Harry Potter was probably the trend-setter for many things within this genre, such as splitting the final book into two films. Nowadays, it has become an expected move for any franchise to do.
For me, there are not many that look appealing or have been a critical success. There are many franchises with generally negative reviews such as Divergent, Percy Jackson, The Giver, The Maze Runner, Eragon, I Am Number Four, Beautiful Creatures, The Host, Mortal Instruments and of course Twilight.
The few exceptions I would say are Harry Potter, The Fault In Our Stars, The Chronicles Of Narnia and The Hunger Games. The latter I particularly enjoyed for the concept, performances, production design and general great story-telling.
Like with many of these, the names are ridiculous and I struggle to remember them all. But as this particular franchise makes me engaged with the content, it manages to work.
The first Hunger Games really set the tone and made me highly intrigued in what would happen next. Catching Fire is definitely the best of the franchise and made us show what are main protagonists are truly up against.
I enjoyed Mockingjay Part 1 as much as the other installments, but I can see why people got bored by it as it is essentially filler.
I have to hold my hands up that I am not much of a book reader. So I am just giving my opinion on what I see on screen.
For part 2, it begins by still tackling some points we already saw in part 1, but then we suddenly take a sharp turn and the build-up for this epic franchise finale begins. Then we witness one final twist that it is definitely not conventional, which definitely gave me mixed emotions.
Like with all two-parters, it felt unnecessary. It definitely should have been one film. Obviously it makes sense from a box-office point of view. But for general film-making, it just becomes slow paced and not engaging enough as it should be. Harry Potter is a definite exception as I loved both parts of Deathly Hallows. In fact, I am proud to say that I feel part 1 is just a bit better than part 2.
There is definitely suspenseful thrills in here to keep you entertained. But I think the action sequences felt more like filler to make these two parts worth it. Then by the end of it, I was sort of glad that it is over. Don't worry, for me that is a good thing as I felt that the franchise could go no further.
The performances weren't exceptional, but solid nevertheless. Jennifer Lawrence still holds this film series well, but not as much as in the previous installments in my opinion. Joss Hutcherson was o.k, but I am not sure if he will get another huge role in the future. His best work for me is still Bridge To Terabithia from 2007. Donald Sutherland was great as the evil President Snow once again and it is great that his acting resume is extending to modern mainstream.
There were not many others to mention apart from possibly Jena Malone. For the few scenes she had, her performance definitely gave us an interesting character that felt under developed throughout the franchise except in Catching Fire.
It was a shame that Stanley Tucci's character does not get much involvement in this one as I really liked his performance as the over-the-top presenter Caesar Flickerman. I have to finally mention Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was a mixture of emotions for me as it was great seeing him, but it was for the final time. Definitely a tragic loss for everyone.
From the technical standpoint, it does make use of the budget. The set designs are impressive, the visual effects are definitely the best it has been and the soundtrack is used with great subtlety by James Newton Howard.
As for the problems, there are a few that need addressing. Some of the decisions by the characters felt odd to me and were not executed or explained well. But I guess the book explains it more in its subtext, like every movie that was originally a novel does. The running time was always going to be a problem. Making a relatively thin book into two movies is tough and pointless. They definitely did the best that they could, but it is still a negative. Unlike the first two, I did not feel like I wanted to own this on DVD afterwards.
However, I still enjoyed it enough to make it passable viewing. I can definitely see why fans of the books were nervous as it did not feel as strong as the first two.
There is enough in there for it to be a satisfying ending for both fans of the film and books. But it's big downfall is that it is too long and slow-paced.
It is quite a sad final part to this franchise. In some ways, it is refreshing rather than going all-out for an action packed finale. But I was warned that this was virtually everyone's least favorite book.
My final thought should be a positive one as it definitely one of the few teen novels to travel well onto the big screen and attract many different types of films-fans including myself. It is definitely a franchise worth remembering.
Rating: 7/10
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