The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
(2015)
(SPOILERS) Well, it’s better than Part 1. Although not the last YA franchise to dubiously split its
finale in two, there’s no obvious inheritor to The Hunger Games’ crown of rampant billion dollar grossing hit. As
such, we may see fewer such desperate cash grabs in future (I don’t think
anyone’s holding their breath for The Divergent
Series: Allegiant and The Divergent
Series: Ascendant). Arguably, the bean counter led strategy – whatever lofty
notions director Francis Lawrence professes regarding the decision’s legitimacy
– has led to an uneven, laborious second half of a movie series that set off at
a fair old clip. So, while The Hunger
Games: Mockingjay – Part Deux focuses in on its theme of the moral vacuum
that accompanies authoritarian structures reasonably successfully, it finishes
up very much lesser to the shamelessly crowd-pleasing first two outings.
Which come down to Russell Crowe’s Gladiator shtick: “Are you
not entertained?” Daft as the premise of The Hunger Games is (admittedly, it passes for wholly credible when
jostling for space with The Maze Runner
or Divergent), it’s essential conceit
of gladiatorial combat between bright (and not so bright) young things is an
instantly winning formula. It’s no coincidence that, for all its earnest
ruminations regarding nominal system change, propaganda and power corrupting
absolutely, Mockingjay – Part 2 is at
its most spirited when rehearsing yet another (unofficial) games; as Finn (Sam
Claflin) even obligingly suggests “Welcome
to the 76th Hunger Games”.
Which rather highlights that, for all its ability to communicate
worthy themes to a wide audience, The
Hunger Games’ aspirations get bogged down in self-importance whenever it opts
to acknowledge this head-on. That’s when the commentary feels at its most YA;
when calls upon Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) to deliver an impromptu speech (most
notably to a would-be assassin), or a character sets out why Alma Coin (Julianne
Moore) feels threatened by Katniss’ influence, just like President Snow (Donald
Sutherland), rather than letting the audience realise this themselves.
When it does show, the effects are invariably potent,
such as Coin bombing the shield of children assembled outside Snow’s palace in
a topical false flag operation (well, topical if you entertain conspiracy
theories) or Katniss taking out the incumbent president during Snow’s public
execution. As with most big movies with a political bent it tends to deliver
when it doesn’t let on that it only has so much to say, actually (see also Captain America: The Winter Soldier).
But part of this is also comes back to allowing itself far too
much time wallowing in a mire of introspection of its own making. We already
got the message about Katniss as a poster child for the new order, and her
mixed feelings about it, in Part Un,
so pressing the point during the first half of the picture feels like overkill.
This repetition ensures Mockingjay – Part
2 drags for long stretches, to the extent that it frequently feels like an
unhurried prestige mini-series adaption, dotting every i and crossing every t of
a sacred text.
Such reverence also leads to a number of structurally
unwieldy choices (the assault on the palace looks headed for a grand climax,
but then Katniss passes out all-aflame and we’re forced to regroup; it sucks
all the energy out of the frame). Jennifer Lawrence good as she is, is unable
to carry that weight of such pacing problems solo, and there isn’t enough
substance in other roles to take up the slack.
While the “adults” in the cast
are generally fine actors, few of them have enough going on to make them truly
intriguing. Moore’s Coin proves disappointingly undifferentiated when she goes
as far as suggesting a Hunger Games for the Capitol kids (paint her as a baddie,
sure, but not quite so clumsily/overtly) and there are too many good actors
(Gwendoline Christie, Stanley Tucci, Robert Knepper) reduced to a single scene.
Others stir and repeat (Philip Seymour Hoffman, sadly in his
final performance, Woody Harrelson, Jeffrey Wright, Elizabeth Banks – although
a little Effie goes a long way) with little of note to show for it. At least Michelle
Forbes has a decent role in the mid-section of the picture as a very Michelle
Forbes not-to-be-messed-with lieutenant, while Sutherland (who like Mr Bronson
in Grange Hill, has to pay) relishes
the chance to bring silky menace during the closing sections. In particular, there’s
his marvellous reaction on realising who Katniss’ arrow has sought out, a brief
amusement before the crowd, baying for blood, descend on him.
There are similar problems of representation with the
younger cast. The ones who cause spark to fly, Claflin, Jena Malone and Natalie
Dormer (who, along with Pollux decides not to go the distance in getting rid
President Snow, which as played is a bit abrupt and possibly chicken livered), aren’t
given paltry screen time, and we’re expected to find the inert love triangle between
Katniss, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) involving.
Unfortunately, Lawrence must choose between two guys who don’t exactly bring
the charisma, and she opts for the titch with whom she has zero chemistry.
I
wouldn’t be quite so unkind to Hutcherson as to label him the Taylor Lautner of The Hunger Games, since he can
approximate a performance – although I’m not sure I could take another scene of
Peeta frothing about his brainwashing – but it’s impossible to be invested in
Katniss and Peeta luxuriating with their burgeoning brood in a golden meadow
come the final scene (which seems to take an eternity to get to; I was half
expecting a further cut to Old Gammy Katniss). Perhaps Peeta’s conditioning
will kick in once again during the closing credits?
The differing moral philosophies of Katniss and Gale provide
a strong enough dividing line for why it isn’t to be between them, but it might
have done the picture more of a service to present his case less brusquely. Likewise,
the blunt response of Johanna over whether there should be a Capitol games; too
frequently the picture takes the easy route of Katniss being all on her own on
her moral high ground.
That’s a failing generally, though; there might have
been some agency in charting an ambiguous course we see with the uncertain
political future of the districts (people have short memories, we are told;
they’re definitely in trouble with Patina Miller’s Paylor, who doesn’t fare
well with lines like “the sadistic
inventions of game makers meant to make sport of our deaths”). Accordingly,
Katniss doesn’t end up with gumby Peeta out of love. Rather, it’s an attempt to
find stability between two broken people. If that was the intent, it doesn’t
translate because her relationship with Peeta has never been convincing on any
level.
The action though, when it comes, is top notch, as you’d
expect from Lawrence. Perhaps also as you’d expect from Lawrence (the helmer of
I Am Legend) he has a penchant for
CGI beasties (and CGI oil), although the Mutts here are rather better rendered
than Will Smith’s adversaries. That sequence is fairly intense Aliens-grade stuff for a 12-certificate,
although, by this point in the movie, it’s become patently obvious that Katniss
carrying a bow around a war zone is about the dumb as, I don’t know, one of the
Avengers using it as his weapon of choice. Even stronger is the lack of punch
pulling in the aforementioned infant massacre. The picture’s to be congratulated
for not making war fun, although alas it’s mostly only really good when war is fun, as the deadly game of booby
traps and dismemberments through the streets of the Capitol attests.
It will be interesting to see how studio Lionsgate’s fortunes
fare now their half-decade-plus of YA coffers-fillers has run dry. The moderately
successful at best Divergent is
probably closer to what any studio should expect if they’re lucky, given the
copious corpses of failed YA fare strewn across the last few years, rather than
the Twilights and Hunger Games. As for The Hunger Games’ legacy, as with Harry Potter it was an error to split
its final instalment. Mockingjay – Part 2,
and its immediate predecessor, will probably be awarded merit points by
devotees of the novels, for whom more is usually more, but the decision has hobbled
the potential of what was a naturally cinematic series.
