Somehow, the movie series behind the Suzanne Collins novels has managed to build up a certain amount of momentousness and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II is the culmination of the journey that seemed to kick start Jennifer Lawrence’s career. It’s been just four years in the making, with as many movie releases, but for some reason it feels like a lot more and whether it was intentionally planned, or just the nature of the series, it’s become a hefty epic that’s hard not to get swept up into.
The story for the fourth entry in the series picks up following the harrowing closing sections of Mockingjay Part I and sees Katniss and the amassed forces of the rebellion as they march on the Capitol to deal with President Snow once and for all. It makes for a pretty simple basis for the film, but it’s got more twists and turns than the Minotaur’s lair as play and counter-play are exchanged with all parties vying for their own concept of utopia.
The cast is solid and Jennifer Lawrence (X-Men: Apocalypse) does very well in her final appearance as Katniss Everdeen to round off a punchy performance as the young freedom fighter. There’s a simplicity to her portrayal of Katniss, combining well with the directness of the final installment to show the altruistic nature of her character.
Sadly, with his death in 2014, Philip Seymore Hoffman isn’t featured enough to really add too much weight to the production, but when he is onscreen, even for the most fleeting of scenes, his natural presence is pretty evident. Julianne Moore has a similarly weighty screen presence and she uses this to bring stoic resolution and manipulative command as President Coin, leader of the resistance.
Josh Hutcherson is savage as Peeta Mellark and while Liam Hemsworth is as wet as ever as Gale, he has a few emotive scenes with more complexity than in previous films. However, it all comes together under the quiet dictation of the brilliant Donald Sutherland as President Snow, creating one of the decade’s great movie villains.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II is a very fitting end to the series with a tight storyline, great action, impressive CGI and imagery and a good delivery by the cast. It taps into a lot of deeper themes around tyranny, oppression and propaganda, while still being a pretty ferocious adventure in the process, especially with the crazed underground monsters and oil slick flooding. It’s the kind of film that you could easily throw on for years to come, so it could be one to add to the DVD collection.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II review: 4/5
