The Hunger Games: Mockingjay #2.  Francis Lawrence, Dir.  All bad!  I felt like I was a passive spectator of the video game Call of Duty, only it was about an inept bunch of futuristic warriors.  Never could get past the idea of bows and arrows, but I guess it makes sense if there’s no NRA around in futuristic dystopias (I always look for the positives, even in a dystopia).  The slimy gray zombies were the final touch, though—completely unnecessary (a plot gimmick in the original book?).  This ponderous series is based on Suzanne Collins YA novels, more fantasy than sci-fi (certainly not good sci-fi), and the movie reflects that target audience in almost every aspect (the dialogue is often infantile and reeking of sappy sentimentality).

I confess I didn’t see the first three movies.  Didn’t want to see this one either.  My only experience with this franchise was via “peeks inside” and reading the blurbs for the books on Amazon because I was curious to see what all the hubbub was about.  Never saw anything worth spending my time on.  (Although plenty of people feel otherwise, I can live with being the lone voice in the wilderness.)  Did I miss back-story info from those earlier movies?  Yeah, some of the lesser characters, hangovers from the previous movies, were a bit confusing to me at times, but for the most part everything was all too predictable and mind-numbing.  Like I said, Call of Duty has more plot.

And don’t think I can’t review #4 when I didn’t see #1-3!  This isn’t a serialization, folks!  Just like in a book series, every movie in a series should be able to stand-alone.  It can use some of the same characters, but it damn well better be a complete story or I’ll pan it.  In other words, I’m allowed to judge this movie all by its lonesome, so I looked for a complete story.  It was.  That’s a positive.  It was a boring and uninteresting story.  That’s a negative.  If you tell me it needs #1-3 to become an interesting story, that’s a complete failure.  Hollywood fails a lot.  I wouldn’t be surprised it did here.

Maybe missing #1 does explain my wondering why Jennifer Lawrence’s career took off with this franchise.  Never wanted to see that one because humans hunting other humans is an old theme in sci-fi, and many classics do a great job of portraying it.  It’s even more interesting when the hunters are aliens, as in Niven’s Man-Kzin tales (actually, that’s only a Niven-created franchise—most of the stories aren’t written by him, but the big cats, the Kzin, are great villains).  Lawrence is terrible in this fourth movie (the third book in the trilogy was split—ugh!).  I had to keep reminding myself, “Steve, give her some time—this is the same actor from Silver Linings Playbook that blew your mind!”

Continuing the Philip Seymour Hoffman character to the end of this movie was more than weird.  I can see the day when Hollywood just uses special effects and does away with expensive actors.  The fact that they can give Michael Jackson and others new hologram and software lives is a technological achievement that I don’t celebrate.  I didn’t celebrate the sappy ending of this movie either.  I did get a good laugh when Katniss brings home a dead bird and finds Peeta tending to flowers—maybe Collins just couldn’t spell the acronym and put the extra E in his name?  Oh right, this wasn’t supposed to be a comedy!

Hoffman as Plutarch was one of the original villains; so was Sutherland as Snow.  I don’t know about Moore (no relation) as Coin, but she was sufficiently evil here, and I will praise her more than the first two because this is supposed to be a movie about fem power to some moviegoers.  (Before you call me a Nazi-macho anti-feminist, read my books—I celebrate smart, strong women!)  However, Jodie Foster played a similar role in Elysium and did a better job (that was a better dystopian sci-fi extravaganza too).  And, if this movie is about fem power, why the cop out at the end with kick-ass Katniss retreating into a life of homesteading in their big house on the prairie?  I suspect the director thinks women should just stay home and have kids!

The only thing good about the Hunger Games franchise is that it is yet another example that anyone can win the publishing lottery whether they can write or not.  For me, Collins enters that privileged group of lucky lottery winners containing J. K. Rowling, Steph Meyer, and E. L. James (although the latter’s S&M drivel didn’t turn into a Hollywood blockbuster).  Sour grapes?  Nah.  More power to them.  We have one example where the glass ceiling doesn’t seem to apply—they’re all female authors—so Ms. Lawrence should take encouragement for that in her battles for equality of pay with the Hollywood moguls (go girl!).  I won’t say she was better than Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings, but she was just as good (he should have won an Oscar too, though).

So, go see this bladder-busting fourth and final installment in this franchise if you must.  There are many better things you could do with your time and money (like buy Adele’s new CD and listen to the fabulous music), but to each his own.  (If you’re into a steamy romance, then PG—there’s none here.  If you’re into gratuitous violence, then R—there’s a lot here.  The average is PG-13—Hollywood’s determination might be different.)

In elibris libertas….

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