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| Will peace and joy finally reign over Katniss Everdeen and her people? |
HUNGER GAMES MOCKINGJAY PART 2: Film Review – Is this a fitting finale for Katniss and Co? Jennifer Lawrence does her best in a slightly muddled final film, but is our appetite satisfied? PLUS take our mind-bending Hunger Games quiz for a chance to win a kindle Fire.
'Nothing can prepare you for the end,' warns the film poster.
It's been three years coming and the anticipation was already killing me. So, would The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 live up to all the hype and – more importantly – my own expectations?
Jennifer Lawrence has lifted an all-star cast and superlative production across four films to ever-greater heights.
The finale had so much to live up to and certainly wraps everything up in high style - if, perhaps, a little too neatly and sweetly.
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THE HUNGER GAMES MOCKINGJAY PART 2
STARRING: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Elizabeth Banks, Donald Sutherland
REVIEW: 4 stars
The poster warned me, it did. I was duly prepared to have my pulse pounded, my spirits soared, my geese bumped, my spine tingled and my poor brutally beating heart beaten and broken.
It's been a bumpy year for mega-franchise blockbusters and I haven't hidden the fact that Spectre left me unshaken and barely stirred, Jurassic World gave me precious little dino-drama and Terminator Genisys deserved to be well and truly terminated.
I simply couldn't have coped if J-Law and her extraordinary castmates and superlative creative crew had let me down.
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| Will Katniss triumph when it matters most? |
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| Donald Sutherland as President Snow |
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| Gwendoline Christie as Commander Lyme |
We go into the fourth and final film in the franchise with a smothering sense of impending doom. The Capitol has declared war on all the rebellious Districts and everything is hurtling towards an explosive and devastating climax.
We pick up right where we left off, buried in District 13, with Katniss bruised and barely able to speak after Peeta's attack.
The poor lad's brainwashing in the Capitol has left him shattered and delusional. Whether he survives or not, we start to fear that he will never be himself again.
We are given tantalising glimpses of happiness as we sing and dance at the much-deserved wedding of Finnick Odair but masochistically we know (and kinda hope) that such simple joys cannot last.
After a little too much political talk, Katniss finally kick starts the action, raising the rabble with thundering speeches against the despicable President Snow.
"Turn your weapons to the Capitol. Turn your weapons to Snow," she cries, voice trembling with emotion, eyes glistening and hair billowing heroically in the wind.
Seriously, it was all I could do not to leap out of my seat and run charging down the aisle in a fetching leather tunic and boots.
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| You really don't want to go down into the sewers |
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| Josh Hutcherson as Peeta |
Without the central device of an actual Hunger Games, the action is rather more freewheeling. But, fear not, with the Capitol's nasty Games Makers devising ever more atrocious obstacles for the invading forces, it is no less thrilling.
"Welcome to the 76th Hunger Games," drawls Finnick (Sam Claflin) and we are soon introduced to dastardly death-filled traps and some seriously terrifying monsters in the sewers. You'll think twice when you flush you loos after seeing what crawls out of the tunnels on screen.
Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie strides across the screen as Commander Lyme while everyone we have come to desperately care about faces despair, devastation and death.
And those deaths when they come, they come thick and fast.
The central third of the film is taught, tense and emotionally devastating.
The final section, however, is surprisngly muted. While this isn't quite the rousing finale I was expecting, it follows its own internal dictates, set down since the very start. Despite all the flashy flair of the Games, this story has always been more about ideas and emotions than action.
Ultimately, the strength of this extraordinary adaptation of Suzanne Collins trilogy of books has rested on the remarkable twin achievements of presenting huge social and political philosophies measured against intensely moving personal dramas.
The menacing marriage of Ancient Roman iconography and rituals with 20th Century totalitarian state rhetoric and politics (and a dash of 21st Century spin) has been majestically built up through stunning visuals and razor sharp scripting.
All anchored, of course, by a deliciously dark and beguiling performance by Sutherland as the sinister spider weaving his tricks and traps. He grows ever more compelling, even as his webs unravel, right up to the fittingly sticky end.
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| Effie and Katniss |
One girl has always stood in his way and for four films I ached for the terrible burdens placed on Katniss, even as I exalted in her triumphs and marvelled at Jennifer Lawrence's utter command of the role and her audience.
I always feared what the final price might be and the blows, when they come, are hard.
The hardest of all is made more so by the poignancy of how this whole saga began - even if it is somewhat fumbled.
Lawrence continues to emote like only she can, smothering us with her every thought and feeling as Katniss begins to realise that nothing is what it had seemed and that she has one final, shocking duty to perform for her people.
I will admit a mild disinterest in the endless dallying around between Katniss and her two suitors, Peeta and Gale. Gale just never had quite enough screen time or the opportunity (or inclination) for self-sacrifice to ever rival dear, sweet puppy-eyed Peeta.
In my heart I still feared that it would end badly somehow for their tangled love as it would for each of them in their turn. How could the odds ever, truly be in their favour?
At least Hemsworth, finally, has a rare moment to shine as he discusses the eternal love triangle with winning, if world-weary, wit and charm.
Harrelson continues to impact as Haymitch, but there is too little of Banks' tremendously flawed and fabulous Effie and Jena Malone's powerhouse Johanna. Julianne Moore's steely and subtle previous appearances as the unsettling President Coin, however, starts to slide a little too obviously towards pantomime, undermining one of the key moments of the finale.
And so it ended.
Scores were settled, lives were lost and the price, as it had to be, was finally paid.
I will admit that, not having read the books, I had expected as slightly different, more brutal ending. For me, it doesn't quite measure up to the unflinching, at times unbearable harsh truths of the previous films.
The pacing is odd throughout, and the langurous unwinding of the final scenes still leaves certain resolutions (and absolutions) strangely rushed and underdeveloped.
Even so, it is impossible not to acknowledge that this franchise has been a towering achievement, in a sea of wishy-washy teen franchises.
Yes, a lean and mean trilogy might have served better, but you cannot deny that you have thought and felt and dreamed alongside those brightly blazing figures up there on the big screen.
What a glorious game we have played in a genre starved of big ideas and real heart.
We have feasted and filled ourselves and if the slightly sacharine ending felt a little too much like a stodgy desert, perhaps that is the fitting finale for such a rich banquet.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 is out in UK cinemas on November 20.
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