December 4: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015 -- Francis Lawrence)

★★★

After the monotony and repetition of Part 1, it's good to see The Hunger Games pull up its pants and move ahead more vigorously to its conclusion in the second part of Mockingjay.  Although the plot here concerns the final assault on the capital by the rebels, the film manages to have some Hunger Games combat because President Snow has ordered his gamemakers to set up booby trap pods to slow the rebel advance.  With that, we get to see some of the trappings we’re used from the earlier films: video reviews of combat, heraldic music announcing combatants’ deaths, and even a short appearance by Caesar Flickerman in all his colored plumage.  It’s good to be back in the Panem war games.

Part 2 also gives us some character elements that move the story along.  One of the biggest questions here is whether Peeta is going to attack Katniss or snap out of his programming.  And on Katniss’ side, the question is whether she is going to finally choose Peeta as her mate or Gale.  This duo of suitors offers an increasingly clear contrast in the concluding episode, too.  There’s a sharp delineation here between the more domestic, artistic male and the pragmatic, harsh, warrior, and in keeping with the way the series challenges social roles, it ultimate not only endorses the milder male but punishes the more aggressive.  Julianne Moore delivers us another interesting character element in her President Coin.  The steely leader of the rebels never becomes the caricature that President Snow is, and while there’s plenty to unsettle us about her, Moore keeps her at the edge of plausibly acceptable.  Maybe that’s why Boggs has to give us such an on-the-nose warning about her.

And since this is the last film of the franchise, Lawrence takes some time to look back at the other films and to give us some time with many of the characters we love who are still around.  There’s mention of characters we’ve lost, like Cinna and Rue, and reminiscence of moments like Peeta burning bread to give it to Katniss, Gale hunting in the woods with Katniss, events in the earlier Games, and the reaping that swept up Katniss.  We also get a satisfying moment with old friends like Effie and Buttercup, making their endearing usual contribution, and we have a few longer moments with people like Joanna, Finnick and Haymitch.  The reach of Part 2 back to the series’ lore makes this part of Mockingjay far more engaging than the Part 1.

The story here, too, is more interesting than in the first part of Mockingjay.  In addition to the tension around Peeta, we wonder throughout how the final showdown between Katniss and Snow will be resolved, and the final showdown itself at the film’s climax has a logical if surprising turn.  The film has a good deal of foreshadowing, too, from the massacre of refugees towards the end to the death of Coin.  The story of Part 2 maintains its suspense nicely, even as it slows down for the team combats.

Until the film’s awkward ending.  After the bleak strife that has characterized the entire franchise, Lawrence gives us a jarring conclusion that looks and feels like nothing that has preceded it in the series.  The script gives us no transition to the brutally clichéd happy ending here, though transitions aren’t the strength of this final installment anyway.  For example, the Gale we watch throughout this episode is a significantly harsher pragmatist than we’ve seen in the previous installments.  Still, the gauzy happiness of the last scene of the film has little relation to the rest of the four-film series.

But despite awkwardness like this, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 is genuine entertainment, a final return to what has made this series one to follow for several years