The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

SPOILER WARNING

No More Games

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

Director: Francis Lawrence

Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Donald Sutherland, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Some films are critic-proof. Some films have such a huge following that it doesn’t matter if episodes in a long-running movie series or franchise are weaker than the previous ones. The first Hunger Games film back in 2012 made $695m at the worldwide box office and the second, Catching Fire, made a staggering $864m around the world. So it doesn’t really matter what we or anyone else says, The Hunger Games is hugely popular and, now that Spectre has been out for quite a while, it is guaranteed to have a huge opening weekend this weekend and will be at the number one spot in the film charts. Mockingjay Part 2 picks up where the slightly dull first part ended: Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is stuck in District 13 with President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) with thoughts of storming the Capital in District 1 and ending the evil President Snow’s reign of terror. Everdeen has broken the Hunger Games and so now she is sent with a group of other rebels including Gale (Liam Hemsworth), Finnick (Sam Claflin) and Cressida (Natalie Dormer) to break into the capital.

So we have a two-hour action film interspersed with some dodgy CGI and a little bit of a retread of the other Hunger Games films. There are a few nice set pieces and Lawrence does keep things moving well. Also, the films are helped by some canny casting choices and people like Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch (his last film in terms of release), Sutherland as Snow and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch do lend a little bit of gravitas here. Of course, when Snow is overthrown, new President Coin shows her true colours but there is a happy ending here with a husband and child for Everdeen living in a place free of the Hunger Games. It does feel like a little bit of an anticlimax but it would be hard to figure out a truly satisfying conclusion. So there you have it. One of the most successful film series of modern times has ended. If you are a fan of the other three films, you will see this regardless and if you haven’t seen its predecessors, then you probably won’t see this one either. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 is an intermittently entertaining rollercoaster ride with some enjoyable performances which passes just over two hours pleasantly enough.

JOEL MEADOWS

The Hunger Games 1-3 [DVD] [2015] The Hunger Games UK Theatrical Version The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 [DVD] [2015]