The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015)

Last Arrow: Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen
 in "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2."

The battle for Panem reaches its finale in “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2,” the mostly compelling, if sometimes tepid conclusion to the cinematic saga based on the novels of Suzanne Collins.

Once again directed by Francis Lawrence—who took over the reins of the franchise after the first installment—the story resumes with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) leading a gang of rebels on a mission to invade the Capitol and, by her own iconic bow and arrow, assassinate its ruthless leader.

Naturally, there are plenty of obstacles along the way. The Capitol landscape comes riddled with lethal booby traps, the most elaborate of which is a city square sealed off and flooded in inky oil in an attempt to drown the plucky heroine and her charges. Later, when the characters take their trek underground, they encounter vicious so-called mutts (computer-generated creatures that suggest a cross between faceless extraterrestrials and a gruesome team of flying trapeze artists) guarding the murky sewers by the dozens.

Along with frequent bursts of violence, Katniss’ fractured relationship with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), her District 12 partner and love interest, provides an undercurrent of emotional conflict with an edge of menace. Peeta, who unwittingly attacked and nearly killed Katniss after being captured by the enemy and brainwashed at the end of the previous film, here resembles a soldier left shell shocked by war, seemingly normal yet potentially dangerous. “Sometimes I’m alert,” he says, “other times, it’s like I’m sleepwalking.”

Similarly, the whole movie has a tendency to be soporific, as if the fight has outlasted the characters. Action sequences are highly charged and sometimes exciting, but there’s a feeling that everyone is battle fatigued and tired. Rejected by his people, the once evil and menacing President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is now almost a sympathetic figure, stricken with illness and pale like a ghost; even Katniss, once mighty with resolve, seems worn out and subdued, as if the horrors she’s experienced—along with those she dreads—have drained the life from her.

In the film’s overly sentimental last scene, a future Katniss talks about what she does to combat the nightmares from her past, a recurring strategy that involves looking for the good in people. “It gets a little tedious at times,” she admits. Perhaps it’s a similar sense of tediousness—of the inevitable misery, loss and futility of war—that causes “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2” to land with more of a thud than a roar. Maybe it’s even true that it should.