A Negative Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Sucks

Surprise! No wait. No one's surprised.

Frankly, this whole endeavor is hilarious. Hollywood's recent trend of unnecessarily splitting the final chapters of various stories into multiple segments is an obvious cash grab, but in Mockingjay's case, you get something unintentionally meta: part 1 is always a commercial for part 2, but the plot of Mockingjay is already literally about making a commercial. The irony makes the whole thing just impossible to take seriously.

I just don't know what to tell you – nothing really happens in this movie. Lawrence wakes up, is selected to star in some propaganda commercials, fires one arrow during the entire course of the movie, and then periodically cries about something (usually Peeta bread). We're introduced to a bunch of new characters that no one has reason to care about,  go on a mission so stupid its ending gets edited out, and end up with absolutely no development for any character, at all. Oh, and shaky cam makes a return, though he doesn't incite as much nausea as before because there's only the one action scene – and honestly, if you've seen the trailer, you don't even have to buy a ticket and can save yourself the headache. There's just no direction or logic to any of it.

Take the rebellion, for instance: during a pivotal moment, Peeta appears to break through his psychological torture and warns the rebels of an impending attack. But isn't it the case that live interviews are always filmed with a delay, specifically for this kind of thing? Surely, we're to assume the immensely wealthy Capitol has an editing room and team at least as large as the one that initially tries to work with Katniss; but for some reason, Peeta's message goes through, and for some reason, Peeta actually has the knowledge to begin with, since, I don't know, I guess the underground torture chamber happens to be right next to the war room. It's contrivance after contrivance; you know none of the writers give a shit about good writing when a moment for The Capitol to cripple the rebellion by killing some of its most important members is entirely passed up, with no explanation other than a literal observation after the fact – it's like Avatar trying to negate the stereotype of "unobtainium" by acknowledging it and simultaneously pretending it doesn't exist. And never mind how ridiculous it is that the capitol affords humongous, automated anti-air turrets, but then can't station smaller turrets near one of its most vulnerable points (a generator, that once destroyed, allows the plot to progress).

Ugh. There's just too much stupid crap here. Remember how in Catching Fire, despite being the shitfest that it was, Katniss is at least formidable? Intelligent? A badass? She stands up to president Snow after he walks into her home, not breaking a sweat; you can feel some of the intensity. By Catching Fire's end, Katniss is even free to pick between two guys – the choice is actually in the girl's hands for once! But as Mockingjay progresses, Katniss transforms from this confident, independent girl, into a cardboard cutout; and ironically, the intent here is to market her as powerful and in control. No – throughout Mockingjay, all Katniss ends up doing is crying over boys and failing to connect the simplest of dots: if The Capitol so freely releases Peeta back to her, why not immediately see it as the trap it is, given that the mission to rescue him turns out to be one? Katniss as a character just takes such a humongous step backwards. 

Whatever. It should be interesting to see how this ends, given that Collins ran out of Battle Royale to plagiarize after the first installment. Who knows – maybe the girl named "Katniss" will even make up for insulting the only actual cat that appears onscreen.