Unreality Companion: 3 Reasons Why I'm Still Nervous About Mockingjay Part 2

In which I expand on the content from my weekly Unrealitymag.com article.

Despite everything stacked against it, Mockingjay Part 1 was a resounding success.  Not only did it achieve its expected public notoriety, but it unequivocally solved every issue that I had with the novel upon which it's based.  Although not my absolute favorite of the year, it's definitely up there and will likely stay up there when all is said and done.  And since I spent this week's Unreality article enumerating the reasons why Mockingjay Part 1 should have failed (but didn't), I thought that I would describe the cause for my continued unease while we wait the long year between now and Part 2's release.

They still split one novel into two films.  Yeah, yeah, I know that I specifically mentioned why this was the right decision (or at least a good one) for Part 1, but that's just it: it was the right decision for Part 1.  Although I assume that the same production team that made it work the first time around will be able to do so with the sequel, I cannot pretend that they're not treading extremely murky waters in the attempt.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 also seemed to be going on the right track, before Part 2 was little more than a two hour fight scene.  While Mockingjay has a lot more meat on its bones than the eighth Harry Potter, it could still start running thin on substance by the time that Katniss storms the Capitol.  In fact, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that the entire film is essentially that one action sequence: Katniss storming the Capitol at the end of the rebellion.  Like The Deathly Hallows Part 2, it would still be an entertaining enough way to spend an afternoon, but that doesn't make for especially compelling material to revisit years later (or even months) later.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman is still dead.  While it might have seemed more than just a little uncouth at the time, when the revered actor playing Plutarch Heavensbee died during Mockingjay's production, it seemed like the only thing that people were concerned with was how this would affect the films.  After all, Plutarch is an increasingly vital character in the last novel, a fact that would only be exacerbated by the fact that they were making two films from the source material.  Do you create a motion capture duplicate of Hoffman?  Do you replace him with another, invariably worse, actor (it worked for Dumbledore)?  Do you cut out his character entirely, or at least make him a largely behind-the-scenes presence - spoken of more often than he actually appears on camera?

It turned out that Hoffman had essentially finished his contribution to the film at the time of his death, so fans did not have to worry about what shape Heavensbee would actually take in the films to come.  But the devil's in the details: Hoffman was mostly, although not entirely, finished.  According to Lionsgate, there was a final emotional scene that had been planned, but not shot.  While the production company assures fans that it will be easy enough to alter and work around, I can't help but think of what cathartic possibilities we're actually missing out on, and how that will ultimately affect next year's film.

The novel's denouement is terrible.  I know that I am not alone in feeling this way either.  Some fans of the novel, myself included, were outraged about an especially manipulative scene that seems to exist for the sole, sadistic purpose of sucker punching both the reader and the characters.  While comparisons to Rue's death will doubtlessly come up in its defense, the two could not be any more dissimilar.  Rue progressed Katniss' character, the novel's (and sequels') plot(s) forward and was a completely earned tragedy.  The events of Mockingjay progress nothing (in fact, can progress nothing, given that the series is just short of over by that point) and seem to exist for the sole purpose of making sure that the story doesn't end too happily.

Another huge issue that has been threaded throughout the franchise is who Katniss will eventually end up with: Gale or Peeta.  Before Mockingjy, Katniss swore that she would never marry nor ever have children.  It was the one right that she was afforded and fully planned on exercising it.  It was a daring betrayal of romantic convention and made her decisions driven from something other than a flush-faced attraction to the dystopian hunks she was forced to interact with.  I was not upset that she ended up choosing somebody, but that the way the plot plays out, she is essentially stripped of any choice in the matter.  Sure, she goes through the motions of one vs the other, but it's not from a position of power, driven by a desperate loneliness and the fact that one of her two options was completely taken away from her.

I am still excited about the film and am sure that it will be a highlight in what's already shaping up to be a tightly packed year (Age of Ultron vs The Force Awakens vs James Bond anybody?).  Still, I'd be lying to myself if I could say with any confidence that the film will be able to overcome the shortcomings of Mockingjay the novel.  Here's to hoping, though.

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