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#MovieMonday
By Natasha Gan
The wait is finally over — the second and final installment in The Hunger Games film series, Mockingjay – Part 2 is out in the cinemas! Directed by Francis Lawrence, the movie is based on Suzanne Collin’s book series with the same title.
The thing about creating a live adaptation of an elaborate sci-fi story from a best-selling book is that it’s not easy; the film production crew and screenwriters must please their toughest critics: the fans. The movie depicts Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) embarking on a deadly mission against the Capitol.
The trip to the evil headquarters requires the trio to overcome booby-traps, defeat monsters and avoid death by fire-emitting weapons. Production designer Phillip Messina chose to realize the movie’s memorable ‘black goo scene’ at Abraxas, a large public housing complex in Paris. The location, designed by architect Ricardo Bofill, fits the description of an eerie dystopian land quite perfectly. For the war-torn streets, the production team travelled to a Russian military training base in Berlin to shoot in line with Messina taking inspiration from the Soviet era. Though geographical limitation was not a challenge, visually Messina had to spare the gory (bloody) details of the carnage to keep the movie teen-friendly. In the end, Messina still managed to produce illustrious scenes for Mockingjay – Part 2 just like he had done for The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.