The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015) is once again directed by Francis Lawrence and stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Donald Sutherland, and Julianne Moore. Also returning include but are not limited to Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Sam Caflin, Woody Harrelson, Mahershala Ali, Elizabeth Banks, Natalie Dormer, and Jenna Malone. The film picks up immediately after the events of Mockingjay Part 1 and follows Katniss and her crew as they navigate through the dangerous Capital in order to assassinate President Snow and definitively end the war. Among other things, I criticized the Mockingjay Part 1 for not really being able to act as a great stand-alone film, and although this film suffers from similar issues, it doesn’t suffer as severely. 

Jennifer Lawrence here sustains the quality of her performance from the last two films, once again feeling like a good fit for the role. Hutcherson is more prevalent here, once again being able to show off the acting range we only got a glimpse of in Part 1. Hemsworth is good once again, the audience getting a look at more complex sides to his character. Although once again receiving minimal screen time, Donald Sutherland gives his best performance as Snow. He really takes a step up in terms of vileness. Julianne Moore’s performance as President Coin also takes a step up here, fulfilling the promise from the last film that her intentions may not be as clear as they originally seemed. The rest of the cast is great once again, but mostly put on the backburner in service of the action-oriented final chapter. 

Katniss and Gale’s relationship is frustrating here once again. A sort of closure to their romance is given in the previous film, but that is immediately forsaken here. This is made even more frustrating by the fact that it ends in a way that is just a more definitive version of how it ended last time. Not to mention, where Gale ends up by the end of the film doesn’t feel like a smooth character arc. In hindsight, Gale is just a mess of a character. He’s a seemingly great guy that the story just kind of tosses to the side by the end, no one empathizing with his mistakes. All the while the other characters have made countless mistakes throughout the story. I would assume that aspect is more fleshed out in the book, but here it feels undercooked and quite frankly a little disappointing. If they would have retired the will they/won’t they romance in the last film like they should have, it would have left more room to focus on Gale’s eventual misguided downfall. 

The film really does succeed at fulfilling the bleak sort of sacrificial ending the previous films seemed to promise. I would consider this the darkest of the four films, and in that way I was satisfied. I was truly expecting the film to pull a lot of punches, but it didn’t. Actually, some of the punches hit way harder than I was expecting. In that way, I was truly thankful. It has a fun, siege movie feel and really delivers on some good tension-filled action sequences. There are some really disturbing and tragic losses that really hammer home the price of freedom, while likewise noting that the price paid is entirely worth it. I appreciated the fact that the film was willing to take a lot of risks in terms of how things play out. The story isn’t interested as much in pleasing the audience as it is hammering home the themes. The movie does the smart thing by eventually giving us a “happy” ending with the umbrella of tragedy and loss still hanging over everything. It’s an effective balance.

Although the character of Snow is effective, I was disappointed that we didn’t learn much more about him by the end. Maybe that is why we’re getting a prequel focusing on his character, but I felt that we should have learned something about him that maybe challenged our outlook on the entire thing. In a way, that does happen, but it’s only to set up President Coin and once again hammer home themes such as the cyclical nature of society. By the end, Snow again feels like he falls into evil stooge territory.

There are once again more eye-rolling monologues from Katniss. They worked the first two times in the franchise, but here I found myself asking “Really? Another one?” Also, her choice to let Peeta join her siege crew seemingly days after he was brainwashed to KILL HER seems to go directly against any of the character’s verbalized wishes to “keep Katniss alive.” Not to mention the fact that they made it seem in the previous film like Peeta’s brainwashing was nearly a death sentence. He’s almost immediately fine excluding a few flashbacks to his torture. The timeline was absurd here. Another problem that bothered me was the use of unexplained supernatural creatures once again. They take a step up in absurdity from mutated dogs and birds all the way zombies. Yeah, you read that correctly.  At this point, I just kind of accepted those kinds of things within this world, but I still feel like it’s an element that immediately broke my immersion. 

Overall, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 is a satisfying ending to The Hunger Games story, but likewise a strange one. The climax here feels very novelistic in a sense. As mentioned before, it focuses more on thematic resolution as opposed to a traditional cinematic climax. That being said, the themes are really on the nose if I’m being honest. I’m not sure that they needed to be hammered home this fully. Not all of the emotional moments hit as well as they should and the stand-alone value continues to hamper the overall film. With all of that said, the film delivers on the important things. It’s epic, bleak, exciting, sad, and just generally entertaining. The runtime flies by, and I think if anyone has made it this far in the franchise, they will fully enjoy the film regardless of whatever shortcomings it may have. B