The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (7/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 132 minutes.

Not for children.

There were three books, but this is the fourth movie. It’s not like the story is so complex that it took one more movie than book. It’s probably just that they wanted to make a lot of money, so, why not?

The third book was filmed all at the same time and then split into two movies. This is so old that Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died almost two years ago, makes an appearance.

There are lots of references in this, Part 2, to things that happened in Part 1. I didn’t see Part 1, but it didn’t make this incomprehensible. In fact, I didn’t see the second movie, either, so I’m not all caught up in the teenaged love interest of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), and, anyway, that’s played down in this film.

This movie more or less stands on its own. If you haven’t seen any of them you really don’t know why President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is such a bad guy or pretty much anything about President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) who is the leader of what appears to be a bunch of rebels. But you eventually get the idea.

I had as little interest in the romantic problems as the movie does, so that doesn’t even rise to the level of a Z story, much less a B. Even without all the background, this is a pretty good action film as Katniss and a few others invade President Snow’s city and combat lots of obstacles that require interesting special effects and CGI to get to his palace and try to do him in. Jennifer Lawrence is beautiful and easy to watch, and gives a good performance. It might be more interesting if you’ve seen all the others, but Part 2 can stand on its own, too.