The Hunger Games - Mockingjay part 2
Book by Suzanne Collins
I just. How can it be over?? Remember when we all anticipated the first movie? No one knew who Jennifer Lawrence was, we heard Rue's eerie whistle for the first time. It's been a great four years. You can read my reviews of the previous movies here.
Like the book, the Mockingjay movies are not as colorful and crazy as the first two. They're more serious, and are much closer to real life. That's also the reason I like them (book and movies) so much, though Catching Fire remains my favorite.
SPOILERS AHEAD..
First item of praise, is that the makers of THG movies know all the Hollywood cliches and they use them against you. There's that scene in the tunnels before the mutts attack when the silence and the cameras just let you KNOW that something is about to happen and you brace yourself for a heart attack that doesn't come. But then it does and you fall off your chair.
And the general problem of knowing what's going to happen just makes this more painful- waiting for Finnick to die, and Prim. And even the ones I had forgotten about wrenched my heart strings deeply- Boggs, the Leeg sisters.
The actors continue to delight, with all the new people really bringing some great stuff to the table. I just wish we had more Josh Hutcherson - Peeta had a much stronger presence in the book than he did here, though granted that was in Katniss's thoughts.
Overall, this installment and the series in general were very faithful to the source material, a fact for which I am eternally greatful and wouldn't have been able to forgive if it hadn't been true. The only little piece I wanted but didn't get was the cake at Finnick and Annie's wedding that tips Katniss (and us) off that Peeta is getting better. (ETA: also the memorial book K&P make in the end)
The scenes were truly glorious:
Haymitch reading Plutarch's letter to Katniss
Katniss screaming at Buttercup the cat
HAYMITCH KISSING EFFIE
Effie saying goodbye to Katniss - finding the life of a victor
YOU LOVE ME REAL OR NOT REAL
my name is Katniss Everdeen
it's primrose
the scene of the symbolic Hunger Games
shooting Coin
my dear Katniss we agreed never to lie to each other
ADORABLE CHILD JUMPING ON DADDY PEETA
the Avox and his brother
And so many scenes that packed subtle punches- in the end, when Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta are eating back in District 12 and watching Paylor become President with Plutarch looking on, and Haymitch says " And they say no one ever wins the games". I loved that - it continues the implications that the whole war on the Capitol was also a game in a way (a game of thrones?), and Plutarch remained a gamemaker all throughout- somehow always on the winning side, and always influencing. It also shows how tyranny repeats itself, as do all human mistakes (This much is said explicitly in Plutarch's letter).
The only thing I'm truly upset about: the distortion of Gale's character. They made him just SO DAMN ANNOYING. Everytime Peeta did or said anything relating to Katniss Gale had some stupid jealous comment about it. It was so irrelevant and unimportant, and book Gale was better than that. Also, the thing I ultimately respected most about Gale and in general about The Hunger Games is that Katniss didn't get to choose her beau in the end. GALE PICKED UP AND LEFT. He gave her an arrow, told her to shoot straight, kissed her forhead and scedaddled off to live his life. It was amazing, and cemented my love for him despite me being firmly Team Peeta. And while the double bomb was his idea, and as much as the book tried to make it seem otherwise, PRIM'S DEATH WAS NOT GALE'S FAULT. "Goodbye Gale" is not how Katniss and Gale should have ended, after all they'd been through.
If you read up until here, with all my disregard for grammar and thousands of run-on sentences, YOU ARE AWESOME AND I LOVE YOU. Rating:
As the war of Panem escalates to the destruction of other districts by the Capitol, Katniss Everdeen, the reluctant leader of the rebellion, must bring together an army against President Snow, while all she holds dear hangs in the balance.
I just. How can it be over?? Remember when we all anticipated the first movie? No one knew who Jennifer Lawrence was, we heard Rue's eerie whistle for the first time. It's been a great four years. You can read my reviews of the previous movies here.
Like the book, the Mockingjay movies are not as colorful and crazy as the first two. They're more serious, and are much closer to real life. That's also the reason I like them (book and movies) so much, though Catching Fire remains my favorite.
SPOILERS AHEAD..
First item of praise, is that the makers of THG movies know all the Hollywood cliches and they use them against you. There's that scene in the tunnels before the mutts attack when the silence and the cameras just let you KNOW that something is about to happen and you brace yourself for a heart attack that doesn't come. But then it does and you fall off your chair.
And the general problem of knowing what's going to happen just makes this more painful- waiting for Finnick to die, and Prim. And even the ones I had forgotten about wrenched my heart strings deeply- Boggs, the Leeg sisters.
The actors continue to delight, with all the new people really bringing some great stuff to the table. I just wish we had more Josh Hutcherson - Peeta had a much stronger presence in the book than he did here, though granted that was in Katniss's thoughts.
Overall, this installment and the series in general were very faithful to the source material, a fact for which I am eternally greatful and wouldn't have been able to forgive if it hadn't been true. The only little piece I wanted but didn't get was the cake at Finnick and Annie's wedding that tips Katniss (and us) off that Peeta is getting better. (ETA: also the memorial book K&P make in the end)
The scenes were truly glorious:
Haymitch reading Plutarch's letter to Katniss
Katniss screaming at Buttercup the cat
HAYMITCH KISSING EFFIE
Effie saying goodbye to Katniss - finding the life of a victor
YOU LOVE ME REAL OR NOT REAL
my name is Katniss Everdeen
it's primrose
the scene of the symbolic Hunger Games
shooting Coin
my dear Katniss we agreed never to lie to each other
ADORABLE CHILD JUMPING ON DADDY PEETA
the Avox and his brother
And so many scenes that packed subtle punches- in the end, when Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta are eating back in District 12 and watching Paylor become President with Plutarch looking on, and Haymitch says " And they say no one ever wins the games". I loved that - it continues the implications that the whole war on the Capitol was also a game in a way (a game of thrones?), and Plutarch remained a gamemaker all throughout- somehow always on the winning side, and always influencing. It also shows how tyranny repeats itself, as do all human mistakes (This much is said explicitly in Plutarch's letter).
The only thing I'm truly upset about: the distortion of Gale's character. They made him just SO DAMN ANNOYING. Everytime Peeta did or said anything relating to Katniss Gale had some stupid jealous comment about it. It was so irrelevant and unimportant, and book Gale was better than that. Also, the thing I ultimately respected most about Gale and in general about The Hunger Games is that Katniss didn't get to choose her beau in the end. GALE PICKED UP AND LEFT. He gave her an arrow, told her to shoot straight, kissed her forhead and scedaddled off to live his life. It was amazing, and cemented my love for him despite me being firmly Team Peeta. And while the double bomb was his idea, and as much as the book tried to make it seem otherwise, PRIM'S DEATH WAS NOT GALE'S FAULT. "Goodbye Gale" is not how Katniss and Gale should have ended, after all they'd been through.
If you read up until here, with all my disregard for grammar and thousands of run-on sentences, YOU ARE AWESOME AND I LOVE YOU. Rating:
