explored in the Capitol in the new movie, and gives each character a voice. Even Stanley Tucci gets to have a negative reaction when the contestants all hold hands. That gives him more character because now we know he believes in the regime and is afraid of what Snow’s reaction to the gesture will be.

There were a few scenes of overdoing the drama. Like the very last shot when Katniss is told some dire news and she looks into the camera, or maybe one of the first scenes where she has an episode of PTSD when she kills an animal, even though she had been killing animals all day she freaked out because now it’s finally getting to her.

Dustin: I actually thought the PTSD was well done, having grown up with someone who had the occasional ‘Nam flashback, it rang true to me. I remember my dad opening a canister of Pillsbury biscuits, and when it popped, he threw the canister, jumped back five feet, screamed and covered his ears. It reminded him too much of a grenade.

There were some things set up in both movies that never payed off. What was with the cat hissing at Katniss in both movies? Probably something from the book that didn’t get fleshed out. Then in this movie, there was the creepy woman who had her teeth filed to sharp points, but she barely appeared after that. She was set up as a very scary villain, and then was quickly written off.

Nick: The woman with sharp teeth and the bald dude showed up at the end of the games and disappeared along with two of our heroes but will presumably be back for the last installment.

Dustin: While I thought The Hunger Games was uncomfortably similar to Battle Royale, and both, to a much lesser extent to The Most Dangerous Game, or John Leguizamo’s The Pest, the dystopian world and the character of Katniss as played by Jennifer Lawrence kept me engaged despite the plagiarized story.