Can the Mockingjay Rise Twice?

And so it was on a slightly muggy day in November (the 19th) I believe that the final Hunger Games film Part 2 of Mockingjay was finally released in cinemas across both Australia and the wider world.

And personally I loved it for its dark and uncompromising tone, its willingness to not let its heroes walk away from the big battle as if it was just a dustup at the local pub and as well as being able to explore the nature of politics and war and how what we think we're doing in the name of a righteous cause can just be a lie.

But whilst I've seen Part 2 3 times in the cinema now I am starting to feel that perhaps we were best served if Mockingjay had been done as 1 big 180 to 210 minute film instead of the 2 separate ones whilst fine literally play as 1 big film that's had a yearlong intermission in between them.

Here are 3 areas I feel where Mockingjay would've been best served as that one big film I describe above:

- First of all it would've been the proper finale we all deserved and expected from this series instead of the slightly limp one that some fans are loving while others are not, of no doubt this feeling is due to the split of Mockingjay the book into the 2 films and the sense that audiences by and large had kind of put this final film on the back burner for the most part cause after all there's a new James Bond and Star Wars movie coming god dammit.

But in all seriousness that 3 to 3 and a half hour length film could've given us all of the themes and ideas in regards to revolution, the making and marketing of that revolution, the nature of propaganda, the trauma of the survivors of the Games and the Capitol, the nature of Warfare etc and combined that into 1 punchy film that also gives you the resolution of the story and the characters.

Not to mention allowing for that proper emotional impact that Part 2 strives for but just cannot pull off because it doesn't have that 90 minutes to 2 hours that Part 1 represents and uses in that time to build up the themes, the ideas, the conflicts and the characters.

- Secondly the shifting of that focus from 2 separate films into that 1 big film would've given Francis Lawrence more time and energy to work on a proper adaptation of Mockingjay that does what a good adaptation should which is honor the spirit and intentions of the book whilst also turning it into a film.

As it stands right now you have 2 separate films that in Part 1 and Part 2 do kind of both, Part 1 has that feeling of doing its own thing whilst honoring the spirit of Suzanne Collins's book and because of that I felt it worked as a film with a beginning, a middle and an end whereas Part 2 takes much more of its story cues from the book and as a result is reflecting a lot of the criticisms in terms of rushing the key story and character beats as well as not quite delivering on the promise of a strong finale much like the final Harry Potter book/films did.

This would've also allowed I feel for the film to take on like Part 2 attempts to do the story structure of the first 2 Hunger Games films which have the characters moments and the story play out in the first two thirds before devoting their entire 3rd act to the Games, Mockingjay Part 2 like I said attempts to go back to that style but once more without that buildup of Part 1 it doesn't quite work in the way that it should have.

Now I don't believe for one moment that the split has anything to do with Francis or his writing team as they have done the very best they can but rather the blame must be shifted onto the producers Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik who had from their comments on the making of doco for Part 1 which is on that films Blu-Ray decided to split it into 2 films right from the start.

Of no doubt they did this because they saw the fiscal rewards Harry Potter reaped from going down this path as would the Twilight series but as they had to have learned by now that trick could only work for so long before audiences began to feel cheated, after all look at the reception the Hobbit series got from doing 3 films from that 1 small book.

- And lastly it might just might have allowed Phillip Seymour Hoffman to finish his filming for the films before his sad death in February 2014.

According to Francis Lawrence he had completed 80% of his filming before he died and had 8 days left to shoot on the Mockingjay movies. if you watch Part 1 and the scene where Effie (Elizabeth Banks) hands Katniss the black folder with Sinna's sketches for the Mockingjay costume this was one of the key scenes Phil had left to shoot before he died (and indeed he was due to film it the Friday before but bad weather in Atlanta had delayed the filming.)

There is also a key scene in Part 2 that Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) performs that was also meant to be a Plutarch scene and it is clear somewhat watching Part 2 that Phil's very very sad death had hurt this film to a certain degree and I can't help but wonder if the 1 film might just might have allowed for Phil to properly complete his filming on Mockingjay but I can't help but feel that that is something we will simply never know the answer to as things have played out in the way that they have and we have to accept the reality of it.

And so that was my column on Mockingjay and how it might have worked as the 1 big film instead of the 2 pretty good ones that we now have in our cinemas and in on our store shelves and indeed in our own shelves, I hope you all liked reading it as I certainly enjoyed writing it.