The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 is a serviceable but disappointing conclusion to the prolonged and uneven Hunger Games quadrilogy. Perhaps all the good scenes in Mockingjay, the third installment of Suzanne Collins’ wildly popular Young Adult book cycle, went into Part 1—my favorite of these films because of it’s emphasis on character and plotting over empty spectacle and simplistic social satire.  Part 2 is little more than a bunch of battle scenes. And yes, these are the same ineptly designed, poorly executed fights that have characterized this series from the beginning. Although director Francis Lawrence—who took over the franchise on its second movie Catching Fire—is a far better action director than the first helmer (Gary Ross), the shooting and editing style on all these pictures has lacked coherence. Often you simply cannot tell what's happening in the flurry of sound and camera movement that attempts to convey dangerous, exciting combat.  When these bursts of activity abruptly end, it is unclear how all the characters know for sure the onslaught is really over. Since anything can happen at any time in this world, there would be no way to know when you’re safe. Yet the heroes of The Hunger Games are always certain they can rest, regroup, and share quiet moments together once all the noise stops and the cameras cease shaking.  During these downtimes they explain to each other (and us) what exactly just happened. Maybe I should be grateful for so many of these quiet moments—after all, the talky scenes between engagements are the parts I like most in movies about soldiers on a mission—but I find it difficult to buy into the threats depicted in The Hunger Games because they seems so predictable and survivable. When characters are killed off, it always seems to result from a narrative need rather than a distinctly formidable attack.

I expect subpar action sequences from this series, but I had hoped the two-part final chapter would provide ample opportunity for surprising and satisfying resolutions to the relationship dilemmas established in the earlier pictures.  Unfortunately, the interpersonal climaxes in Mockingjay - Part 2 are as much of a let down as the conclusion to the war between the story’s opposing armies. Even star Jennifer Lawrence comes across less compelling and engaged in this last movie. Lawrence’s solid performance as the conflicted heroin Katniss Everdeen has been the one consistently positive aspect of this franchise.  But Collins and screenwriters Peter Craig and Danny Strong fail to give Katniss much of an emotional arc—not over the course of the film, the two parts of this last chapter, or, for that matter, the entire series. True, we always empathize with Katniss because Lawrence makes her human, fallible, and utterly relatable despite her superhuman abilities. But by the end of The Hunger Games we don’t feel like we’ve been on an epic journey with her; instead, we’ve just endured watching her endure.