The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 - B

Elizabeth Banks and Jennifer Lawrence

Rated PG-13, 137 minutes

Highly charged, entertaining and bittersweet, "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2" is a fitting close to the "The Hunger Games" film series and will no doubt please the legions of "Hunger Games" followers. It's not the best in the film series, but it has enough memorable moments to win you over. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) stakes her claim as the leader of District 13 and leads the full-scale revolution against the brutal dictatorship of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and the Capitol. Directed by Francis Lawrence, who directed three of the four films and co-written by Danny Strong and Peter Craig (writers of "Mockingjay - Part 1") based on Suzanne Collins' best-selling Young Adult novels, "Mockinjay Part 2" delivers a solid, compelling entry in the series, which has always been a notch above the other blander YA knockoffs such as "Maze Runner" and "Divergent," mainly because of Lawrence's affecting heroine and the smart handling of some darker themes such as revolution, identity and family with such panache and depth. The slower first act builds tension between the final showdown between Katniss and Snow, not to mention the ambitions of other key figures such as Plutarch (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) and President Coin (Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, in great form here) then gives way to a few nice twists and turns with some exciting action sequences in a dark tunnel before the breathtaking finale when the unpredictable heroine - the always spirited Lawrence - finally delivers much needed retribution. The cast and production values are first-rate for this final installment, including the stellar visuals and energetic score from James Newton Howard; much of the cast from other installments returns for this outing too, though some are seen only briefly, with minimal footage devoted to Hamitch (Woody Harrelson) and the flamboyant Effie (Elizabeth Banks), while Stanley Tucci's colorful Caesar is only a cameo here. With some slower moments "Mockingjay - Part 2" isn't the knock-out action of the first two (my favorite of the films is still "Catching Fire") or as ponderous as "Mockingjay - Part 1" but somewhere in the middle. The satisfying "The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 2" is an enjoyable treat for "Hunger Games" fans, who may be sad it's all coming to an end, though the odds are in Katniss' favor that we won't soon forget her.