The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2

ABC News

It's not easy saying goodbye to something you love. Putting all cards on the table, I love The Hunger Games, as do most of those in my generation. I had reasonably high expectations for this movie, mainly due the promised delivery of action following last year's slow but solid lead-up. In Mockingjay - Part 2, the action is back at the forefront, and we're brought along to witness the dissolution of Panem through an honorable conclusion to the franchise.

In the four-part film series' final chapter, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and her allies from District 13 decide the only way to end the war is to kill President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Katniss, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), and a handful of volunteers venture out to the Capital. All are surprised when 13's President Coin (Julianne Moore) sends out Peeta to join them for the sake of propaganda footage. Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) is recovering from his "hijacking" - a process that makes him viciously attack Katniss whenever she's near. To raise the stakes, the Capital's game makers filled the city with traps similar to those utilized in the Games themselves, making the city streets a minefield for the heroes.

Although I was largely satisfied with this sendoff, it still hurts knowing Mockingjay could have been a much stronger finale had corporate greed not gotten in the way. I stand by my opinion that Part 1 was a flawed but overall good film, and it's hard to argue against saying that this installment is even better. But one of the reasons the first two installments worked so well is because the more concise runtime allowed a faster pace and higher entertainment value. The extra runtime allowed to these two movies added almost no extra moments on reflection or deeper meaning. I counted several spots in both parts of Mockingjay that could have been excluded altogether, and combining these films into one would have kept the series as a whole on a higher pedestal than it currently resides on today.

Still, it's hard to ignore the high level of filmmaking that was able to occur despite Lionsgate's insistence that the source material be split. Aside from the first half hour, the film's rousing action built to heartbreaking deaths relentlessly. It moved almost too fast, but I guess that's a consequence of making up for the downtime felt in Part 1. And aside from that, the film has a beautiful ending in the end as opposed to a rushed or forced wrap-up. Following the climax, Danny Strong's screenplay allows for a fitting conclusion focused on the characters we've grown to love over the past four years. We're also reminded on the marvelous performance this franchise has offered us - particularly from Jennifer Lawrence, Jena Malone, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and (post-The Hunger Games) Josh Hutcherson. The film is also full of smart nods to the earlier movies and utilizes nostalgia to its advantage wondrously. 

After a sluggish start, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 is almost everything you want from the finale of this franchise. There are undoubted imperfections, and I won't try to downplay them because they should not be downplayed. But this movie is respectful of its fans and those who truly know why we as a society fell in love with the series in the first place. It's about the characters, for without them why would we care to separate this from the slew of other movies in its genre? That's what makes this group of films so strong in the first place, and because of that, there are much worse movies to see. 

Rating: 4/5