3 out of 4 stars
Directed by Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Donald Sutherland, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Sam Claflin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mahershala Ali, Willow Shields
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and for some thematic material.
137 minutes
Verdict: The finale to the Hunger Games series defies expectations in a bold and suitably messy conclusion that's more uneven than the previous films but just as though-provoking.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY –PART 2 IF YOU LIKED:
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY –PART 1 (2014)
THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (2013)
THE HUNGER GAMES (2012)
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 1 (2010)
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 (2011)
After three-and-a-half years and four movies, The Hunger Games has come out the other side as one of the most solid film franchises in recent memory, and the most successful of the young adult literary adaptations glut since Harry Potter. Anchored by Jennifer Lawrence's muscular performance of complex, human feminist hero and a bold, nuanced approach to the familiar blockbuster revolution formula. MOCKINGJAY - PART 2, along with last year's PART 1, is an admittedly rickety finale, but it's bold and uncompromising. It's a messy ending, and it should be messy. It's not exactly the crowd-pleasing finale we've come to expect, but it's a proper conclusion.
After a doozy of a cliffhanger closed out MOCKINGJAY – PART 1 (spoilers for PART 1, naturally) reunited Hunger Games victor and icon of a rebellion Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) with her fellow Games victor Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) only to narrowly escape death at his hands, PART 2 opens immediately following, with Katniss still recovering from her wounds and Peeta kept in restraints after months of torture and brainwashing by the Capitol have changed his very nature. Intent on settling the score, Katniss defies District 13 President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), leader of the rebellion, and stows away with a squad of District 13 soldiers into the war-ravaged Capitol to assassinate President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland), the ruthless dictator whose regime has overseen the savage gladiatorial Hunger Games and withheld substance for a few while most of the nation of Panem languishes in poverty and starvation.
In stark contrast to the escapism-based thrills of practically every other major film franchise of its sort, The Hunger Games series, including the latest and last film, are rooted primarily in issues of moral complexity. It's not without its action and thrills for certain, but especially in
MOCKINGJAY - PART 2, it attacks the rarely attended implications of the kind of violence and war typically presented in blockbuster entertainment, and it does so without making qualifications. Before it gets to that however, there's the prolonged march into the Capitol ruins laden with booby traps designed by sadistic game makers, which makes up the better part of the film but is not the better part of the everything going on here. This perilous expedition, referred to with tongue in cheek by games victor Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin) as the "76th Hunger Games", isn't bad material, but it's just not as interesting as the moral dilemmas explored during the beginning and ending portions of the film. Dealing with the implications of civilians and refugees affected by the conflict, the cycle of violence and its enduring impact on the participants, and the on-the-ground effects of air strikes, some of the issues raised by the film are mind-blowing in their relevance to very current events and reasonably insightful in their treatment. Unfortunately, the result is a very uneven middle stretch of action scenes that are suitably thrilling and even terrifying at moments, but they feel obligatory and delay the substance of the story. Mix into that the final reckoning of a love triangle that was never a truly important factor of this story, between Peeta, who is now all kinds of messed up, and Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), the series' least interesting major character (he's like Will Turner, but way more bland), and these sections of the film really drag. Things pick up again in a big and unexpected way by the final third, however.
It's no crowd-pleaser, but in its willingness to defy the conventions of action blockbusters, the series closes out in a bold and thought-provoking anti-climax that encourages reassessment of the previous installments. It grim and it's messy, and should be. In response to the book and now the movie, some have criticized that Katniss becomes a inactive player in the final chapter of her story, but she's arguably more active in this chapter than she has been before. After being forced into the arena twice before and propped up as a symbol of propaganda by District 13, Katniss finally arrives as more than a survivor, but as a warrior who defies expectations. MOCKINGJAY - PART 2 is not as riveting as the original, as invigorating as CATCHING FIRE, or as lyrical as MOCKINGJAY - PART 1, but it's as thought-provoking as the lot of them and then some.
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| Images via Lionsgate Entertainment |
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