Review: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), tiring of being a political puppet, decides to take more direct action and along with a small team that includes her friend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and a possibly still damaged and untrustworthy Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) heads for President Snow himself (Donald Sutherland). Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone, Paula Malcolmson, Elizabeth Banks, Natalie Dormer, Eldon Henson, Jeffrey Wright, and Stanley Tucci all reprise the roles they have played in previous instalments, with Michelle Forbes playing a Lieutenant in Katniss’ team.

 

The film series based on Suzanne Collins’ series of books seemed to be getting better with each entry, to the point where the previous “Mockingjay Part 1” wasn’t too far from being a good movie. Unfortunately, the final instalment does not continue the upward trend. This 2015 film from director Francis Lawrence (who helmed the previous two entries) is the worst entry since the terrible first film. Scripted by Peter Craig (“The Town”, “Mockingjay Part 1”), Danny Strong (“Mockingjay Part 1”, and an actor on TV’s “Buffy”), and Collins herself, this is basically “Mockingjay 1.5” at best, barely moving the story forward enough to justify being a 2+ hour film in its own right.  Picking up right from the end of the previous film, we’re once again faced with the horribly murky, grey-looking cinematography by Jo Willems (who shot the previous films) and the PRB (Permanent Resting Bitchface) performance by Jennifer Lawrence. Willems’ work doesn’t look so bad during the daylight scenes, but at night it looks horrendous. As for Ms. Lawrence, I just find her so unpleasant to watch on screen here, though I’ve enjoyed some of her non-Katniss performances somewhat, so perhaps its more her interpretation of the character than something innate to the actress herself. I get that Katniss feels like a pawn, but if it is indeed Lawrence’s interpretation that I’m witnessing, it doesn’t seem like it. It looks to me very much like an actress who doesn’t like anyone and doesn’t want to be there.

 

As with the other films in the series, there’s some potentially interesting themes here, but it’s corny as fuck in execution. It’s heavy-handed, dopey nonsense founded on classic ideas done better elsewhere. This feels like “Mockingjay 1.5”, after 30-35 minutes I felt like I was watching the same fucking movie. It’s only incrementally different, we even get another propaganda film shoot mission for crying out loud. We did that last time, remember? Didn’t you see Natalie Dormer and her really unfortunate haircut? Sure, after 70 minutes we got some shrieking sewer creatures, that sure was new. But why? Who? What? They just seemed to come from completely out of nowhere.

 

As for the rest of the cast, Julianne Moore is once again good but also still seems to have pink eye. Jena Malone is as terrific as ever and like Faith on “Buffy” (it’s not a random reference, I swear), Malone makes you wish we were watching a story about her feisty, non-conformist character instead. Sadly, Woody Harrelson seems to get less to do with each film, as he and Elizabeth Banks are completely wasted here. The latter only gets one scene of dialogue with just 30 minutes of the film left. Josh Hutcherson and his mopey character are as frightfully tedious as ever, and Donald Sutherland spends 99.99% of his scenes in this franchise being made to be boring. Here his next-to final scene is excellent, but not enough to justify the tedious use of him throughout the rest of this franchise. I’m pretty sure he’s been playing most of this in his sleep. As for the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, everything about his demise is sad, but for this to be his final legacy? He looks depressingly bored here.

 

A giant step back for the franchise in its final instalment. This one barely advances the story from the previous film. I swear this franchise could’ve been done in 2 or 3 films, not 5. Maybe even just one. “Battle Royale” did this much better in its first film, though it did indeed spawn an unnecessary sequel. The story has been spread so unbelievably thin that here there’s a lot of repetition…and a lot of tedium, especially if you’re not one of the ‘YA fiction’ brethren. Obviously fans will have already lapped this one up excitedly, I was bored shitless.

 

Rating: C-