Mockingjay Part 2: Hush Little Baby

Let’s do the math.

If Mockingjay: Part 1 and Mockingjay Part: 2 were one film, it’d have a running time of 260 minutes, nearly four-and-a-half hours of material. If you’re the director and want to make a single movie, what do you cut? Where do you trim corners? Which characters do you decide the audience can live without? Which of the battles or subplots gets left on the cutting-room floor?

I argued last year that the decision to split the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy worked to its advantage, as the characters were allowed more time to breathe. For the most part, I still stand by this sentiment. However, while some movies that have ben split into several parts work as stand-alone films, Mockingjay: Part 2 does not, and this is my biggest gripe with the film.

Picking up where Part 1 left off, Katniss has rescued Peeta from President Snow’s clutches, although Peeta is mentally disturbed and untrustworthy. While President Coin wants Katniss to hang back and not get involved in the fighting, Katniss has other ideas. Her sights are set on killing President Snow, even if it means sneaking away from District 13 into the heart of the war zone. The closer Katniss gets to the Capitol the more dangerous it is for her, and although she’s aided by Gail, Peeta and Victors from previous Hunger Games, it’s not known if she’ll ever be able to reach Snow and kill him.

As bleak as this movie is, it’s easy to forget that the source material was aimed at teenagers and the movie itself is rated PG-13. While most of the deaths are bloodless, people are killed left and right, and the final scene on the Capitol steps is as shocking as anything I’ve seen in R-rated movies. The movie doesn’t pull any emotional punches as it continues to show how Katniss is manipulated by both sides to further their ends. One of the main themes in both Mockingjay movies is the push and pull between Katniss and the people who want to use her as a figurehead. Although she is the hero of the war, her destiny always seems not entirely within her control, which is depressing to think about. Jennifer Lawrence once again delivers a note-perfect performance as Katniss. It’s easy to forget that JLaw was an unknown only four years ago; between playing Katniss and Mystique in the X-Men movies, Lawrence seems like she’s been around forever.

The rest of the cast delivers as well, from series stalwarts Woody Harrelson and Donald Sutherland to newcomers Michelle Forbes and Gwendolyne Christie. While it’s obvious which scenes were rewritten to address the death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, I appreciate that the filmmakers treated Hoffman’s death with respect, instead of trying to resort to CGI trickery to keep him in more of the film.

It’s this respect that makes the splitting of the book into two movies look more like a cash grab. Everyone in this movie puts forth an A+ amount of effort, but the film suffers from being released a full year after the first part. I’ll say it again: Mockingjay: Part 2 needs to be watched back-to-back with the first film, otherwise its punch is softened. I hadn’t seen the first film since my review last February, and as a result I wasn’t as invested in the characters and their eventual deaths has less of an impact. While movies like Kill Bill Vol. 2 can stand alone from their fist parts, Mockingjay: Part 2 cannot. Even though it has a two-hour runtime, it feels like less of a movie and more of an extended coda without the setup of the first part.

Although I must say, the mockingjay salute still gives me chills every time I see it…

Mockingjay: Part 2 tl;drs

Quick summary: Now that Katniss has Peta back she sets her sights on killing President Snow. But can she trust Peeta? Or anyone else, for that matter?

Too many writers? Nope. It helps that both Mockingjay movies were written by…um…Jonathan from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Really? *checks IMDB* Holy hell, the dude has won a bunch of Emmys? AND he wrote The Butler? Damn.)