Let There Be Movies

Review by Amber

In the action-packed finale of The Hunger Games series, Panem is in the midst of a massive uprising. War and death are everywhere. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and her friends and allies are in a fight to the death to free their homeland from the oppressive rule of the Capitol and President Snow (Donald Sutherland). While Mockingjay falls under the post-apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy genre, it raises a lot of questions that are (chillingly) relevant to both historical and current events.

As I sat and watched (and very much enjoyed) Mockingjay, I couldn’t help but notice that a lot of hit close to home: the civilian casualties (have you read the news lately?); the battle strategies and torture methods drawn from all-too-familiar real-world enemies (ranging from contemporary terrorists to Nazi Germany); and perhaps most of all, the fear of history repeating itself. What makes a post-apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy relevant to the world we live in? In the case of The Hunger Games, that question may be answered with one word: tyranny. Tyranny is as old as sin. There are numerous examples from the ancient world, one of the most recognizable being the Egyptians’ enslavement of the Israelites for 400 years. But many story points in Mockingjay brought tyrants from more recent history to mind—such as Joseph Stalin and his penchant for mass annihilation, or Adolf Hitler and his Nazi scientists and their use of humans in the place of lab rats. As we see in the film, and in real life, humans seem to be excellent at hurting one another.

Not only does Mockingjay show tyranny at its worst, the film asks a lot of wartime questions: Why do we tear each other apart? Are we willing to sacrifice what we hold most dear? Are we willing to sacrifice who we are? How do we prevent history from repeating itself? As one character states, “We are fickle creatures with bad memories and a tendency to self-destruction.” We may fight against tyranny—the conclusion of The Hunger Games series portrays a powerful and inspiring story of just that—but somehow tyrants keep gaining power. As Katniss points out, there seems to be an endless cycle of fear and violence, with more fear begetting more violence, and the oppressive tyranny of the Capitol is the source of it all.

“Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against the Anointed One.” Psalm 2:1-2

So how do we end the cycle? How do we prevent history from repeating itself? Education and understanding make for a good start, but as long as there is sin in the world, tyranny and oppression will continue to exist. Thankfully, there is hope. In Isaiah 61, God promises that He will bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, and to comfort all who mourn; to bestow a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. God promises that while we may struggle and fight, we are not doing so alone.

I really enjoyed Mockingjay: Part 2, and thought it did ample justice to Suzanne Collins’s novel. Both the writing and the acting served the story well—and Jennifer Lawrence delivers another en pointe performance—and the art direction and visual effects worked together bring Panem to life and place the audience in the war zone. My only criticism would be that the film could have stood to slow down just a touch for the more emotional moments—there were times when the audience had time to feel, but at others it went by a little too quickly. I’ll definitely be seeing Mockingjay again—probably more than once. The fight against tyranny and oppression is always a good fight.

4 stars