The games are over, the war has just begun…
Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Written by: Peter Craig, Danny Strong (screenplay) Suzanne Collins (novel)
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Donald Sutherland, Liam Hemsworth, Julianne Moore
The H-Bomb: Civil war is raging in Panem, as the rebel forces, led by President Coin (Julianne Moore), are steadily closing in on the Capitol. Rallying the troops on the PR front, is Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), the “Mockingjay,” who has been inspiring the downtrodden and disenfranchised people of the Districts to unite against the Capitol and its evil, oppressive president, Snow (Donald Sutherland).
Even though Katniss has been successful as the rebellion’s mouthpiece, she herself is unsatisfied with her role in the conflict. She wants to be on the ground, with the troops, and even more, she wants a piece of Snow. There is some serious bad blood between these two that goes beyond politics. This is especially true since she discovered that her near-love interest, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), has had his brains severely scrambled while being held prisoner in the Capitol. The once sweet little baker boy is now suffering from delusions, and is ingrained with a nasty impulse to murder Katniss on sight.
Needless to say, Katniss has no interest in waiting for Snow’s surrender, she wants to blast an arrow up his crusty old ass, here and now. So, in direct violation of Coin’s orders, our Mockingjay slips out of the District 13 bunker, and heads out to the front, in order to ice the Snowman for good. However, penetrating the Capitol won’t be easy. Not only is the place heavily guarded by Snow’s army, there are mines and booby-traps galore, as well as some other nasty surprises planted throughout the city. Snow has literally turned the place into a gigantic Hunger Games arena.
Fortunately, Katniss does have her other near-love interest, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), and various other allies, tagging along in order to ensure that she gets her shot at settling the score with Snow, and ending his vicious tyranny, once and for all.
As a fan of the first two films adapted from Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, I was crushingly disappointed by Mockingjay- Part 1. Not only did I find it to be a dull and dreary slog, I also felt that it was not a proper film unto itself, but a forty minute first act that was needlessly bloated out to two hours. Having re-watched it two nights ago, my opinion has not changed. It’s tedious, talky, and just does not work as a standalone movie. As I said a year ago, the decision to turn the last book into two films was a business one, not an artistic one.
That stated, the series does rebound nicely with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 2, a thoroughly exciting conclusion that is sure to satisfy fans of both the books and the films. It’s not without flaws, nor is it the best movie in the saga, that would still be Catching Fire, however, for those of us caught up in Katniss’s quest, it does make for one epically awesome finish. It suffers a bit from being cut in half, in that it too feels padded and over-extended in spots, but not nearly to the extent of Part 1. Here, there is an actual story being told, with things actually happening, not just two hours of people in a dingy bunker plotting a propaganda campaign.
Propaganda does play an crucial role in Mockingjay- Part 2, as it is utilized far more effectively than in the previous film. As Katniss, Gale, and the fellow members of their squad move further into the Capitol, they are subjected to repeated television broadcasts of Snow and Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) attempting to demoralize them, while the camera team with Katniss is trying to stage money shots of her in battle to play back to the rebels. This observed depiction of media manipulation is not the sort of thing I would expect to find in a young adult series.
The film also delves into some heady notions on the very concept of revolution, and poses the question: Is a revolution really worth fighting, just to trade one dictator for another? Not to spoil anything. Again, more substance than expected from a series aimed at the Twilight crowd, and I welcome that. Intellectual hodge-podge aside, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 2 is an incredibly well-crafted action film. The bulk of the picture covers the stealthy invasion of the Capitol, and the battle sequences staged by director Francis Lawrence are imaginative and genuinely thrilling. The best of which being a run-and-gun through the Capitol sewer system, where it literally turns into a horror film, with our heroes battling creatures straight out of The Descent… I shit you not.
The impact of the action is heightened by the sheer unpredictability of the story. Main characters, ones you would think are untouchable, are killed out of the blue, and the overall plot of Mockingjay- Part 2 went into some directions, in the last third, that I honestly never saw coming. Obviously, I can’t go into specifics, but there is one death, in particular, in the final twenty minutes or so, that seemed unnecessary, and rendered much of what Katniss did in the earlier movies kind of pointless. It takes the story, and Katniss’s development, in a darker direction that isn’t entirely credible.
That, and the multiple false endings we get during the picture’s final ten minutes (serious Return of the King syndrome), are the biggest strikes against Part 2. The massive ensemble cast, led once again by the magnificent Jennifer Lawrence, are all on point. I didn’t care for the way Katniss was written in Part 1, however, this time, the character is brought full circle, and her journey comes to a cathartic conclusion. Once again, Lawrence just shines, carrying the picture with the gravitas of an actress twice her age.
The supporting cast is roundly terrific, though some, like Tucci, Woody Harrelson, and Elizabeth Banks, have far less to do than in previous entries, and since Philip Seymour Hoffman passed away during the film’s production, it was pretty obvious at which points director Lawrence covered for his absence (ahem, the scene in which a letter from him is read by another character). Sutherland plays the slippery, slimy Snow just a little too well, and Julianne Moore deserves particular praise for her subtle, passive-aggressive turn as Coin, an ambitious woman whose motives may not be as noble as we are initially led to believe.
All things considered, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 2 is about as solid a conclusion to this series as one could hope for. If you haven’t been a fan up to this point, and just never got what all the fuss was about, then this movie probably won’t make you into one. However, if you have managed to become invested in Katniss and her arduous journey, then you will not be disappointed, as it does make for one hell of a rousing finale.
