The Hunger Games: Mockingjay–Part 2

• Directed by Francis Lawrence
• November 4, 2015 (Sony Center) / November 20, 2015 (US)
• Based on the 2010 novel Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

The fate of the nation of Panem is decided as Katniss fights through the Capitol to confront Snow.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay–Part 2 is not a fun movie where there are no consequences to events or actions. By this point in the Hunger Games story, it looks like just about everybody is suffering from PTSD to one extent or another. But nobody is so emotionally wounded that they can’t function. They step up to the adversity. They fight on. That is heroism. Not victory but stepping up to the struggle even when it’s tough.

I’m a little surprised how they go into the psychological torture that Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) experienced. He is weak and fragile and unsure of himself. He doesn’t even know who he really is anymore. Hutcherson drives home how fragile the character is.

Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) wants to help but she’s afraid of him and doesn’t know what to do. To Jennifer Lawrence’s credit she creates a character that looks as if she’s barely holding on as well. Katniss appears to be proceeding through force of will against extraordinary circumstances in a situation she does not want to be a part of. That too is heroic.

As with the other films a lot gets communicated without words. Character actions tell you what is happening and what is being felt. Alliances and positive interactions if a bit unlikely happen logically based on how the characters are set up. Who would think that Johanna (Jena Malone) and Katniss would get along? Yet it fits perfectly in the film.

While not outright stated there is the implication that President Coin (Julianne Moore) is not necessarily adverse to Katniss’s presence in the Capitol because she wants her dead. Katniss is a clear threat to Coin’s postwar political dreams. She cannot control Katniss so is unable to manipulate her for support. There is also the undercurrent introduced that Coin is not too different than Snow (Donald Sutherland).

One thing that bothers me is the nice language that the District 13 side uses for the forces supportive of the Capitol. They keep referring to Snow’s troops as ‘peacekeepers’ which sounds nice like those are the heroes. There has to be something less soft that would work. It is clearly linguistic shorthand aimed at the viewer to keep things from being confusing in dialogue but logically makes zero sense.

There’s a lot of talking in Mockingjay–Part 2. Then again the other films have not been dialogue light either. Yet most importantly the dialogue advances the story of the film as well as the individual arcs of the character. We watch as Katniss is pushed evermore to Peeta and away from her first love Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth).

I do not quite feel like they make the pull between Gale and Peeta strong enough. She loves Gale but has bonded with Peeta through conflict and feels a need to care for him. Often this subplot pops up and goes away until they need a change of pace.

The moment she makes her decision is quite easily missed. There is no need for a huge spotlight on it but I think the impact needed to be felt immediately afterwards rather than once conflict was over. Peeta is still dealing with sorting through his memories in an effort to figure out what is real and what the Capitol put in there. He asked Katniss if she is still trying to protect him like in the Games and she says “Yes. That’s what we do. We keep each other alive.” They don’t make a big deal out of it but that’s the moment and it is too brief and easily overlooked.

One would think that having a talk between two rivals rather than a bloody destructive fight would be anticlimactic yet it is not when Snow and Katniss finally face each other. It is a great payoff as the two finally meet in his enclosed flower garden. Snow even finds a measure of victory in that he sees Katniss as having been used by Coin since it was Coin that dropped the bombs on the children which in turn caused support for Snow to evaporate. He revels in her trading one Snow for another.

And Katniss’s decision on what to do next is just brilliant and perhaps even earns the admiration of Snow at how calculated it is. While the postwar period will be unstable, Katniss can prevent the clearly dangerous Coin from replacing the calculating Snow. She is the only one that can do it and she knows it. I do not know if what we get in that moment is how it played out in the books, but it is such a surprising twist for an ending.

I’m not sure why or where the implied romance between Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) and Effie (Elizabeth Banks) came from. I’m not even sure why it was necessary to introduce. It added nothing to their story. If anything it left you wondering just what I said. Where did it come from? Sure they got along and neither of them were cave trolls, but that doesn’t mean they need to hook up on any level.

Finnick (Sam Claflin) and Katniss are implied to be close, but it never quite gets adequately displayed here. It just kind of is. Admittedly a two-hour movie cannot fit in everything that happens in a book but if it’s important enough to display the relationship in the movie then it needs to be worked upon.

And once or twice there feels like things occur out of convenience. What comes to mind first (and a best example) is the shop of Tigris (Eugenie Bondurant) who had a job similar to Effie when it came to the Hunger Games. Maybe there was something in the script or the book that says they headed there specifically, but that was not communicated in the film. It was more an element of narrative convenience to keep things moving.

Despite being heavy on the gab, this has a significantly greater level of displayed action than any of the others. Much of it is because a larger part of the story takes place in the streets of the Capitol with Katniss and pals engaged in street fighting and running from traps.

I thought The Hunger Games: Mockingjay–Part 2 was a strong finish to a strong film series. In fact I say The Hunger Games story finished stronger than it started. The first film was good. The next three were all excellent. It may not be perfect, but it is very good. Despite some flaws which are ultimately minor, it is an epic conclusion to an epic series. Well worth your time!