By Brett Blake THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 2 represents the culmination of the franchise, and while it is as well-acted and technically accomplished as the previous entries, it is easily the least satisfying, both on its own and in the context of the larger story being told. There is good stuff to be found in it, and by no means is it a bad movie, but it’s ultimately something of a missed opportunity. Picking up immediately after the end of PART 1, the story this time involves Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) as she undertakes a secret mission to travel to the heart of the Capitol to assassinate the villainous President Snow (Donald Sutherland) as the Rebellion - under the leadership of President Coin (Julianne Moore) - draws closer to achieving victory. With the help of Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and a recovering-from-being-brainwashed Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), as well as a motley crew of others, Katniss moves ever closer to ending the war as her team navigates through a deadly and booby-trapped city. Much of this review will be focused on the more problematic aspects of the film, so first let’s start with what’s good. Jennifer Lawrence continues to be a perfect fit for Katniss, and even while the character in this outing is probably the least-sympathetic version we’ve yet seen, Lawrence gives her a tremendous strength and strong moral compass, something which is tested throughout the story as the true costs of warfare become more and more apparent to her. Lawrence delivers a complexity of character that transcends - I think - what she was given to work with on the page. Her supporting roster is uniformly excellent, from Moore’s icy cold and calculating performance, to Hutcherson’s utterly broken and traumatized work, to Hemsworth’s stoic and capable turn, to Sutherland’s rather delightfully calm and restrained effort. Returning players like Philip Seymour Hoffman (in his final performance), Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, Sam Claflin, Jeffrey Wright, and Jena Malone all pop up for a scene or two, and while none of them (save for Claflin) are really in the movie all that much, none of them are phoning it in and each feels completely credible, which helps to lend some gravity to the proceedings… even when the script doesn’t much help them out in that regard (more on that below). From a filmmaking perspective, the movie is a top notch piece of work. The production design is strikingly effective, presenting a bombed-out version of the Capitol that is a marked contrast to the garish opulence we’ve seen in the previous outings. The costume design is operating on a subdued level, color-palette-wise, and its a testament to the designers that this never translates into the movie feeling drab. The sound mix is alternately powerful and delicate, and James Newton Howard’s score beautifully - if subtly - underlines the emotional moments and enhances the “big” moments of drama and action. The problems with the movie lie almost exclusively with the screenplay. The bulk of the first two thirds of the movie are heavily episodic in nature: the core group encounters some dramatic or dangerous obstacle to overcome, they do, then they “stop to rest” so the characters can talk to each other. After the third iteration of this rinse/repeat cycle, the flaws in that sort of structure start to become apparent, but this is a somewhat minor issue in the grand scheme of things because the action is mostly pretty tense and exciting, and the character work is very strong. It’s just that a better integration of the two could probably have been achieved with another draft or two at the writing stage. More egregious is the fact that major, gigantic moments come and go without the weight required for them to really land; central characters die with little fanfare or fallout, and the very climax itself falls curiously flat. The ultimate narrative conclusion that’s presented here is, frankly, a curious one. Having not read the novel, it’s unclear how many of the climactic developments had their origins on that written page and how many are the result of cinematic invention on the part of the filmmakers. Whatever the case, we can only look at the film as it stands, and the big wrap-up to this whole saga is strikingly peculiar, idiosyncratic, and - yes - even a bit brave. The way the plot stands finally get tied off involves a series of strong character moments that are filled with fascinating and complex intellectual implications. There is much to chew on here, both philosophically and thematically, and it’s certainly not lacking for ambition. But a consequence of the somewhat off-beat narrative choices is that it gives the ending of this big story a feeling of anti-climax; for three prior movies, we’ve been made to believe that this is all leading to something big, a huge final showdown to pay-off everything that has come before. We get that kind of, but there’s a sense that the dramatic possibilities of the conclusion (again, as built up over the previous movies) are - perhaps intentionally - undercut by the attempts to make its intellectual points. There is very obviously a strong vision for what the ending of this story is supposed to be, but I think it’s unlikely most average (i.e. non-hardcore HUNGER GAMES fans) will find much of it to be all that satisfying here… at least in the moment. The viewers may walk away feeling underwhelmed, with a “That was it?” sort of reaction, but then may find themselves eventually mulling over exactly what the ending is saying about power, governance, corruption, and human nature, itself. In that sense, it’s a movie that might improve with time - separated from expectation - but leaving the theater it’s hard not to feel like the air was let out of the balloon somewhat, as even the film’s most shocking developments seem like they should carry more weight than they do. It all feels kind of like a downer, and while that may have been the point, it hardly results in a rousing or thrilling finish for the series. Ultimately, upon first viewing at least, MOCKINGJAY PART 2 is the least successful and least engrossing entry in the series, which would be more forgivable if it weren’t the final chapter. It’s still fine, it’s still loaded with some thought-provoking ideas and enough action to satisfy on that level, and it still has a magnetic Jennifer Lawrence performance holding it all together… but it is a bit of a bummer that this very good sci-fi franchise has fizzled out rather than dropped the mic. “Fine” in this case just didn’t quite cut it.
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