The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)
Directed by Francis Lawrence
As the war between the Capitol and the districts reaches its peak, Katniss Everdeen embarks on a perilous mission to liberate Panem and confront President Snow. Joined by a team of trusted allies, she navigates deadly traps, shifting loyalties, and the heavy cost of rebellion, determined to bring freedom to her people and end the Hunger Games once and for all.
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What critics say influenced The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
Yet, the film's big signature set-piece -- where the team is down in dark and wet tunnels and must contend with fast-moving, voracious and large-mouthed monsters -- feels like an homage to (or if you're more cynical, a direct rip-off of) similar scenes from "Aliens."
A tidal wave of deadly oil and an underground tunnel full of mutants – in a scene reminiscent of Ripley fighting off the creatures in Aliens – are both brilliantly realised, hinting at Collins’ devious imagination.
Now Lawrence and the filmmakers use that celebrity for suspense: There's a horribly great sequence in a sewer that pays homage to Aliens, a quiet nail-biter wherein Katniss, now disguised as a Capitol resident, is recognized by a toddler.
Director Francis Lawrence rips off "Aliens" mightily - does Katniss really need to participate in just another bug hunt? - but never convinces us why having unarmed creatures paw and hiss at the heavily armed heroes would be a strategic advantage for the Capitol.
Francis Lawrence makes every sequence potentially life threatening and the Aliens homage with the battle against the mutts is definitely one of my favorite action scenes this year.
It leads to talk of suicide and to a subterranean sequence that reminds a great deal of the final escape in Aliens, ending in a death of a beloved character that's frankly difficult to take--even for someone like me, who has no other relationship to said character except the dim memory that he got married at some point in the first, already-blurry portion of this instalment.
Sure, it looks good, but somewhere along the line, The Hunger Games series lost what little social commentary or relevance it had and resorted back to its high concept, borrowed from Battle Royale premise.
In 2012’s “The Hunger Games,” the conceit of pitting teenagers against each other in a fight to the death was already familiar (“Battle Royale”), but with 2014’s “Mockingjay, Part 1” and this dreary final picture, it’s clear that the reality-TV survival story was actually the strongest framework of the series.
If The Hunger Games was Battle Royale, Catching Fire was Rollerball and Mockingjay – Part 1 was Broadcast News , then everything goes a bit Quantum of Solace in this hotchpotch final instalment.
La saga creada por la escritora Suzanne Collins - sospechosamente similar al libro Battle Royale del escritor japonés Koushun Takami - que después fue llevada a la pantalla grande en 2012, llega a su fin.
El primer impulso del crítico pomposo es el de despreciar esta narrativa por su carácter masivo, por la mala fama que se han conseguido, a pulso, las distopías juveniles y por las comparaciones enojadas con Battle Royale.
And then there's Sutherland, who, after exuding pestilential inhumanity and condescension for three and a half films, saves the best for last; even in the face of his unquestioned demise, he can only regard the upstart Katniss with a look of amused disdain, followed by profound ironic laughter that echoes Walter Huston's at the end of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; in fact, the moment is cut too short.
One of the film’s mid-point action whamaramas unfolds amid the monumental architecture of Ricardo Bofill’s Les Espaces d’Abraxas outside Paris (Terry Gilliam shot “Brazil” there, too); any visual echoes of recent attacks on that city are of your own making.
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A rapturous extended setpiece where the group is stalked by something in the darkness of the Capitol's underground tunnel system is as nerve-jangling as a great horror movie, a cross between 1986's "Aliens" and 2006's " The Descent ."
A superbly well choreographed underground encounter with demon-like assailants looks and feels like something out of a horror movie (of Aliens or The Descent variety), while some of the battle sequences include some shocking tactics that place women and children in the firing line.
The film’s best sequence finds them trying to navigate their way to the President’s mansion using the sewer system, only to find that Snow has unleashed into the sewers a small army of what appear to be the same blind, gnashing mutants from The Descent (2006).
One fight between the rebels and humanoid monsters is as scary as anything from “The Descent.”
There’s an underground sequence where Katniss and friends must battle mutants that look a little like the cave creatures from The Descent.
Aside from some outlandish moments toward the end, such as when the creatures from The Descent unexpectedly show up, the picture benefits from its relentless bleakness, as decent people die unexpectedly, personal traumas continue to haunt many of the characters, and Katniss learns that when it comes to government, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
El tan cantado final se asemeja demasiado a lo que sucedía con la revolución en Bananas (Allen, 1971), o en cualquier revolución latinoamericana, dirán los más cínicos: una vez derrocado el dictador, el nuevo gobierno toma el poder y pierde la cordura.
While that city never feels particularly lived-in, it's interesting to look at: The cold white surfaces and tacky pop-art interiors evoke dystopian predecessors such as Logan's Run.
Podría decirse que Los Juegos del Hambre es una mezcla de varios futuros post apocalípticos, como la novela 1984 o Un mundo de feliz, sólo que llevada de manera más light y adornada por el romance entre Katniss y el otro protagonista de la historia Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson).
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“ Divergent ,” “ The Maze Runner ,” “ The Giver ”—regardless of when the actual books came out, they always seemed like knock-offs of “The Hunger Games” films in terms of narrative thrills, weighty themes, production values and star-studded casts.
Julianne Moore, sharing a gray waterfall wig with Meryl Streep in “The Giver,” shows up as worryingly ambitious rebel leader Alma Coin.
I mean, take your pick: This movie is a little bit “Star Wars” and a little bit “The Running Man,” or maybe it’s the love child of a three-way between “The Giver,” “The Matrix” and “A Wrinkle in Time.”
It applies not only to the story of reluctant hero Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and the citizens of Panem, but also to the dismal grinding down of this series, which winds up being as forgettable as its young-adult dystopian adaptation contemporaries, from “Divergent” to “The Giver.”
In film series like Harry Potter, Divergent and The Matrix, as well as The Giver and the Star Wars prequels, all tension is sapped by biological anointment.
Sin embargo, son ciertamente menos maniqueas que, por ejemplo, las apologías al individualismo que encontramos en The Giver o Divergent.
Katniss is sick of making "propos" for rebel leader Alma Coin (Moore) and is consumed with getting to the Capitol and killing President Snow (Sutherland), who dispatches an underling in a banquet scene that's a straight rip-off of "The Untouchables."