Hunger Games: Mockingjay "The Hanging Tree", The

Ever since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it seems like it’s been the trend to break up a trilogies into fours. Jerick has done the service of editing Mockingjay into one film. I’ve read the Hunger Games, but I don’t remember specifics, so I can’t say how this flows with the book. I can say that this film, for me, really strengthens the films. The flow from part 1 to part 2 was unnoticeable to me. Jerick has really done a great job of strengthening the narrative and making this the film that it should be.

This edit is a well-crafted project meticulously put together by Jerick. Audio and video flows into one another as though it was the Blu-ray version (i.e. the quality of the edit and source is outstanding). The word flawless has been used before, and rightly so. Just a joy to be able to watch a fan edit without being pulled out of it because of a jarring cut. Nothing seemed out-of-place to me and the narrative works to create a (or THE) final entry in the trilogy.

I'd recommend this edit to anyone who seeks a trimmed and tightened version of the bloated two-parter that is HG: Mockingjay. I'd even recommend to watch this instead unless, of course, you are a huge fan of either books or movie franchise and need every single piece of material.

I found it difficult to give the Enjoyment-rating a fair number. One the one side, I truly enjoy a great fan edit, but on the other I dislike the entire Hunger Games-franchise. The enjoyment of the edit is in the 9-10 range, while the enjoyment of the movie itself is very low. A compromise has been made but solely due to my dislike of the movie, not the superb fan edit.

All in all, a brilliant edit by Jerick!

The franchise was Always a little love/hate with me. I watched the first film after reading the books and didn't like some of the changes, but I understood why they happened as they did for pacing. When the second film came out I'm not sure if my memory was less hazy because I thought it was a much better adaptation but I decided not to bother with the announced films....until one day you find yourself on an 8 hour flight and what are you gonna do but resort to watching in flight entertainment. That time was Early March of last year.. I watched Mockingjay part 1 and really liked it quite a fair bit... but when part 2 came out it was like seeing THG for the first time all over again. The Hunger games ended and it was with a whimper.

Thankfully Jerick saw what I could not concieve, how to take the weakest entries and strengthen them into one better narrative. It's not perfect you might noticed one or two cuts even if you aren't looking but it's a lot better than what is officially out there.
Admittedly I did watch a downgraded version of the vimeo file since I need to fit on a memory stick (I don't like using my external drives on the WDHD player) but I thought it looked fine on my 40" I probably lost something in the sound but I don't have the best audio set up anyway.

If you were dissatisfied with Mockingjay as I was then I'd like to think The Hanging Tree will be the resolution you were hoping for.

This one gave me the hope that something good could come out of the Hunger Games - and for the first 60 minutes this was true. This was a superb cut of Mockingjay 1. The hanging tree theme in the beginning was a bit odd and off for my taste, as this playful style was never repeated througout the movie.
Then Mockingjay 2 started and boredom started as well for me. No one needed more Hunger Games and I would have loved this one to be sliced and diced just as the first one, but it wasn't. The parts that were cut were all chosen carefully and did indeed tighten the 2nd part and make it a better movie (still far from good). The ending was great and finally insterted the pain, sorrow, silence and emotion that was so needed.
The editing was flawless, sound- and videowise. Great image quality and so easy to get through vimeo (I hope that is not dangerous for you to upload such contents there).
So, to sum it up, I was hoping to watch a version of Mockingjay that I could keep as a good movie, but this has not happened. Again part 2 ruined it for me and the great ending could not save the edit from being a one-time amusement. Thank you, Jerick for a wonderful part 1 edit. This was masterful.

With the first two Hunger Games films being as good as they were, Mockingjay was definitely a let down, due in no small part to things being padded out over two films. This is Mockingjay as it should have been in the first place.

A/V quality was excellent, near Blu-ray quality, though I do wish the bitrate was a bit higher. Some of the darker scenes had quite a bit of color banding, but overall it was on point. I'd highly recommend doing a BD25 (or a higher bitrate MP4) for this. I'm sure everyone would be happy to help (I know I would be)!

Visually, no flaws. No jump cuts, no stray frames, perfection. There was a single audio edit that stood out: the fade out between the power outage during the bombing and Katniss and Haymitch in the tunnel afterwards sounded a bit off. But with everything else being so on point, that can be easily overlooked.

As I said before this is how Mockingjay should have been. The new opening sequence with bombing the dam, especially with the quote from the Treaty of the Treason preceding it, was very powerful. Excising the raid on the Capitol to rescue Peeta and company was seamless, though I did miss Finnick talking about what the Capitol put him through after winning the Games and why Snow wears his roses. There were two other sequences I missed: the roses after the bombing and Katniss singing The Hanging Tree outside of 13. After all, if the edit is named for that song, where is it? The only other bit that could have been restored was Gale originally floating the idea of the delayed bombings. The film was fine without it, but once it gets brought up at the end, it seems a little out of left field. But such minor niggles do not detract from the overall impact of the edit. Removing most of Peeta's broadcasts from the Capitol really emphasizes how drastic the changes he's going through are, and besides the aforementioned scenes, I'd be hard pressed to tell you what was cut.

This is a fine fanedit, and I look forward to seeing more of Jerick's work (Matrix Revolutions Decoded is next up)!