A fairly satisfying end to a franchise that peaked with Catching Fire. More exciting than Part 1 but a bit underwhelming compared to Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Really loved these books in high school and enjoyed watching this franchise as well. President Snow is such a good villain.

There was undoubtedly a lull in The Hunger Games franchise with Mockingjay Part 1, but Part 2 manages to somewhat pick up the momentum of the first two films. It was going to be a hard ask to get audiences onboard with the tone shift from the Games to a political uprising anyways, but the film does its best to provide a satisfying ending to the franchise that's stays loyal to the books. The sets and visuals are grey and bleak to reflect the state of Panem, which makes the film a bore to watch at times. However, I think the emotional beats are enough to keep your attention until the end.

The worst part of the trilogy, despite the fact that the last book does actually have enough in it to justify a two-part adaptation. Jennifer Lawrence is the truckulently heroic Katniss Everdeen, who pays the price for existing in a story with something serious to say about war.

Breaking Mockingjay into two parts is really the downfall for the final two installments of Katniss' story on screen. It slows the story down considerably. The slowing, however, is probably inevitable since the movies are firmly outside of the arena of the games. Sure, there are arena-like aspects to the Capitol because of the technology employed, but this is more of a war movie than a survival tale. It works to close out the film series, and the epilogue goes a long way in demonstrating that there are lingering effects of Panem's decisions, but that life has to go on.

This was my least favorite of the Hunger Games movies and I hate that such a wonderful franchise that was such a defining part of so many people's childhoods (including mine) had such a lackluster ending. Rather than end on a very high note, the trilogy kind of fizzled out.

The Hunger Games movies never really got the themes and messages of the books, and this final entry in the series shows how badly they fumbled the ball. Jennifer Lawrence is great as always, but the film is concerned with cramming as much from the book onto the screen, rather than making a good film adaptation.

While it is annoying that every franchise wanted to mimic Harry Potter's split after Deathly Hallows, this is a far more exciting Hunger Games film than Mockingjay Part 1. It really does feel like the war that it is, and the stakes are at an all time high.