"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 76th Hunger Games." Although not as spectacular as other excellent finale movies like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi or The Dark Knight Rises, it still perfectly ended this franchise on a high-note as the Mockingjay book did. What grieves me to learn is that Part 2 of Mockingjay opened at a very meager weekend opening of $102 million unlike the previous 3 that each opened over $120-150 million. Perhaps the studios shouldn't get all too greedy splitting anything into 2-3 parts that are better off as one single film like The Hobbit should have been as most people say. The overlong padding after each action I think is what made this final film a little underwhelming unlike the 1st two Hunger Games movies which are, in my opinion, the best of the series. What I do love seeing however are the easily-likeable characters like Katniss, Prim, Effie Trinket, Johanna Mason, and Katniss' own beloved Peeta, as well as the most compelling villain (next to Heath Ledger's Joker, Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter, and Javier Bardem's Raoul Silva) President Snow. I was glad that the madness has finally ended after Mockingjay Part 1 had me in an overwhelming suspense because of Peeta's condition after the District 13 rebels rescued him from the Capitol. The parts that really get me are the poor children, including poor Primrose Everdeen, getting killed by the exploding parachute "gifts" that the Capitol (turns out to be President Coin (Julianne Moore)'s doing), along with Katniss yelling at the cat Buttercup to get out before goin in an emotional breakdown and when Haymitch reads out the letter to Katniss from Plutarch Heavensbee, the late Oscar-winning Philip Seymour Hoffman, which are pretty much his last words before the said actor's death. During the execution scene, I knew this was coming all along From what I read in the book where Katniss instead shot an arrow at Coin rather than Snow since he is already dying anyway. By the time all of the chaotic action is over, the best part that was worth it is when Katniss and Peeta finally get together again when they lay together on a bed like most beautiful couples always do ("Real or not real?" "Real"). And once the epilogue scene begins, it was like the most emotional scene I've ever seen, watching how cute the children that both Kat and Peet have years later and knowing that this is Jennifer Lawrence's big farewell to her Katniss Everdeen character. When the credits roll, her song ("Deep in the meadow...") can be heard which is an excellent way of making the Hunger Games franchise end with a bang. No other follow-up, whether sequel or prequel, is gonna be able to top everything since Mockingjay is to me the END of the most violent Hunger Games events ever occurred. Not even the Divergent or the Maze Runner movies are gonna be able to top the action and suspense that the Suzanne Collins book-made-into-movies have. I really hope that my Mockingjay Part 2 experience is worth it despite not doing so much of a bigger box office success it deserves to be like most other 2015 sequels (somethin that isn't Jurassic World, Pitch Perfect 2, Hotel Transylvania 2, or even next month's Star Wars: The Force Awakens) that fail to top their otherwise superior predecessors. May the odds be still in our favor.
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