The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

Year: 2015

Director: Francis Lawrence

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, and Sam Claflin
Tagline: The fire will burn forever
Synopsis: As the rebels march on the Capitol, Katniss and a small squad steal forward with one mission in mind: kill President Snow.

Review

Do you ever eat something that tastes good in the moment but then leaves a bitter aftertaste?  That's how Mockingjay Part 2 was for me.

At this point, if you've seen the other movies, you're going to see Mockingjay Part 2, if you haven't already.  If you haven't seen the other movies, you shouldn't start here.  This is very much a part 2 and makes no sense without part 1.  It really doesn't even make much sense without the other movies as well.  It's all one story.

The trouble is, it's not a story I like.  It's grim; from Hunger Games to Mockingjay, it is a grim world and a grim story.  In terms of the films (I haven't read the books) this is the grimmest of the four.  Aside from the epilogue, there's only one point in the film that is hopeful: Finnick and Annie's wedding.  Even that is brought down by Katniss' angst.  Shouldn't that liveliness, that hope for the future be played up more?  Isn't that what everyone is ultimately fighting for: a return to joy and living, rather than war and survival?

To make a story truly epic, you pit good versus evil, where good sacrifices and falls but ultimately triumphs over evil.  This isn't good versus evil.  It's more right versus wrong or (some form of) justice versus tyranny.  The trouble with Mockingjay Part 2 is that it is all about defeating tyranny, getting revenge on Snow, and toppling the Capitol.  It takes the overcoming evil part but uncouples it from the triumph of good.  The good characters either die, are tainted, or are sidelined.  Katniss' final speech rings hollow.  She says she counts the good things people did.  By the time I left the theater I was trying to remember any of those moments.  They weren't emphasized or recollected.  Even if she had just listed a few examples, it would have helped.

In addition to being grim, the movie was slow.  It felt like the film simmered and simmered, but when the time came for a rolling boil ... it simmered then splashed and then simmered its way to the end.

As a film, it was well-made.  The production values were top-notch as ever and the actors did a great job, especially Josh Hutcherson as the tormented Peeta.  The music was good, but mostly in that it echoed a powerful scene from Mockingjay Part 1.

Put simply Mockingjay Part 2 was a good movie.  I'll give it that.  But it wasn't a great movie.  Compared to its predecessor Catching Fire, it was a fizzle.  I had expected more from the Girl on Fire.

*** Spoiler Section ***

A lot of characters die in these books/films.  That's not a spoiler.  Plenty of characters, including main characters die in Mockingjay.  Boggs' death is sad.  It felt like the film handled it well.  Finnick's death is tragic (of all the characters, I found him most intriguing and likable).  I prefer how he dies in the film to how I know he dies in the book.  Still, part of me would have liked a little more closure with his death.

But the death that felt robbed of its power was Prim's.  In the film, the aftermath is all about Katniss' grief for her sister.  She's understandably upset.  But it felt all about Katniss and less about Prim and what she stood for individually and symbolically.  Prim is why Katniss volunteered in the first place.  Prim is the embodiment of everything good worth fighting for in Panem.  That Coin's Machiavellian tactic to end the war killed Prim is hugely symbolic.  For me, the film portrayed it as another death and another reason for Katniss to be angry and move the story forward.

Maybe it's because she didn't get much screen time in Part 2, but Prim's death didn't have any emotional impact.  She was just one more death in a grim movie filled with deaths.  Yes, I knew she was going to die.  But I also knew Dobby and Dumbledore were going to die; that didn't stop those deaths from hitting me in the feels when I watched Harry Potter.

Quotable Quotes

• "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 76th Hunger Games." -- Finnick Odair
• "Miss Everdeen, I thought we agreed never to lie to one another." -- President Snow to Katniss
• "Mockingjay, may your aim be as true as your heart is pure." -- President Coin
• "You always have to make everything difficult." -- Haymitch to Katniss

ISFS

The Peanuts Movie

Year: 2015

Director: Steve Martino

Starring: Noah Schnapp, Bill Melendez, Alexander Garfin, Hadley Belle Miller, and Mariel Sheets
Tagline: The story of an underdog.  And his dog.
Synopsis: Charlie Brown tries to impress the Little Red-Haired Girl while Snoopy does battle with his nemesis, the Red Baron.

