 |
| Jennifer Lawrence and Natalie Dormer in the Hunger Games |
THE end is near for the Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (12A, 137mins)
Director: Francis Lawrence
Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Sam Claflin
Reporters’ questions on the red carpet were banned at last week’s Los Angeles premiere of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 “out of respect for the events in Paris”.
It might have spared some awkward moments, too, as there are some uncomfortable echoes of today’s troubles that nobody would probably like to dwell on at the current time.
Like Syria, the dystopian nation of Panem has turned into a failed state with a decadent and murderous leadership plus rebels on the offensive and a refugee crisis.
As with Syria, however, it is more complex than meets the eye with dissent and sinister motives among the “good guys” and atrocities committed on all sides.
So much for a fun, escapist night at the movies. After the novelty and perverse enjoyment of watching teenagers fight to the death in the first two Hunger Games (like TV’s The Apprentice with lethal weapons) the series has evolved into a rather grim and oppressive tale of insurrection as Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) reluctantly embraces her destiny as a poster girl for the rebels and takes the fight to the evil President Snow (Donald Sutherland).
What was strikingly original, strange and giddily entertaining has become a more pedestrian uprising story that suffers from being overextended because the filmmakers split the final novel in Suzanne Collins’s trilogy in two: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2. Part 2 should be the exciting, rousing climax that pays off after the slow-burn build up of Part 1 but it too drags with few memorable action scenes and a love triangle between Katniss, new love Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and ex-boyfriend Gale (Liam Hemsworth) that never catches fire.
The story opens with the newly rescued Peeta, taken hostage in Part 1, suffering the effects of being brainwashed and still deeply distrustful of Katniss (“you’re a monster”).
However, gooseberry Gale, rather than seize his moment and generate some intrigue for the audience, writes off his chances.
“You’ll never let him go,” he says, settling for a limp, compensatory kiss which he describes miserably as like “kissing someone who’s drunk”.
So much for that sizzling quandary. There is no question over who Katniss will end up with. It is merely a matter of time before Peeta comes to his senses and realises that Katniss is, in fact, the catch of the century, a cool, courageous, drop-dead-gorgeous goddess played by the hottest female star on the planet.
The most intriguing character is Julianne Moore’s rebel leader Coin who, after persuading Katniss to rally opposition, now wants her to take a back seat as a mere figurehead.
It is an instruction Katniss ignores as she goes rogue and leads a rebel secret mission to assassinate Snow. In another eerie echo of today’s terrorism atrocities, Gale tells Katniss that “anybody can kill anybody, you just have to be willing to sacrifice yourself”.
So off Katniss boldly goes to try to kill Snow and liberate the Capital, cueing up a series of protracted set-pieces as she and her followers, including Finnick (Sam Claflin), have to navigate an army of zombie-like creatures and hidden “pods” which detonate unpleasant surprises, among other threats.
 |
| Elizabeth Banks also star in the final instalment |
Bar a typically stirring performance from Lawrence, it is all a bit run-of-the-mill; the survival challenges could come from a computer game and lack the grimly compelling dynamic of the child-versus-child Hunger Games themselves.
There is no kick-ass finale which, admittedly, probably would not be becoming of a thoughtful and reluctant female warrior like Katniss but a little more excitement would not have hurt.
However, the rather low-key dénouement has a good surprise. Meanwhile, the colourful supporting characters who enlivened the earlier films, including Stanley Tucci’s ridiculous Caesar and Elizabeth Banks’s Effie barely feature.
Tucci makes a brief, subdued TV address to the nation, not a gleaming gnasher in sight. Woody Harrelson’s off-the-booze (in other words, less fun) Haymitch has a little more to do as Katniss’s counsel but rarely peeps out from behind his mop of hair; in fact I do not recall seeing his face at all.
Still, there is nothing here to overly displease fans. If you love the series and cannot keep your eyes off Jennifer Lawrence this well-crafted if rather bloodless finale should deliver.
Verdict: 2/5
 |
| Kate Winslet and Liam Hemsworth star in this drama |
The Dressmaker (12A, 118mins)
Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse
Stars: Kate Winslet, Liam Hemsworth, Judy Davis
You will either find The Dressmaker a hoot or a perplexing bore, like a shaggy dog story that is not nearly as entertaining as the teller seems to think.
Unfortunately, I was in the latter camp, despite an entertaining performance from Kate Winslet as a vengeful fashionista with an eyepopping wardrobe.
Based on a novel by Rosalie Ham and set in the 1950s, it is a peculiar mix of arch comedy, romance and overwrought melodrama as Winslet’s Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage returns to the one-horse town in the Australian outback where she grew up but was hounded from as a child after allegedly killing an obnoxious classmate.
With only patchy memories of the supposed incident, but a strong sense of her innocence, she sets about weaving the townsfolk into a plot to spill the beans, turning fashion designer for the local frumps and becoming town sweetheart.
It sounds fun but the constituent elements never gel to the point where the purpose of the story becomes mystifying.
There is revenge, small-town intrigue, romance (Tilly pairs up with Liam Hemsworth’s local hunk) and an intense mother-daughter relationship as Tilly moves back in with her crackpot ma, Molly (Judy Davis), who claims to have no memory of her.
Yet despite all the apparent activity the picture is slow and overlong. Winslet is good but it is a firing-on-all cylinders Davis who steals the film. Her relationship with Tilly is the picture’s most involving storyline.
Oddly what should be a selling point, the location, is a drawback as the town is so small and dusty as to be utterly insignificant.
Verdict: 2/5
Post a Comment Blogger Facebook Disqus