The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)

Jennifer Lawrence in "Mockingjay Part 1," the rousing
third entry in the Hunger Games series.

When we last left the tragic, dystopian city of Panem in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” reluctant heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) had put an abrupt end to the eponymous battle—a savage, televised fight to the death between unlucky teenagers—with her latest act of altruistic defiance. Now the popular franchise, based on books by Suzanne Collins, is back to launch its cinematic third act.

Clumsily-named but tightly wound and highly entertaining, “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1,” the first of the two-part conclusion to the series, is a well-engineered, often rousing action picture. Director Francis Lawrence, who also helmed “Catching Fire,” has brought some much needed credibility and cohesion by trimming away some of the excess kitsch and petty campiness of the previous films.

It's also the first time in the series that there aren't any actual hunger games—no stalking through an angry forest ducking flying arrows and poisonous fog, or odd play-by-play by weirdly-costumed TV hosts. The bloody pugilism of the first two films has given way to a kind of strange, vicious chess match between the main characters. There’s still plenty of visceral excitement, fights and explosions, but the strategy and backroom maneuvering have the feel of war games—as disturbing and violent emotionally as physically.

Here, Katniss aligns with a new set of allies—including the great Julianne Moore as Alma Coin, the austere, sympathetic leader of the rogue District 13—poised for a full scale revolt against the brutal, totalitarian rule of the Capitol and it's evil, autocratic leader, President Snow (played once again with icy menace by Donald Sutherland). Back as Plutarch Heavensbee, Coin’s top advisor, is the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, lending further A-list gravity to the proceedings.

Philip Seymour and Julianne Moore in
"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1."

Meanwhile, the fair-skinned face of the revolution has a few other things on her mind. In “Mockingjay,” Katniss’ District 12 battery mate and possible romantic interest, selfless Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), is being held hostage in the Capitol, slowly being tortured and turned into a duplicitous minion by goons under Snow’s rule; his secret near the end is a plot twist best left unrevealed. Then there’s Gale (Liam Hemsworth), the hunky close friend who has feelings for Katniss, hoping his chivalry and battle-tested courage nudges him closer to the apex of the love triangle. And Katniss must continue to look after her family, including little sister Prim (Willow Shields), who has a knack for getting into trouble.

There are enough pieces to this post-apocalyptic puzzle that it would get dizzying trying to explain them all, but it’s safe to say that the glue holding everything together is Jennifer Lawrence. Watching a scene in which she slowly surveys the blasted ruins of District 12—her eyes filling with tears and face growing tremulous with pain and rage—is seeing a commanding talent at the top of her form. Genre films aren’t typically known for nuance, yet nobody conveys profound anguish and steely resolve with quite so much subtlety and ease.

She’s really too good for these movies, and that’s largely why they keep working.