The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 Steelbook user review

  • It's not bad.......better then the last one!!!!

    So, quick recap: liked the first one, second one bored me silly (rehash, nowt new, etc), and actually liked the third one for taking the series into a different film genre (political drama rather than YA actioner). So this one was awaited to see how it all wrapped up.

    And honestly I thought it was the best of the bunch - early scenes are a little too earnest (J-Law just moping around, no real push on - the district 2 section and the blink and miss her Gwendoline Christie added nothing really), but once we got to the capital, the film took off like a bullet. Basically from the scenes with the mutts (attack dogs let loose by Snow) in the sewer to the end, I thought this was great stuff.

    That mutt scenes were brilliantly shot and really quite brutal - had heard about it from reviews but I hadn't expected then to be so vicious and the scenes themselves to be so, well, brutal again. Then we get action beat after action beat, right up to the stupidly signposted 'shocking' ending, that actually still works really well even though you see it a mile off.

    Kudos to the film makers for making a YA movie with very adult themes - being manipulated by all around, including those you love, shifting loyalties, polar opposite views of those nearest and dearest, weight of the world, all lofty themes that I thought were handled really quite well here (still fairly heavy handed but not too obvious or obtrusive). As other reviews have said, there's still too much padding - early scenes could've been lost easily and what was going on with the excrutiating conversation between Peeta and Gale over who 'gets' Katniss????? Seriously, WTF screenwriters, WTF?!?!? But I was really pleased overall with this - I'm at odds with popular opinion in that I will probably rewatch 3 and 4 rather than 1 and 2, but this is still a pretty good set of films for me.

    Transfer - as per expectations really. Image quality good to great, but not exceptional (nice detail, deep blacks, but just a smidge below the best transfers out there). The Atmos soundtrack was really good though - noticed it more in showcasing the difference between scenes taking place in the outdoors and those in the sewers - you really did feel the difference in the sound in the room, far more than noticing spot effects. Sweet stuff indeed. Didn't bother with extras at all but I'm sure there's some on there!!!!!

    Summary - slow start but really strong finish, a great end to the set of films. Great transfer, including that exceptional Atmos track and its all kinds of win.
    This item was purchased for £34.99 (as part of t from Amazon in 2016 . The reviewer still owns this product.

    Pros

    • Lovely Atmos goodness
    • Better than Part 1

    Cons

    • Too much padding in the early part
    • Godawful conversation about which boy 'gets' Katniss!!!! Woeful.

    Scores

    7
    7
    8
    9
    5

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 Steelbook

Comments
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Author
Mark Costello
Review score
7 / 10
Average score
7.0 / 10
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