First I want to say: Fandom. We've made it. Three books and four movies and here we are at the end of the line, until the next franchise comes over. (I'm looking at you, 5th Wave!) Let's take a brief look at the best and worst of the previous movies.
Hunger Games: Had great cast and pacing, but it didn't do a good job of explaining its world. Those of us who did read the books weren't confused, but for those who didn't; it was hard to follow, and in my opinion if a movie makes you do homework just for you to understand the basic plot, it fails as an adaptation.
Catching Fire: I LOVE this movie! Everything was on point from action, to casting, and effects. And seeing the political drama unfold was done nicely.
Mockingjay Part 1: The biggest problem with this was pacing. Oh man, the pacing... So much was built on pure exposition and angst with very little delivery. One good thing I will give it, however was the cliffhanger at the end. That was good.
Now how does our newest installment compare with the others? Does it deliver the year long wait between movies? Yes and no.
Yes it does give us everything we wanted, given how the books went, but unlike the books; the movie has far too many periods of time where nothing happens and we keep hearing Peeta say what a horrible person he is. Ugh!
The things I did like were the traps and character relationships, not to mention this whole series did do a great job of making you care for these characters, so when you see something bad happen to them; the audience is fully invested.
That being said, this did have the same mistakes as its predecessor with slow pacing and angst.
It just really bugs me that ever since Harry Potter, studios have a mighty need to make the last installment into two parts. Sometimes it works, if you have enough material to keep things interesting, but if you don't, it comes off as boring and pointless.
Now don't get me wrong. I liked this movie and was entertained by it and the whole series, but to me the story would've benefited more if it was just a trilogy. Three movies for three books. No more, no less.
In the endless debate for Books vs. Movies, books clearly wins this round. Not only are the pacing and character development done better, but in the books you get all of Katniss's thought process, how rightfully paranoid she is, and how she overcomes it.
Final Analysis:
Go see the movie. Especially if you've been with this series in the beginning. Definitely cleansed my palate from the atrocity of The Good Dinosaur, though that's not really a hard act to follow. What did you guys think? Agree or disagree? Please feel free to let me know!
Next Time:
Victor Frankenstein. (For real this time.)
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