Image via IMDb.
I’ve been waiting for this movie for five years. I read ‘The Hunger Games’ around Thanksgiving 2010 when my husband introduced me to it. Soon after, I read the sequels and was pained that I had to wait a year for the movie. I’ve been to the midnight release of all four movies (and by ‘midnight’ I mean 8 PM because they do that for YA movies, look it up). So you might say I was a little excited for the final movie. I re-read Mockingjay this past summer to prepare myself for what was coming and to allow me to pick out the changes the writers made because of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death. In the end, I was not disappointed.
Things I Thought Were Awesome
Tigris. I wasn’t sure how well they could look a human cat look like both a human and a cat, but they did really well. She was only human enough to be believable.
The traps in the city. I wasn’t sure how well this would translate visually. The book was vague enough that I thought most people had a slightly different idea how the black goo would look, but it looked how I thought it would if nothing else. It was a great scene. Though, side note, I thought Messalla was the one to die in the goo, not Mitchell. Does anyone else remember?
Cracking the nut. This was one of my favorite sequences in the book and I’m glad none of it was lost in the movie. I loved the visual of it. There’s nothing more for me to say, I loved it.
Changes That Didn’t Really Bother Me
Replacing Plutarch and Katniss’s conversation with a letter. This was one of two times I noticed that Hoffman wasn’t in the second half of the movie. I think they explained it away well and I was okay with the change. It also gave Haymitch and Katniss more time together which was appropriate.
No military training. I really disliked this part of the book, so I was fine with her sneaking to the capital to join the fight. All of the training was boring and I thought it slowed down the plot a lot.
Things That Were Taken Out and I’m Still Wondering Why
Johanna’s struggles. Okay, so maybe I just lied. The only interesting part about the military training was seeing how much Johanna struggled to be sober and continue training. Knowing that Collins is writing about PTSD, this stands out a lot more to me and I thought this part was important, but maybe not as kid friendly as the writers wanted the film to be.
Snow dies laughing. I thought this was the most ironic part of the whole book, but it was left out. She literally killed them both with one shot, but we don’t see that. I wish it had been left in as I’m assuming it was filmed and cut. How could you not put that in as a writer?
Things That Changed Too Much
Having Prim talk to Peeta. I don’t even remember the name of the character that went in to speak with him in the book, but the idea was that she wouldn’t remind him of Katniss at all. Sending in Prim instead? How could that not remind him of Katniss? Send in a random actress, make her day, and play her off as that character. Would that really have been so hard?
Katniss and Peeta having children young. She was so strongly against this in the book. She did not want kids to grow up in the world she lived in and fought Peeta over children before having them reluctantly. I understand it’s easier to change that so she has children at a young age for a movie’s purposes (don’t want to have bad aging like in HP) but I thought the change was too much.
Haymitch and Effie. Really? Did I forget that happened or was that added? Really?
Reader, I’m dying to know what you think. What did you think of the Mockingjay Part II movie? Do you think it was a good ending to the series?
Until next time, write on.
Taking On a World of Words 