THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 2

I just came from seeing The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Part 2! Based on the award winning book, the long awaited sequel marks the finale of the film series that made actress Jennifer Lawrence a star and inspired young girls the world over to rock the braided ponytail and take up archery classes. When we last left Katniss Everdeen and her friends, she was in the midst of planning an invasion of the Capitol city in District 1 to seize control of the country of Panam from the villainous President Snow who had just succeeded in brainwashing and turning the love of Katniss' life Peeta and turning into a slobbering lap dog of the capitol. Now, Ms. Everdeen and company soldier on towards The Capitol, destiny and a reckoning with President Snow.

I really have to commend this movie on its faithfulness to the book. Director Francis Lawrence really did a great job of turning the book into an action packed adventure. The movie was well shot and the supporting cast did a really good job too especially Jena Malone and Michelle Forbes. The only qualms I have with the movie come from it's dramatic moments between Peeta and Katniss which all come off as hokey and overly manufactured to seem more dramatic than they should be. At the same time, other moments, that actually were naturally dramatic and probably should have been focused on are played a lot dryer than they should have been. Ultimately, I can't fault the movie too much because in actuality, the book played things out in the same way, and what am I going to do about that? Complain that the movie is too much like the book?

On the whole, I liked a lot that this movie had to offer. The special effects and action sequences were very impressive and it was very loyal to the source material; so much so that the only things I didn't like about the movie were the same things I didn't like about the book. So if you liked the novels, I definitely recommend seeing the film but if you're just a movie watcher, you might be less satisfied. In the end The Mocking Jay Part 2 gets a 3.5...out of 5.