Mockingjay—Part 2 Review Roundup: Are the Odds Ever in Their Favor? See What Critics Had to Say 

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2 Review Roundup: Are the Odds Ever in Their Favor? See What Critics Had to Say

are both anticipating and dreading the release of the popular franchise\'s last film,

which begins its big screen release tomorrow night, because that means the end of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) and the rest of Panem.

As the latest Suzanne Collins\' adaptation prepares to hit theaters, critics have taken it upon themselves to give us their two cents on how they felt the big finale went down.

So was it ever in their favor? Well, you might be surprised. Check out what some of the reviews had to say about

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, which, true to Collins\'s book, features an epilogue that looks ahead to a more peaceful, but still haunted and nervous, future. I don\'t think the film quite captures those final moments, both comforting and unsettling, the way that Collins\'s book does, but it\'s still an affecting end, brimming with a sense of loss and accomplishment. For a beloved series reaching its conclusion, and for an imagined world where the worst has been witnessed and, by a lucky or unlucky few, survived."—Richard Lawson, 

were filmed back to back in a massive 152-day period, the film\'s overall lassitude may well be due to exhaustion as much as anything else. Whatever the cause, it\'s one of the reasons

, earnest and acceptable though it is, doesn\'t end on the kind of high note it deserves."—Kenneth Turan, 

"This fourth and final entry into the cinematic world of Katniss and company is a bit of overkill, but certainly will please fans who can now say they have lived though the whole epic story which of course was cooked up by Suzanne Collins in her literary trilogy."—Pete Hammond, Deadline

\'s value isn\'t in the individual experience, so much as in the way it pays off its predecessors. Taken on its own, it\'s a dour, faltering film with an under-served cast, full of unsatisfying downtime and distractingly poor lighting. As part of a bigger work, though, it picks up meaning in the way it triggers memories and completes thoughts, and the way it resolves the story for its long-suffering characters. It isn\'t a wholly immersive experience, but it\'s a comfortingly re-immersive one."—Tasha Robinson, The Verge

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, which takes its time in the telling because there\'s not a lot of story to tell, Katniss shakes the numb funk of

and resolves to end this thing. It\'s peculiar and sad to see the late Philip Seymour Hoffman appear in abbreviated handfuls of scenes as the games designer turned revolutionary. Stanley Tucci, meantime, comes back for a single bit, seconds in length. Yet he manages to end his brief appearance with the single most insincere smile his toady of a character has ever smiled. Bravo, maestro Tucci...And you know what? Two-and-a-half-cheers to this franchise.

has completed its tasks well and met fan expectations."—Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune

"That this most cynical and layered of blockbuster franchises became among the biggest in recent history is something of a coup. That this final chapter turned out to be so great, and so unexpectedly profound proves that the joke was on me all along. Now that I\'ve seen the final

film, I can\'t wait to go back and rewatch the preceding chapters so I can realize what a fool I had been. All those years ago when I turned my nose at the first film for its apparently franchise-friendly machinations, and at the second film for how the marketing contradicted the messaging, I was falling head-first into a trap. Well played, Katniss. Well played."—Scott Mendelson, Forbes

ramped up the darkness, Part 2 unfolds in almost pitch black. One act of war near the end is darker than anything seen in a recent studio blockbuster, and its implications trigger an unexpected final act. But although the film does resist convention in setting up its ultimate confrontation, it falters again when it comes to the issue of pace. While earlier scenes were overly expanded, later ones are flubbed. The death of a major character is confusingly handled while others are dispatched messily as we hurtle towards an ineffective climax."—Benjamin Lee,

TAGS/ The Hunger Games, Mockingjay, Jennifer Lawrence, Movies, Top Stories

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