It’s closing time for the Hunger Games, and if you, like me, have been following the series since its very first instalment in 2012, you’ll no doubt agree that it’s a bit of a relief getting to finally shut the door on this thing. Reason being that while the first two films had been fairly promising, especially as compared to their sillier contemporaries in the young-adult sci-fi universe, by the time the third one was rolled out last year, there was a palpable drop in energy and impact. This derived, in great part, from the fact that the good people over at Lionsgate Films had decided it would be prudent—from a purely financial point-of-view, of course—to chop the last book in Suzanne Collins’ bestselling dystopian teen trilogy, on which the films are based, into two separate productions to be released a year apart. The move might have certainly set the cash registers ringing, with worldwide box office earnings for all four episodes—including the newest, Mockingjay Part 2, directed by Francis Lawrence (who did the last two films as well)—predicted to cross the $3 billion mark, but it has proven a misstep insofar as the narrative arc of the series is concerned. Instead of charging into an explosive finale, what we have instead is a dull, drawn-out crawl towards the inevitable. All this, despite having the wonderful Jennifer Lawrence—not to mention a raft of other big-name talents—in tow. 

The last we saw of Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence), she’d just been attacked by one-time Hunger Games partner and on-again/off-again romantic interest Peeta (Josh Hutcherson). He’s been brainwashed into hating her, you see, by the minions of the ultra-evil, uber-sadistic President Snow (Donald Sutherland) during a brief period of incarceration. Katniss can’t agonise over that for too long, though: the rebel army that she’s been key in inspiring as the titular Mockingjay—raised to counter Snow’s despotic rule over the districts of Panem—has been growing in strength, and leader Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and right-hand Plutarch Heavensbee (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) are planning to take the fight to the Capitol, the opulent, corrupt centre of the nation. 

But while Katniss is eager to be on the frontlines, Coin would rather she stay put and stick to making motivational speeches and propaganda videos. The idea of being made to play a pretty mascot irks Katniss no end; she doesn’t want to be the face of the movement, she wants to be on the ground, taking real, meaningful action. So it is that she decides to head off to the capital to assassinate Snow on her own. Of course, Coin won’t let her off that easy—if the Mockingjay wants to throw herself in the line of fire, Coin would prefer she do it on camera: she might be still more valuable as a martyr. Katniss is thus accompanied by a team of fellow rebels, including childhood buddy Gale (Liam Hemsworth), aka corner number 3 of the romantic triangle, and oddly, Peeta, who might or might not still want to kill her, among others. For the rest of the film, we follow our steely heroine as she infiltrates the Capital—not easy given the streets are chock-full of booby-traps, Hunger-Games style—determined to rid the world, once and for all, of the monster that is Snow. 

What has consistently set the Hunger Games franchise apart from the many others of its ilk—such as the now out-of-service Divergent, to give an example—has been the relative strength of its political themes, and these are never as clear as in this fourth film. One of the series’ main points of focus has been the strategic manipulation of mass-media discourse: both Snow and Coin make varied efforts to skew Katniss’ public image to fit their own agendas. Another prominent strain within the films, and one that applies well to goings-on in Nepal, particularly of late, is the attempt by a dominant elite to actively sow division and discord amid the masses, set citizens against one another, so as to retain a grasp on power and privilege. Snow does, after all, derive his authority and legitimacy from a warped, imaginary hierarchy designed to enslave and keep the various districts in order, the epitome of which were the brutal distractions of the yearly Hunger Games. Mockingjay 2 also deals with pertinent questions such as the justification of using violence as a means to an end, and how, in times of war, some lives are accorded less value than others; “Sometimes killing isn’t personal,” Gale says to Katniss, to which she responds, “It’s always personal.”

That Katniss has been the conscience of the series all along is clear. But besides playing the moral touchstone, she is also one of the more well-rounded female protagonists around—strong, wise, wilful, and struggling with the celebrity status bestowed on her—young girls could definitely do worse than this for a “role model”. This is also one of the reasons the romantic angle with the two suitors has always felt so forced and unnecessary—yet another is the simple fact that Lawrence just overwhelmingly outshines her two male co-stars, and neither feels like a convincing match for her. And though it is given comparatively lesser attention in the newest episode, the will-they/won’t-they love-tack still grates whenever it pops up. 

Also grating is the film’s sluggish pace, a direct result of the whole cleaving-into-two business, when there just wasn’t enough story to merit that decision. We’re thus treated to extended sequences of people walking and staring at each other and having conversations punctuated with too many long pauses in an effort to be Meaningful, usually in dimly-lit underground locations; it moves so slowly that even the anti-climactic ending—well, one of the endings, anyway—can be guessed at a while in advance. However, even when the digital trickery kicks in every now and then to offer us some action, such as with the depiction of the flowing black goo, or the “mutts” that attack the rebels in the city sewers, the result is a bit hokey. I’ve always felt the CGI in the series to be rather touch-and-go and let me just say, Mockingjay 2 is definitely not in the running for any visual effects awards. And the cast, though listing all the hefty acts from previous instalments, isn’t able to transcend the limits of the script, since most have been given very little actual speaking time on screen.

If you’ve stuck with the series so far, it goes without saying that you might as well watch this final chapter, if only to get a sense of closure. But I’d lower my expectations going in—it certainly gives you a chance to say goodbye to Katniss, but you’ll probably agree that she deserved better.