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With a devoted fan base firmly at its back and a filming/release schedule that would put the Saw franchise to shame, The Hunger Games finally reaches its big finish as it brings its tales of young adult dystopia to a hopefully rousing close. With four releases in four years, there was a fear that Francis Lawrence might not be able to sustain the quality of Catching Fire, a worry made all the more tangible by the fact that the final book in the trilogy – Mockingjay – had been split into two films and the first was lacking at bit of that earlier mojo.
But now freed from having to deliver over two hours of set-up, Mockingjay – Part 2 had amble room to manuver in order to deliver a close to the political troubles of Panem. But with a heaving cast, a love triangle to resolve, a cliff hanger to deal with and some remarks on the corrosive nature of power to deliver, can the Katniss finally get the cream and end the saga on a high?
When we were last in Panem, the war against the Capitol was seeing some pretty low blows being delivered by President Snow. After the rescue of an imprisoned Peeta, we discovered that the formerly gentle baker had been brainwashed to murder rebel figurehead Katniss Everdeen, and came horribly close to succeeding. As she recuperates from her injuries, Katniss demands to be sent to the front lines to fight, however, rebellion leader, President Coin, denies her request as the Capitol can’t be stormed until District 2 has been brought in line first. Granted permission to go there instead and rally the cause, card carrying shit-magnet, Everdeen, is almost killed by an assassin and finds that the rebellion wants to keep the fact she’s alive a secret to thrown Snow off his game.
In the wake of this, Katniss is made part of a special squad whose job it is to enter the Capitol behind the main troops and film propaganda footage at a moderately safe distance. However, safe isn’t exactly the word I’d use to describe the Capitol during times of war, as Snow has tasked his Gamemakers to pack the streets with as many outlandish booby traps as humanly possible. But as the squad of Katniss, Gale, Finnick and others pick their way through such obstacles as machine gun turrets, tidal waves of acidic black goo and eyeless creatures lurking in the sewers, it could be that the greatest risk to Katniss could be one of their own when a barely deprogrammed Peeta joins their ranks.
As Everdeen gets ever closer to Snow’s mansion, she secretly changes her mission to take the scheming leader out once and for all; but on the political stage, is he really the only one willing to make ghastly sacrifices in order to secure power? As Katniss realises that she may just be swapping out one dictator for another, can she find a way to balance out all that sinister political bullshit to free Panem once and for all? While she does it, it might also help to discover where her heart truly lies – blandly macho Gale, or potentially dangerous nice guy Peeta?
While Mockingjay – Part 1 fell victim at numerous points to the dreaded book-split-into-two-parts trope, it’s main job was to plow through that dence plot in order to get us to a place where Part 2 could deliver some sweet, sweet payoff. However, while we get a defiant and – more importantly – definitive ending to this entire affair (no Matrix Revolutions-style draws here), the journey to the end suffers a little depending on what you may be expecting from it. For a start, anyone expecting that insanely heavyweight cast to come out swinging may be surprised to find that once again, quality actors such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson and Jeffrey Wright barely have anything to do other than stare gravely at news reports and nod sagely during meetings. But it’s not just the senior cast that’s scoring an easy paycheck.
While a lot of the veteran cast seem content to be the American dystopian version of the type of regular, returning cameos you’d get from the teachers in a Harry Potter movie, you’d think that the younger supporting cast would get more of a look-in too; but the likes of Jena Malone, Sam Clafin and Natalie Dormer also find that both their screen time and actual relevance to the plot have waned massively due to the need to close out Katniss’ story. Maybe, it’s all better handled in Suzanne Collins’ original novel, but while a handful of characters are well served, I was truly surprised how many famous faces are mercilessly “quelled” in service of the main story.
Thankfully, it’s a sacrifice that’s mostly worth it as the rounding off of Katniss’ story and a return to action sequences that mirror the now-defunct Hunger Games themselves keep the whole enterprise moving briskly to its finish. Not all of it scans as well as it could, however. That central love triangle splutters out rather than igniting and Peeta’s brainwashing actually denies us one of the better relationships of the franchise due to him being reduced to a gibbering, raging wreck for the most part. The final, fateful, explosive act that actually ends the war also feels strangely rushed, with a major death losing some much needed impact due to the need to get to the big, climactic twist.
However, the return to the booby trap days of the first two movies manages to supply the film with some gripping – if illogical – setpieces. That flood of black liquid may be a noticeably impractical way to halt the process of rebels, but it certainly looks cool. As does the turn into the likes of The Descent, where are heroes are set upon eyeless sewer monsters – but again, shock deaths and Peeta’s slow drift back to the light side all feel a little glossed over when compared to an impressive denouement. The final fate of Donald Sutherland’s monstrous Snow and the reveal that Julianne Moore’s Coin may actually not be that much of an improvement, involves moments of extreme political defiance that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find in a sci-fi blockbuster aimed at teens, and while the ramifications of this act are somewhat naively swept under the rug to ensure a fairly positive ending (apparently, political assassinations are fairly easy to brush off in Panem), it’s still a ballsy move.
However, in this movie about love triangles, fascist rule and the power of public perception, you can’t help but think that President Snow’s propaganda section wasn’t exactly earning their pay. While the Gamesmasters and the Peacekeepers are putting in serious overtime in order to see that Snow’s callous will be done, if the Capitol had just thought to answer the rise of Katniss as the rebel figurehead by simply renaming her Catpiss Neverclean, all that propaganda business probably wouldn’t have worked.
While Jennifer Lawrence continues to stand tall, the rush to get to the end of the story sees a lot of the friendly faces that got us here marginalised by the need to keep things moving – which proves that it really is the little people who suffer most in war. However, the core leads and a bold ending ensure that, while we don’t exactly leave Panem a better place than when we found it quality wise, the ending is swift, decisive and final. Which I think you’ll agree is something of a relief in this time of undying IPs.
