The Hunger Games: Mockingjay (2014 - 2015)
The final installment of the Hunger Games series, split into two parts, as was the style at the time. The Mockingjay duology sees Katniss, now a nationwide symbol for rebellion, joining the rather poorly foreshadowed and rather well equipped resistance group District 13, who are trying to leverage her status as a folk hero to finally overthrow the tyrannical regime of President Snow, who, in turn, user her male counterpart and love interest Peeta for propaganda on their own.
Mockingjay is the point where the series mostly ditches the eponymous Hunger Games aspect of it all to turn into something like a war drama, if one taking great effort to carry what has emerged as practically the primary theme of the series forward: The importance of appearance and aesthethics for the success of any mass movement. Which I don't particularly mind, I did find all the stuff about playing the media circus and swaying the public more interesting than the battle royale side of it all, but when a character tells Katniss that she'll be "the best dressed rebel in human history" it does start to feel like a bit of a gimmick. I do think Mockingjay is the series as its most interesting, as it does mark the point when it can't really pussyfoot around its actual political themes anymore and actually has to make some definitive statements.
Now, those statements aren't especially deep because I don't think this story is especially smart but at least it held my interest for being slightly more ambitious and slightly more weird than the earlier half of the series ever got. By being forced to take a setting that started off feeling like a rather thin excuse to have conflict, action and clearly defined, morally unambiguous sides seriously and think of some of the actual ramifications of the world she's established, author of the books Colleen Hoover was actually left with a couple of things to think about. Which resulted in her mostly, as the meme goes, thinking about the Roman Empire a good bit. So while the entire premise, and particularly the suddenly present militarized opposition, that feels annoyingly like something out of a Bethesda Fallout game, are as contrived as they've ever been, there are at least elements of moral ambiguity and a couple of weird idiosyncrasies in there that kept me engaged.
It's weird little quirks like Peeta becoming some Project Monarch Manchurian Candidate brainwashed assassin, or the fact that there is a scene when, during the storm of the capital, the main characters are suddenly attacked by weird Resident Evil ass ghouls in the sewers, or that one point when a lady shows up who looks like if the Na'vi from Avatar if they weren't blue or how the climax plays out that make this duology of movies almost interesting. I don't think it ever quite gets there, for what it's worth, but it's the closest this series ever got to approaching something like auteurism.
Because, at the end of the day, this is still going through the motions for most of it. There is nothing that would present much of a break with, much less an excuse for a lot of the ramshackle plotting and characterisations of the series as a whole. Characters pick up a bad habit of speaking in proclamations and platitudes, although I did grow attached to a couple of them over the course of the series. And let me be real here, you will see the twist villain coming. Although, I do wonder if it caught some people who've watched this as kids off guard. It's not something that's really strong enough to elevate the series as a whole by any means.
I do think Mockingjay is as compelling as this series ever got but let me be honest here, particularly strong material, it's not. There are a couple of worthwhile ideas and well executed moments in there but at the end of the day it's all pretty shlocky. I give credit where it's due, actors like Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland and Elizabeth Banks do make their characters come to life, I genuinely think Jennifer Lawrence's career deserved better, considering there's not exactly a great deal of iconic female action heroes out there right now and the ending felt overall satisfying. But did I really get into this series? No, no I didn't.
The final installment of the Hunger Games series, split into two parts, as was the style at the time. The Mockingjay duology sees Katniss, now a nationwide symbol for rebellion, joining the rather poorly foreshadowed and rather well equipped resistance group District 13, who are trying to leverage her status as a folk hero to finally overthrow the tyrannical regime of President Snow, who, in turn, user her male counterpart and love interest Peeta for propaganda on their own.
Mockingjay is the point where the series mostly ditches the eponymous Hunger Games aspect of it all to turn into something like a war drama, if one taking great effort to carry what has emerged as practically the primary theme of the series forward: The importance of appearance and aesthethics for the success of any mass movement. Which I don't particularly mind, I did find all the stuff about playing the media circus and swaying the public more interesting than the battle royale side of it all, but when a character tells Katniss that she'll be "the best dressed rebel in human history" it does start to feel like a bit of a gimmick. I do think Mockingjay is the series as its most interesting, as it does mark the point when it can't really pussyfoot around its actual political themes anymore and actually has to make some definitive statements.
Now, those statements aren't especially deep because I don't think this story is especially smart but at least it held my interest for being slightly more ambitious and slightly more weird than the earlier half of the series ever got. By being forced to take a setting that started off feeling like a rather thin excuse to have conflict, action and clearly defined, morally unambiguous sides seriously and think of some of the actual ramifications of the world she's established, author of the books Colleen Hoover was actually left with a couple of things to think about. Which resulted in her mostly, as the meme goes, thinking about the Roman Empire a good bit. So while the entire premise, and particularly the suddenly present militarized opposition, that feels annoyingly like something out of a Bethesda Fallout game, are as contrived as they've ever been, there are at least elements of moral ambiguity and a couple of weird idiosyncrasies in there that kept me engaged.
It's weird little quirks like Peeta becoming some Project Monarch Manchurian Candidate brainwashed assassin, or the fact that there is a scene when, during the storm of the capital, the main characters are suddenly attacked by weird Resident Evil ass ghouls in the sewers, or that one point when a lady shows up who looks like if the Na'vi from Avatar if they weren't blue or how the climax plays out that make this duology of movies almost interesting. I don't think it ever quite gets there, for what it's worth, but it's the closest this series ever got to approaching something like auteurism.
Because, at the end of the day, this is still going through the motions for most of it. There is nothing that would present much of a break with, much less an excuse for a lot of the ramshackle plotting and characterisations of the series as a whole. Characters pick up a bad habit of speaking in proclamations and platitudes, although I did grow attached to a couple of them over the course of the series. And let me be real here, you will see the twist villain coming. Although, I do wonder if it caught some people who've watched this as kids off guard. It's not something that's really strong enough to elevate the series as a whole by any means.
I do think Mockingjay is as compelling as this series ever got but let me be honest here, particularly strong material, it's not. There are a couple of worthwhile ideas and well executed moments in there but at the end of the day it's all pretty shlocky. I give credit where it's due, actors like Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland and Elizabeth Banks do make their characters come to life, I genuinely think Jennifer Lawrence's career deserved better, considering there's not exactly a great deal of iconic female action heroes out there right now and the ending felt overall satisfying. But did I really get into this series? No, no I didn't.
