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How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★★☆☆ 5 November 2015
This a movie review of THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 2. |
“I’ve been watching you, and you watching me,” President Snow (Donald Sutherland)
For fans of the novels, rest easy, the bold and bleak conclusion is retained. There is no RETURN OF THE JEDI euphoria. Blockbusters constantly strive for catharsis, but usually fail to deliver thanks to a lack of stakes and any real danger to the players. Cuddling the audience as the credits roll is not on the agenda for MOCKINGJAY PART 2 (look instead to your cinema chums to rock you gently, comforting the slightly hollowed out feeling).
For fans of the novels, rest easy, the bold and bleak conclusion is retained. There is no RETURN OF THE JEDI euphoria. Blockbusters constantly strive for catharsis, but usually fail to deliver thanks to a lack of stakes and any real danger to the players. Cuddling the audience as the credits roll is not on the agenda for MOCKINGJAY PART 2 (look instead to your cinema chums to rock you gently, comforting the slightly hollowed out feeling).
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Mishandled, though, are the pacing and action sequences; the former has the narrative momentum grind down for a multitude of conversations that could have been undertaken while combat unfurls around the speakers. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 was unforgivably padded, but at least PART 2 delivered the action and scale. MOCKINGJAY PART 2 on the other hand had the promise of a bone-rattling climax, which never comes. It means that re-watches might be solely relegated to the first sequel, CATCHING FIRE, the single satisfyingly contained movie of the four (in the same way that THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING is the only one of the six Hobbit moves working on its own).
Also, not helping matters is the resurfacing of the unconvincing love-triangle between Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) and Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth). Mercifully subsumed, for the last two movies, behind the quest for national freedom, the subplot rears up again. Not only are the characters of Peeta and Gale weakly drawn, their actors are unfortunately not charismatic enough to enliven.
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What does elevate MOCKINGJAY PART 2, after the propaganda illustrations of PART 1, is the nature of revolution as it draws to its goal. Tapping into history, the story understands how a power vacuum can attract the nefarious; replacing one form of authoritarianism can breed another in its wake (NB/ FIGHT CLUB portraying the same thing). Villainy targeted does not mean a happy ending is guaranteed. (Analogously, romantic-comedies continually reach for the simplistic answer, for contentment, as finding the one, not acknowledging the difficulty of relationship maintenance.)
President Snow (Sutherland) is cornered in the Capitol, but has rigged the city with traps to hamper the oncoming insurgents. After some initial nods to Brian De Palma (a whirling camera at a party à la CARRIE and a dinner table execution reminiscent of THE UNTOUCHABLES), director Francis Lawrence is unable to muster much panache. Mayhem only briefly quickens the pulse before ending, and imagination is attributable to the story rather than the visuals.
Still, it is the mature ideas underpinning the franchise that hook:
- Unchecked power leads to excess.
- Leadership has to be scrutinised.
- Slavery can take several forms.
- Survivor guilt.
- President Snow is not just a heinous political ideology, but represents an aspect of personality.
- A reminder, unlike so many tentpole blockbusters, that there can be a steep price paid for heroism.
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