This Rotten Week: Predicting Hunger Games: Mockingjay, The Night Before Reviews, And More

The final instalment of The Hunger Games series pits Katniss and crew against President Snow and powerful members of The Capitol as they march in toward revolution. The flick is set around Katniss Everdeen leading a small group of fighters through a maze of traps similar to what they encountered in the arena. 

To be honest, I didn’t love the third book in this series. Vilify me if you will, but thought it was too divergent from the first two books and a bit ridiculous in its conclusion. That’s really only comparing it to the first two books (which were legit great) and I loved the series as a whole. But whatever misgivings I had about the final chapters of Mocking jay appear to not be an issue in the final movie. In fact, this thing looks spectacular. The imagery, action, plot lines and just about everything in between come off as a fantastic summation of the phenomenal series. And they might play out better on screen than they did in the book which I thought struggled to encapsulate the enormity of the situation. 

Francis Lawrence directs this film after helming The Hunger Games: Mocking jay - Part One (65%), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (89%) as well as I Am Legend (70%). Early reviews on this one have it in the mid-80’s, with many critics agreeing the final act is pervasively dark, but gripping. That follows much of the book’s path and makes sense for the series as a whole.The Hunger Games hasn’t had any of the feel good elements of some other YA fantasy lit. The critics who went negative cited the tone as the problem, but that isn’t the movie’s "fault" as much as the source material. All things considered, this looks like a well-received finale for Katniss.