In the forth and final installment in the Hunger Games franchise, Jennifer Lawrence again comes out to shine, but an uneven plot and uninteresting romance drag on the already grim proceedings. The first half of the film is slow going, hampered by multiple scenes of Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen and the two other points in her love traingle, Liam Hemsworth's hunky but brooding Gale, and Josh Hutcherson's semi-brainwashed Peeta, hashing out their differences. Only once the trio and a squad of fellow rebels, many from Mockingjay: Part 1 (2014), head to the Capital on a covert attack mission does the movie kick into gear.

The Capital, largely evacuated and rigged with booby traps by the sadistic Gamemakers of the series' title, serves as the setting for the duration of the film. Impressively staged set pieces include a wave of molten tar chasing the group to higher ground, and a ferocious melee in a sewer system that stands as one of the best action sequences of the year. In it, our heroes fend of an endless stream of fanged humanoid creatures using their specialized weapons to brutal effect. However, even this violence is trumped by a shocking, climactic scene of terrorism that forces Katniss's hand in an unplanned direction.

Julianne Moore flexes just enough crazy as the rebel commander who would be Queen, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman appears once more, though noticeably not in a final roundtable vote that his character almost certainly would have attended. On the strength of Lawrence and her all-in performance, at one point being brought to tears acting only with a cat, the movie delivers an adequate closing chapter. As a single film, even a lengthy one, Mockingjay would have been a fitting end to a strong trilogy. As a two parts, both feel padded, with neither reaching the heights met by the series' best offering, Catching Fire (2013).

Final Grade: B | 83/100 | ★★½