★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
This was always going to be the hard sell. The final book of
The Hunger Games is widely regarded as the weakest of the trilogy, whilst Mockingjay Part 1 was critically judged (yours
truly excluded) as the least successful of the films so far. Quite how Part 2 manages to conclude the series
with such incendiary force (and next to no alteration of the source material)
is a remarkable sight.
For the reputation of Mockingjay
does not lie in excitable outbursts of sellable Hollywood action scenes, even
if feats of derring-do are central to the story. We pick up the very moment we
left Part 1 – Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer
Lawrence) still hides in the bowels of District 13, having narrowly escaped
death at the hands of tortured Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). The rebellion’s war on
the Capitol is escalating, and Katniss is given little reprieve before snapping
back into action in a final effort to bring down President Snow (Donald
Sutherland), all she holds dear hanging in the balance.
Part 2 is as
unapologetically bleak as the book, and is all the better for it: Lawrence is
still captivating and rightly commands centre stage throughout, as Katniss
yearns to end the suffering of Panem at ever-increasing personal risk. She
clearly considers only one way her own story can end, so her reactions as those
she loves are ripped from safety in her stead deliver scorching emotional
resonance.
A darker narrative also allows for deeper exploration of the
hopes, doubts and fears of our supporting players. Hutcherson has always been
the least reliable of the cast members, but truly comes into his own here as
Peeta’s loyalties are manipulated beyond his control, his warped vision of
reality making the twists and turns of the plot more unpredictable than ever. Liam
Hemsworth as Gale brings yet more complexity to the love triangle, and Donald
Sutherland is clearly relishing his final moments as Snow. Even the gaggle of
followers established in Part 1 –
little more than uniform bystanders to Katniss’ experiences – are fleshed out
over the course of the film, giving you more than reason to remember their
names as well as their faces.
The adult themes (terrorism, the cost of war and morality of
democracy) remain as consistent as the previous instalments, and come into
heavier prominence as we edge closer to the heart of the Capitol. Whether engaging
in street-bound firefights, evading deadly traps or – in one exquisitely heart-in-the-mouth
sequence – wading through a hellish sewer, Katniss and company are doing more
than simply play out the spectacle. A once plucky teenage revolution, replete
with an accompanying album of pop songs (abandoned here purely in favour of James
Newton-Howard’s gorgeous score), has morphed ferociously into a grown-up war
story. It will do all it can to thrill, batter and break you.
Yes, the ending could lose the extra five minutes it uses
re-establishing old motifs, and yes some talent is underutilised (Gwendoline
Christie appears for all of one disposable scene), but Mockingjay Part 2 has more than earned the right to extravagance:
by staying true to the source material, to its themes, and to its characters. This
is how a legend ends: with a bang and
a whimper.
