For a moment, it looked like The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 was the indicator of a slam bang, winner-takes-all finale to the franchise that launched Jennifer Lawrence into the stratosphere. Those hopes were sadly dashed when The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 was released, and now you can claim your piece of the schadenfreude in the Honest Trailer below.
Now while the good folks at Screen Junkies have rightfully skewered the turkey that is The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, there are some caveats to be made before truly jumping in. Most importantly, much like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, if you have a problem with the film's source material, you can at least respect the film for staying true to the letter of the story. That said, the story behind the latter half of the last book / film in the series, does deserve all of the hell it gets. Except for one crucial, spoilerific plot point.
While Katniss Everdeen did not get her ultimate revenge against President Snow, via the pointy instrument of justice she had lined up with his heart, she did the most honorable thing of all: she prevented The Hunger Games from happening again. With Alma Coin flipping the tables so that the privileged children of The Capital would now suffer in the next round of "child murdering Super Bowls," Katniss shrugged off vengeance and instead stayed true to the hero she always was. Besides, Snow was torn apart by the rioting crowd, on top of already dying. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2's choice in who took an arrow to the chest was valid, leaving Katniss to change the world the way she'd always wanted.
Since the pleasantries are now out of the way, it's time to hammer home the business at hand and criticize The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 for the one decision it truly did screw up: Katniss should have never been with Peeta in the first place. Come to think of it, this video reminds us of just how useless Peeta really was as a character, which makes the universe's obsession with his well-being all the more ridiculous. That, and if you watch the kissing scenes closely like our narrator has, you can tell that the kiss between Gale and Katniss was more intense. Not to mention, she should have known that Gale never meant to kill her sister, and would do anything to defend the people.
Right about now, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 is standing on even ground in its decision making, which means it's time for the tie-breaking failure that sinks the entire film into oblivion: it should have only been one movie. With the trend of breaking your YA finale into two installments, the story of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay left all of the awesome build-up and action front loaded in the first installment, only to give us a finale that, forgive the pun, Peeta'd out. If both films were shortened to one, full fledged thrill ride, we might have had that finale we all dreamed of. But alas, the die is cast, and The Hunger Games are at an end... unless Lionsgate somehow executes its plans for further films in the universe that brought us Katniss Everdeen.
For now though, we'll leave with our fond memories of Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, and hope that The Divergent Series: Ascendant doesn't make the same mistakes. Though judging by our review of The Divergent Series: Allegiant, we're not going to hold our breath on that possibility.
