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‘Mockingjay Part 2’ review

Owen Johnson
Connector Staff

The “Hunger Games” movie franchise has been all over the place. Its first film was very good, its second film was great, and its third one was lacking in a lot of areas. Rest assured that while “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2” is not as good as the first and second movies, it more than makes up for the third movie and gives the series a satisfying finale.

Taking place where “Part 1” left off, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) sneaks away from District 13 to the capitol in an effort to assassinate President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Upon arrival at the capitol, she is put into a star squad whose mission is to film propaganda for the rebels. After booby traps and capitol soldiers pin down the squad, they are forced to abandon their original mission and follow Katniss on her personal mission of killing Snow.

Following in the footsteps of such young adult series like “Harry Potter” and “Twilight,” this is part two of the final movie of the franchise. While monetary reasons were definitely in place when the decision was made, an argument can also be made for creativity towards the plan to split the movie into two parts. The second half of “Mockingjay,” which holds some of the most important parts of the whole franchise, was certainly worthy of getting its own movie. By splitting the film into two parts, the filmmakers could focus more attention to scenes instead of it becoming overstuffed with everything that needed to be included.

The movie features a number of action sequences that are both well orchestrated and suspenseful with a range of diversity. The movie ranges from typical war movie action sequences of enemies firing at one another to a scene where Katniss and her squad mates are being followed through a dank sewer by horrible creatures called mutts. This scene is particularly well handled, being a mixture of horror and action with suspenseful buildup and an exciting fight scene that has similar feeling to the hive scene from James Cameron’s “Aliens.”

The love triangle between Katniss, her best friend and hunting partner Gale (Liam Hemsworth), and her fellow Hunger Games victor Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) is present as ever in this movie. It is the first time that all three characters have been together all at once for the majority of the movie; the issue takes full attention of several scenes. While Katniss’ predicament is understandable, it is more annoying than romantic considering none of these three actors has much chemistry with one another. Considering the romance is one of the most critical parts of the entire franchise, it is a big problem.

Easily making up for the failures of “Part 1,” “Mockingjay, Part 2” acts well as a sendoff to the series and gives a nice sense of closure to the world and the characters we have come to know since 2012.

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