Lawrence emerges victorious from ‘Mockingjay Part II’

By Ryan, December 11, 2015

By Liz Reichart, A&E Editor//

Whenever an era of film craze comes to its inevitable close, fans emerge in droves to bid farewell. So was the case when the final installment of the Hunger Games Series “Mockingjay Part II.” Each with three fingers raised and the fire of defiant protagonist Katniss Everdeen in their hearts, gaggles of teenage girls paraded through theaters these past two weeks to much box office success. The fourth film bringing in a whopping $247.2 million in it’s worldwide opening, ranking it the twenty-fourth biggest opening of all time. And it’s easy to why when you buy a ticket for yourself.
“Mockingjay Part II” declares a definitive winner of the Hunger Games franchise, and it’s not Peeta Mellark or Katniss Everdeen: it’s Jennifer Lawrence. The transformative quality of Lawrence’s performance over the course of three years is simply astounding. From the first film in which Katniss could barely reconcile merely maiming any of her fellow Hunger Games contenders (she sits up in a tree and hides in a cave for half the film) to the final film that stars a dark rebel leader out for blood, Katniss’ on screen metamorphosis is striking but completely logical, due completely in part to Hollywood’s favorite daughter. Despite the complete 180 Everdeen undergoes, the many constants of her personality remind viewers that she is still the same girl in the plain blue dress just trying to spare her sister of a ferociously violent fate. She finds, more than ever, it’s difficult to maintain a duality of being both the human conscience and figurehead of a raging rebel movement. Her inner battle of values is beautifully paralleled with the violent clash of Capitol and rebel forces, and as Katniss is pushed to further confront her many roles, so are these opposing sides forced to confront one another.
As to how closely the final film followed the second half of the novel “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins, many concessions were made for reasons unknown to loyal bookworms, myself included.
“I think it followed the book pretty well, but I was kind of upset they left out the whole part of the book where Katniss trains to be a soldier,” Hannah Hattamer, senior, said.
Crucial opportunities for Katniss to develop herself were omitted from all four of the film’s plots and the fourth film was no different. However moviegoers can agree that absent novel material was unquestionably compensated for by the sensitive complexity of Lawrence’s supreme performance.
A personal favorite of mine throughout the film series has remained the gruff but truly endearing Haymitch, played by the cunning Woody Harrelson. Throughout the four films, Haymitch remains the only character grounded in any sort of reality. Everdeen’s supporting gang of men get some screen time that is much needed in this fourth film; this most notably includes the loyal dog of war Boggs, played by House of Cards” actor Mahershala Ali, fellow Games survivor Finnick Odair, played by “Pirates of the Carribean” actor Sam Claflin, and half-lover Gale Hawthorne, played by the infamous Liam Hemsworth, who is more soldier than ever.
Student feedback often critiques films three and four for being incongruent with the series for both their lack of an actual set of “games” for contenders to take part in and the dark and rebellious nature of the plot. Upon close examination of this critique, it has no merit. If you missed the cues in the first film, you must not have been watching, but it was made evident from the moment Rue died and her district began its upheaval that this film would be about far more than these star-crossed lovers escaping the games alive. The revolution only grows darker and more frigid as it gets more personal and more devious, which was exactly the case for the Everdeen clan. “Mockingjay Part I” set the ball for a massive decisive battle between the Capitol and the rebels, and “Mockingjay Part II” spiked it.
While the ending won’t be spoiled on these pages, most strong opinions on “Mockingjay Part II” were, not surprisingly, pointed towards those last few scenes.
“The ending was the cutest part of the film,” Emilie Alioto, sophomore.
Others were not so persuaded.
“I thought the ending was weak for such a great movie,” Alexandra Balcolm, sophomore, said.
The film was never meant to revolve around Katniss’ choice in love interests, but like all things cult-like and geared towards young adults, it’s difficult not to separate her emotional journey from her thrown-together romances. Without giving too much away, I think it was crucial at the film’s close that Katniss had freedom of choice emotionally and that’s all that mattered. That was perhaps what author Suzanne Collins intended for this entire series to culminate to underneath the layers of graphic violence and sick mutant lizard creatures- just a girl with a bow and arrow that wanted the freedom to decide her destiny, and after a few bumps in the road, the choice was hers alone.