★★★★☆
So it all comes crashing down. After four years of fighting the oppression of the Capitol – and smashing all-time box office records along the way – it’s high time for Katniss Everdeen to bring this fight to its bloody end. And unlike its predecessor, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 delivers in spades, with a finale that is brutal, bleak and completely engrossing.
As Panem descends into civil war and the 13 Districts unite against the Capitol, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) realises the only way to end the madness is to destroy its source – President Snow (Donald Sutherland). But as he turns the Capitol into a vast arena loaded with murderous traps, the mounting challenges facing Katniss and her allies threaten not only their survival, but the future of the nation.
Mockingjay Part 1 did all that it could with the stretched material, building the mythology of Snow’s atrocities against the Districts, introducing Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and setting the stage for the last battle. Director Francis Lawrence wastes no time in diving straight into the action this time.
The third film was also lacking the vicious ingenuity of the Hunger Games’ gamemakers, and they’re back in considerable force here as the Capitol becomes a booby-trapped battleground. One of the series’ great strengths has always been its unflinching approach to violence and its ramifications, and it’s explored most deeply in this instalment. As always in this series – and reality – children are not safe from the horrors of war.
Even at its most predictable, Mockingjay Part 2 repeatedly shocks with the potency of its message and visuals. Lawrence’s post-traumatic somnambulance speaks volumes throughout, and we as viewers are all the more emotional with every ally lost because of the power of her response.
And so very many are lost – those still wounded by the Harry Potter body count may scarcely recover from the scars this film will leave. Though often unrelentingly bleak, it remains entirely compelling. We step into this minefield with the same terror and resolve as Katniss, knowing full well the likely costs.
The only emotional beat that doesn’t strike is the saccharine and wholly unnecessary epilogue. It’s not Harry Potter bad, but it’s close.
Sadly, this was Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last role – the filmmakers have worked around his absence admirably. Plutarch, like others, feels underused here, but there’s only so much time in this tightly plotted two hours.
Witness the end of an era in all its ferocious glory. Long live the Mockingjay.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2opens in cinemas this Thursday November 19.