Review

Like many, I grew up always knowing who Snoopy, Woodstock, Charlie Brown, Linus, and Lucy were.  The holiday season included watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and of course, A Charlie Brown Christmas.  When I saw that there would be a new movie starring the Peanuts gang, I was nervous how a wonderful element of my childhood would be treated.  Have no fear.  Charles Schulz might well have personally handed the filmmakers a box with all his comic strips labelled "Handle with Care," for that is how the movie was made.  It helped that Schulz's son and grandson were the writers.

There's a line in The Incredibles: "There's no school like the old school."  The Peanuts Movie is an old school treasure.  This isn't a slick, modernized Charlie Brown shoehorned into 21st century pop culture.  Watching the film was a 90-minute helping of nostalgia.  Charlie Brown still has a rotary phone (and gets tangled in the cord).  Lucy still charges a nickle for her psychiatric counsel.  Snoopy still taps out his novel on a typewriter.  And it is a world where all the neighborhood kids get together to play baseball, go ice skating, or fly kites.

Peanuts is also (relatively) free from gimmicks.  Bucking the celebrity voice trend, all the kids are voiced by actual kids.  The biggest celebrity in the cast list is Kristin Chenoweth (Glinda from the original Broadway cast of Wicked) as Fifi, Snoopy's love interest.  And she doesn't even have dialogue.  Just like Snoopy, she is limited to conversation-like sounds.  Speaking of the famed Beagle, he and pal Woodstock are both voiced by Bill Melendez, who voiced them in the original TV specials.  The filmmakers used archived voice recordings to have Melendez bring Snoopy to life once more.  Oh, and if you are wondering, all adults in the film are "voiced" by a trombone, just as they should be.

The only touch of modernization was in the form of a few pop songs worked into the story.  Even that was low key.  Most of the music is the familiar melodies kids like me grew up with, including the inimitable "Linus and Lucy" theme.

One of the elements that made me, and others, nervous about Peanuts was the animation style.  How do you take something as fundamentally two-dimensional as a comic strip and make it using modern 3D computer animation?  Very carefully and lovingly.  And it works.  The artists were painstakingly faithful to the pencil sketch source material.  Though made in a computer, there's still a hand drawn feel to the film.  There are even some two-dimensional elements woven in as part of the style.  The result is something beautiful, both familiar and new, like a classic car that has been dusted off, fine-tuned, and given a fresh coat of shiny paint.

Peanuts is about as kid friendly a movie as I know of.  It is rated G.  Yes, G.  The Peanuts gang are as clean, wholesome, and fun as the TV specials and comic strips.  There was not a crass or boorish joke to be found (although there were plenty in the movie trailers that preceded the film).  There were no adult jokes slipped in.  The only things that will go over little kids' heads are who the Red Baron is and why the telephone has a cord attached.

If all the above were not enough reason to see The Peanuts Movie, see it for its good message.  Charlie Brown is an everyman.  He's not a "winner" in the worldly sense.  His baseball team never wins.  His kite never soars.  And he can never kick the football.  Time and time again he gets knocked down by life.  And yet he always gets back up, dusts himself off, and tries again.  He perseveres.  Throughout the story, he demonstrates the truthfulness of the Broadway play's title: You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.  He is good.  And being good is better than being a "winner."

I completely enjoyed The Peanuts Movie.  Did I mention it's funny?  Because it is really funny.  I think there was a grin on my face the entire film.  If you love Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the gang, do yourself a favor and check out The Peanuts Movie.  And stay through the comics-strewn credits for one final chuckle.

Quotable Quotes

• "It was a dark and stormy night ... " -- Snoopy's novel
• "Good grief." -- Charlie Brown
• "I can't afford a mortgage!  What if I'm put into escrow?" -- Charlie Brown
• "Wah wah-wah." -- All adults

ISFS