Video (01:38) : With the nation of Panem in a full scale war, Katniss confronts President Snow in the final showdown. Teamed with a group of her closest friends - including Gale, Finnick, and Peeta - Katniss goes off on a mission with the unit from District 13 as they risk their lives to stage an assassination attempt on President Snow who has become increasingly obsessed with destroying her. The mortal traps, enemies, and moral choices that await Katniss will challenge her more than any arena she faced in The Hunger Games. 
 
 Not since Slave Girl Leia converted her chains into weapons and strangled Jabba the Hutt has science fiction created a freedom-fighting heroine as striking as Katniss Everdeen. In “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2,” one character describes the popular young woman at the forefront of the citizens’ revolt as “mythic.” You said it. 
 
 For four years now, Jennifer Lawrence has knocked the poignant role out of the park left, right and center. Playing the blue-collar huntress defending the population of dystopian Panem against its vicious, foppish tyrants, Lawrence plays viewers’ sympathies like a Wurlitzer pipe organ. She has led a film franchise whose casting decisions have been as impressive as its relatable themes, social commentary and ultra-realistic visual effects. 
 
 Now with “Mockingjay — Part 2” we bid a regretful farewell to the series. The good news is that it closes in world-class style that most superhero movies would envy. It is a fitting finale for a series that has set a high-water mark for screen adaptations of young adult fiction. 
 
 Unlike the first two films, which focused on Katniss and her friend Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) surviving the televised combat of the games, the final two follow the struggle between Panem’s corrupt leaders and their rebellious foes to gain the upper hand in media propaganda. Although the managers of the uprising want to keep her safe and ready to give the cause inspiring video publicity, Katniss joins in marathons of military warfare alongside her best friend, hunting partner and would-be lover Gale (Liam Hemsworth). 
 
 Traumatized by the torture-induced brainwashing that crippled Peeta, Katniss wants nothing more than to bring her high-tech bow and arrows within striking distance of the nation’s despicable President Snow (Donald Sutherland, as before in chillingly evil form). 
 
 The plot is minimalist but as the film moves forward to literal and symbolic fallen snow, the final showdown delivers a hearseload of thrills. Director Francis Lawrence creates tense, fierce excitement. In part, it comes from nerve-churning action. One extended scene puts Katniss and her commando troop in sewers overrun by flesh-eating zombies, the sort of shocking sequence that can give you a serious case of the creeps. There are even stronger jolts in a battle scene at the capitol that produces horrific civilian casualties. 
 
 Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) takes aim at toppling President Snow and his evil empire. 
 
 But most of the thrills come from the outstanding character work as different cast members attempt to take charge of the unpredictable situation. 
 
 The film unfolds in a dark side of life where absolute power corrupts absolutely, even among the leaders of a necessary uprising. It often feels designed as a horror-driven metaphor for America’s crumbing social order. Katniss rises from her shabby coal mining hometown to national stardom by climbing up the sort of televised elimination battles and beauty contests produced by Donald Trump — programs where she is sized up as just another expendable extra. 
 
 The leadership ambitions of the revolution’s President Coin (quietly malevolent Julianne Moore) are just as Machiavellian as the tyrant she aims to replace. The film is not just a good, exciting, emotionally involving story, but an allegory that fits inside our present cultural bubble. In an era of terror and waterboarding, this is a science fiction film about people under siege in their own War on Terror, showing how hard they would fight to stay alive. It’s a balanced nightmare, the fantasy that keeps on giving. 
 
 If the film shortchanges us, it’s in terms of the all-star cast we would like to see longer. There’s just one rapid appearance by Stanley Tucci as a cynical broadcaster, two for Jeffrey Wright as an idealistic leader of the revolution, and a small handful for the late Philip Seymour Hoffman (who died during this production) as an ingenious strategist who served both camps. 
 
 Hoffman deserves but doesn’t receive a salute in the opening of the end credits, like Paul Walker had in the latest “Fast and Furious” film. But there is much to admire in this film and the entire series, reaching beyond YA blockbusters like “Divergent” and “The Maze Runner” through deep messages, important themes and the transformation of a gifted actress into a worldwide star. ||||| Another so-called YA (Young Adult) motion picture property has reached its cinematic conclusion. Billed as “the next big thing” 3 1/2 years ago with the release of the first Hunger Games movie, the series has lived up to its hype. The movie adaptation of the final book of Suzanne Collins’ best-selling trilogy, Mockingjay, has been bifurcated and, although there’s little doubt this was a financially savvy move, the creative results are dubious. Mockingjay Part 1, released a year ago, was a disjointed, incomplete affair and, although Mockingjay Part 2 is more polished, the pace is uneven and there’s a sense that the series has hung around too long. 
 
 In keeping with the tone of the source material, Mockingjay Part 2 is bleak. There’s nothing wrong with this - plenty of the best sci-fi movies have been dark. The problem is that, in addition to removing the light and hope, Mockingjay has robbed the series of its uniqueness. Suddenly, it feels like every other dystopian motion picture - and there are a lot of them out there. It’s impossible to distinguish large stretches of Mockingjay Part 2, with characters running around in subterranean tunnels being chased by zombie-like creatures, from similar segments of The Maze Runner movies or the Divergent series. They all blend together and that’s not a good thing for any of them. The earlier Hunger Games movies stood apart. No longer. And Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), reduced to an automaton as a result of PTSD, has become generic. 
 
