Manufactured Tension

Rating: 6/10 (1 May 2015)

I liked some moments in this movie, but too many of them consisted of forced conflict. It's hard to believe the main character is stupid enough to reject the cause of the rebellion, but she does, repeatedly, because there seems to be a desire to re-create the same formula as the previous in this part of the series. I guess the idea is that she's independent and thinks everyone is trying to use her, but she becomes utterly impossible to sympathize with in this film because she leverages everyone's life for Peeta's. Unfortunately, it doesn't work, and it isn't believable. I have to say, though, all the comparisons to the Japanese film Battle Royale are absurd, as the Japanese film is nothing like Hunger Games, and it also took its story from another, and so on. Rejecting a novel or a film because it has some plot similarity to another film or novel or short story will eliminate all stories ever made. If we want to be precise, we can go back to the original short story by Ralph Ellison and discount all variations, but that's wasted time, and it has nothing to do with the merits of this film. I'm on board with the complaints that this was artificially cut into two parts. Film makers are trying to trick us with this nonsense, and I refuse to pay any time and money to Peter Jackson's absurd over-extension of the one-book classic, when he spent three (admittedly overly long) films on a six book series. This should have been one film, and since it wasn't that great as the half of the film it should have been, I'm going to be reluctant to pay for the next part. In fact, I might just buy and read the book instead.