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'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2': End of the line for Katniss and crew

Katniss Everdeen can hang up her bow and arrow now and wipe away that look of sad, defiant rage.

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, from left, Mahershala Ali as Boggs, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne in a scene from "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2."
Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, from left, Mahershala Ali as Boggs, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne in a scene from "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2."Read moreMurray Close/Lionsgate

Katniss Everdeen can hang up her bow and arrow now and wipe away that look of sad, defiant rage.

With The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, the final installment in the adventures of a valiant teen and her battle against decadent authority figures and the cynical puppetmasters of a deadly reality-TV spectacle, all the dystopian hooha comes to a crashing end.

A franchise that made Jennifer Lawrence a star and made something like $2.3 billion at the global box office - not counting the chump change Part 2 is poised to make - The Hunger Games wrapped its message of media manipulation and the commercialization of violence in an action fantasy with a courageous, independent woman as its star.

The premise was - is - creepy and thrilling at the same time. Adapting Suzanne Collins' best-selling Hunger Games trilogy (turned into a tetralogy for the benefit of Lionsgate shareholders), the filmmakers conjured up a postapocalyptic, despotic North American nation called Panem, where kids pursue kids in a televised Survivor-meets-Gladiator-style death match. The victor of the annual bloodfest is turned celebrity, embarking on an elaborate road show, touring Panem's 12 districts, and then getting to live out his or her life in pampered splendor.

Meanwhile, at the Capitol, the 1 percent stuff their faces with fancy food, parade around in gaudy couture, and genuflect at the feet of President Snow, played with an evil glower by Donald Sutherland.

We all know how 2012's The Hunger Games turned out (what, you don't? - two victors instead of one, a revolt is born!), and in 2013's Catching Fire and last year's Mockingjay - Part 1, Lawrence's Katniss was elevated to pop-star status, a symbol of rebellion as iconic and inspiring as Che Guevara.

Mockingjay - Part 2 starts off just a gasping, rasping breath after Part 1's end, with Katniss bruised and broken, looking on at her District 12 sweetie, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), now strapped to a hospital bed, having been turned against Katniss by means of "tracker jacker venom" - a mind-control drug administered by the Panem baddies (and sometimes available as the surprise in Cracker Jack boxes).

If Mockingjay - Part 1 was walkier and talkier than its forerunners, Part 2 is pretty much all action - and lesser for it.

It doesn't take long for Katniss to get her voice back and join a "propo" squad - a troop of rebels, in black SWAT gear, that skirts the front lines of the bloody civil war, shooting propaganda videos with Katniss as their star. Joining her is Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), her childhood friend and hunting buddy.

When Peeta, still reeling from his brainwashing regime, is assigned to the unit, no one's sure whether he can be trusted - and the blond highlights in Hutcherson's hair make him especially suspect. There's a love-triangle thing going on here: Katniss and Peeta, Katniss and Gale. Maybe she should consult with Bella Swan and see how that Team Edward/Team Jacob thing worked out.

Directed by Francis Lawrence (no relation to his star), Part 2 offers a primer in how power corrupts and how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Not only is President Snow not to be trusted, but President Coin (Julianne Moore, with proclamations of shady nuance and streaks of white-gray hair) is no Miss Transparency herself.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died in February 2014, near the end of the film's production, is back as head gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. He has a few scenes with Lawrence, and with Moore, that make you wonder what the chitchat was like between takes. Serious actors, these three, seriously fooling around in their Hunger Games getups. R.I.P.

There are slimy reptilian mutants in Mockingjay - Part 2, and there are scores of children in harm's way. And there are a number of smart, tough females: Michelle Forbes as a rebel lieutenant who calls Katniss "soldier"; Jena Malone as the shrewd District 7 tribute; Moore's Alma Coin, determined to make herself Coin of the realm.

For all the guts and glory these women display, the final scene of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 - the final scene of The Hunger Games saga - has got to be a comedown. It'd be a spoiler to go into, but this may be the first time in four movies where Lawrence's expression doesn't look at all convincing.

This is no face for a girl on fire.

srea@phillynews.com

215-854-5629

@Steven_Rea

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 **1/2 (Out of four stars)

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Directed by Francis Lawrence. With Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Donald Sutherland, Julianne Moore, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Distributed by Lionsgate.

Running time: 2 hours, 17 mins.

Parent's guide: PG-13 (violence, adult themes).

Playing at: Area theaters.EndText