Mockingjay, the final book in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, always felt unfilmable to me. It broke drastically from the formula of the previous books, with no true Hunger Games as a part of the plot, covering instead a vast, complex revolution through the eyes of a damaged, broken, hopeless teenager. It was epic in scale yet filled with intimate, intense, but often internal emotions. It required basically reintroducing the audience to the universe, now filled with entirely different situations and concerns than of which we were aware in the first two books. And to cap it all off, it was one of the most dark, tragic, violent, and depressing finales to a beloved sci-fi series in recent memory. So the fact that The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 not only works as a cohesive narrative, but is about as good a film version of an unfilmable book as possible, is praiseworthy, even if it struggles at times under the weight of its own story as well as immense expectations.
Mal: What the hell?
(Inara punches him.)
Inara: Don’t you dare speak to me. Sheriff, I want this man bound by law at once. That’s assuming he hasn’t been already?
Sheriff: No one’s been bound, not yet.
Inara: Thank God you stopped them. (to Mal) Did you honestly think you could access my accounts and I wouldn’t find you? And Zoe, what would your husband say if he knew you were here?
Zoe: I… I was weak.
Sheriff: So I take it they ain’t newlyweds?
Inara: Hardly. Malcolm’s my indentured man, with three years left on his debt. I imagine we’ll have to add another six months after this little adventure.
Sheriff: (re: onlookers) You’ll have to pardon them. Don’t think a one of ’em’s ever seen a registered Companion before.
Inara: I apologize for my manner.
Sheriff: Oh, not a bit.
Inara: Should I contact my ship? Do you need to hold them very much longer?
Sheriff: Looks to me like we’re about done here. I, uh. We had some unrelated trouble. His story had kind of an odor to it.
Inara: Yes, it’s not the only thing about him that does. Thank you, very much Sheriff. (to Mal and Zoe) Come along.
Firefly – Episode 2 – “The Train Job”
The Love Pirate 