 Mockingjay Part 2 unsurprisingly begins where Part 1 ended. Katniss is recovering after nearly being choked to death by her former lover, the traumatized and brain-washed Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). Distressed about what has happened to Peeta, Katniss volunteers to be part of an assault on the Capitol. Her goal is to confront and assassinate President Snow (Donald Sutherland). The President of the Resistance, Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), is in favor of using Katniss for maximum political value, even if that means turning her into a martyr. Joined by allies like Gale (Liam Hemsworth), Finnick (Sam Claflin), and Boggs (Mahershala Ali), Katniss makes a push for the Capitol but soon learns that her primary role may be as a decoy and media star. 
 
 Despite some engaging battle scenes, Mockingjay Part 2 at times becomes repetitive. The attack on the Capitol is overlong, featuring a protracted sequence in tunnels and underground corridors. All this leads to an anticlimactic ending that, although it makes a strong political point about the moral ambiguity of war, is not cinematically satisfying. The “twist” at the end is neither surprising nor unexpected. Even those who haven’t read the book will see it coming. 
 
 Another disappointment is the characterization of President Snow. The sneering, Machiavellian dictator who sought Katniss’s death throughout the first three films has been reduced to a feeble shadow of his former self. In Mockingjay Part 2, he’s almost to be pitied. His schemes are ineffective and his inevitable downfall is dramatically inert. Snow, who was unquestionably a villain “we loved to hate” in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire has devolved into a pathetic bad guy - someone it’s difficult to summon much feeling about one way or the other. If one of the expected pleasures of seeing Mockingjay Part 2 was to relish Snow’s inevitable downfall, the way in which the narrative unfolds cheats viewers of that. 
 
 When one considers the amount of talent packed into the cast of Mockingjay Part 2, it should come as no surprise that the acting level is high. Oscar winners and nominees abound. Jennifer Lawrence is not as compelling or charismatic as she was in the first two Hunger Games installments, but that’s a result of how the character is written - Katniss has been transformed into a shell-shocked, revenge-driven Terminator. Josh Hutcherson does his best Manchurian Candidate impression but the chemistry he shared with Lawrence is missing. The Katniss-Peeta-Gale love triangle collapses into irrelevance. Many returnees from the previous installments (like Woody Harrelson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman in his final role, Stanley Tucci, and Julianne Moore) are accorded little screen time and no opportunity for development. 
 
 Director Francis Lawrence, who did a good job with the action scenes in Catching Fire (he helmed all of the Hunger Games films except the first one), is unable to replicate his success here. There are a few suspenseful sequences - a notable one involving an oil-trap and one that evidences an Aliens influence - but many of the movie’s so-called “high octane” sequences are visually impressive but emotionally shallow. Several key deaths have little or no impact. 
 
 At least it can be said that Mockingjay Part 2 ends the saga. All the individual storylines are wrapped up and there’s a nice little epilogue. There’s no doubting that this movie has high aspirations - it wants to depict war not as a rah-rah, video game experience but as something violent, desperate, and destructive. But the compromises it makes to attract a wide audience neuter the message. Mockingjay Part 2 never goes “all in” and, as a result, it fails to satisfy as either a traditional sci-fi adventure blockbuster or an exploration of the dark side of war. The Hunger Games movies began with much promise but after the pinnacle of Catching Fire, it has been a slog to the finish line. We’re finally there and I feel more exhausted than fulfilled. 
 
 Hunger Games, The: Mockingjay Part 2 (United States, 2015)
– Katniss navigates a booby-trapped Capitol in the hope of assassinating evil President Snow in Mockingjay Part 2, the final installment of the Hunger Games series, based on Suzanne Collins' novels. Is it a fitting farewell? Here's what critics are saying: "The film is not just a good, exciting, emotionally involving story, but an allegory that fits inside our present cultural bubble. In an era of terror and waterboarding, this is a science fiction film about people under siege in their own War on Terror," writes Colin Covert at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "The plot is minimalist but … the final showdown delivers a hearseload of thrills" so that when the credits finally roll, it's "a regretful farewell." "The focus is overwhelmingly on Katniss … and it's to Jennifer Lawrence's immense credit," writes Tom Long at the Detroit News. "She can run about in super-hero mode then suddenly drop down five notches or strip herself bare emotionally. She has been the best possible Katniss," he raves. But Lawrence isn't all there is to enjoy. The film is "explosive, mostly true to the text, complex, and chock full of action." It "should more than satisfy the franchise's many fans." Sara Stewart is on an entirely different page. "It hurts to see the Girl on Fire go out on such a lukewarm note," she writes at the New York Post. Mockingjay Part 2 "manages to give us everything we've been waiting for and still underwhelm." Stewart is particularly perturbed that the final book was split into two films, as well as a major plot point that "is downplayed here to an extent that, I felt, betrayed or at least misread Collins' story." But at least "there's still the pleasure of watching Jennifer Lawrence." "I feel more exhausted than fulfilled," writes James Berardinelli at Reel Views. Mockingjay Part 2 is "more polished" than Part 1, but "the pace is uneven and there's a sense that the series has hung around too long." It "feels like every other dystopian motion picture" and though "an anticlimactic ending … makes a strong political point about the moral ambiguity of war," it's "not cinematically satisfying." Though "all the individual story lines are wrapped up and there's a nice little epilogue."