Review of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015) by Lewis E — 13 Mar 2016

The 'Hunger Games' trilogy (or quadrilogy?) began as a satisfactory piece of blockbuster cinema before reaching its peak with 'Catching Fire'. The pathetic 'Mockingjay :Part 1' then showed how the franchise was fizzling out. Unfortunately, 'Mockingjay: Part 2' does not represent a late resurgence. By default it obtains a higher mark than the awful Part 1 since it didn't completely bore the living daylights out of me but it is nonetheless a bad movie. The concept of the capital transforming into a hunger games arena, setting booby traps for the approaching rebels, is enticing because it revives elements which were key to the first two films' popularity. However this aspect wasn't sufficiently exploited and nearly everything else was executed poorly. Outside of the action, dialogue is filled with teenage hormones as Katniss continues to ponder who she fancies - Gale or Peeta. This turns Hunger Games away from the genre of decent family action flick to lame teenage dystopia like 'Divergent'. Also, the story doesn't know where its going. Random characters turn up, for example a mute cat-like woman and terrible CG aliens, and characters make odd choices which undermine the foundations of the story.

I can't say I had much investment in the 'Hunger Games' series but it was nonetheless a disappointing end to a series that showed early glimpses of potential.