Trailer Park: The Hunger Games: Mockingjy - Part 2's First Trailer

In which I discuss the latest movie trailers.

It's been a long time in coming, but it's finally here: the first, real Mockingjay - Part 2 teaser trailer.  After three movies, four years and considerable franchise fatigue, I have to give credit where credit is due.  It's a doozy.  Watch it here:

I've made it pretty clear in the past that Mockingjay was easily my least favorite of the novels.  In fact, the second half of it - the half that the latest movie is adapted from - is hands down the most offensively bad of all.  What should have been an epic finale to well-spun narrative was a supreme letdown: forgetting on every page who the character of Katniss actually was and what made her such an endearing figure to begin with.

I'm still not entirely sure how they managed it, but the storming of the Capitol - the climax of the entire series - bordered on boring on every page.  The unwarranted romance between Katniss and Peeta was constantly shoved down our collective throats and character deaths, although tragic, were something less than memorable.  Despite loving Catching Fire, I have willfully stuck with rereading The Hunger Games by itself solely because of the disappointing note that the series ultimately ends on.

Like Mockingjay - Part 1, however, everything in the movie's marketing suggests that it's going to be one Hell of a ride: an inevitable improvement on its source material (which, sadly, probably isn't all that hard to do).  The teaser plays up the action sequences that were perplexingly downplayed in the novel and downplays the romantic angst that was omnipresent in the original narrative.

Jennifer Lawrence looks as fantastic as Katniss as she ever has (despite having to recite Suzanne Collins' clunky dialog).  Francis Lawrence's scope appears to be as grandiose as it was in Part 1 and the trailer hits all of the right cues that clue us in on the fact that characters (and their sacrifices) will not be taken as lightly as they were the first time around.  In short, Mockingjay - Part 2 looks every bit as excellent of a story as the novel should have been, and that's something to get excited about.

So while I'm still admittedly nervous about the direction of the final film in the increasingly inaccurately named Hunger Games Trilogy, I do have grounds for cautious optimism.  Francis Lawrence is a smart guy and seems to have a good grasp on what scenes from the books can be dropped, which can be salvaged and what new ones were needed in the first place.  I have faith that he - and the film's absolutely resplendent cast - can drive the series home with gusto.

So what did you think of Mockingjay?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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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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