BeautifulBallad Reviews The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2 hits theaters today, November 20 and the film does not quite live up to its predecessors. As the last movie in The Hunger Games series, the movie does a nice job of wrapping up the series but could have been much shorter.

Based on the book by Suzanne Collins, Lionsgate opted to split the final book in the series into two movies releasing Part 1 in November of 2014. However, the last novel would have been told better in one movie. Part 2 was too slow and not well paced. There were many times the movie could have ended, but it proceeded to drag on.

The action scenes and stunts were entertaining but even they couldn’t make the movie flow better. The lead trio Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth do a great job as their characters, as they have in the last three movies, but once again it is Woody Harrelson’s Haymitch that steals the movie. His one liners were great and by the end of the movie, you wish there had been more from him in it. The same goes for Elizabeth Banks’ Effie. Effie was one of the best parts of the series and you would think after breaking the movie into two parts they could have utilized her more.

If you plan to see the movie make sure to either read the book beforehand and/or watch Part 1. It was a little confusing at some parts, so doing one or both of those things will definitely help. If you are a diehard Hunger Games fans, go see the movie right, but if you want to see to just see it, wait until it comes out on DVD, that way you can watch Part 1 and Part 2 at the same time. Maybe, it will be a little better in that format.

Grade: C