It was a long time coming, but I finally caught up with the final film in the Hunger Games series on Sunday. I am impressed with myself that I managed to avoid spoilers for several years, as such the final fate of Katniss Everdeen and the people of Panem was still an unknown to me. I had made a lot of statements to friends of mine about how I wanted to see the series end, and how thematically the series could end in a consistent and powerful way. But it didn't really turn out like that. Spoilers ahead obvs!
The plot to this point is well-known by anyone following this series. In the near-future dystopian version of America known as Panem, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is the two-time winner of the gladiatorial Hunger Games - a post-modern reality TV soma that keeps the masses enthralled and oppressed districts of the nation under the control of the all-powerful capital. Katniss' successes have become a rallying cry for revolution, powered by her strength of character, moral purity, dedication to her family and friends, and the unstoppable power of propaganda pushing her into the limelight. The story here finally comes to a head, with the revolution she unwittingly powered invading the capital and bringing down the once-omnipotent president Snow (Donald Sutherland).
The first few Hunger Games films were highly politically savvy, and Katniss' strength of character was always enough to prevail. Now she learns that idealism only takes you so far, and that to win the war the rebels have to use tactics as dirty as President Snow's. The question is asked: what is right and what is wrong in war? The rebels eventually prevail because they carry out a war crime involving the deaths of many children? Is victory at any cost it worth it?
The film makes a valid and interesting point about the realities of a world full of shades of grey. However the issue is that as a film, Hunger Games 4 is so messy that the message almost lost. The tone and pace are changeable from start to finish, the return to the traps, tricks and dangers of the original don't work in a world that has turned to actual warfare, and finally the film drags to a conclusion with a series of epilogue scenes that aren't needed. There are plot holes; if Katniss is so valuable to the rebel cause, then why exactly is she picking her way through the frontlines of the capital dodging deadly traps? There are problems with pacing; a big fight between the rebels and a bunch of blind sewer-dwellers holds the narrative back at a crucial moment. Put simply, this should never have been a two-part film, and in padding it out as such the makers have forgotten the art of the editing room.
In a bigger overall criticism of the story, I did not like the resolution to the Katniss / Coin (the president of the rebels - played by Juliane Moore) / Snow plot at the end of the film. The theme of the whole series has been about the corruption of power, heroism through action, building strength and alliances through nobility and acting for the good of all rather than the self. Thematically that completely contrasts against Katniss becoming Coin's self-appointed executioner. Sure Katniss thought Coin was responsible for warcrimes, but doesn't she deserve a trial? What if Katniss was wrong? And didn't Coin's actions directly result in the rebels winning the war? Do Katniss' actions give her the right to go all Judge Dread on her former ally? Isn't this totally out of character for the noble justice-loving Katniss? Is it ok because all she wants is to retire into the forest and have a couple of babies in peace? I wish that the film had aired these questions in the final 10 minutes rather than just cutting to Katniss' happily-ever-after ending and Peeta reading letters from her mother. And is the ending even a happy one? All Katniss ever wanted to do was save her sister, a cause she was prepared to die for. In the end her sister dies and Katniss gets to live on mincing around in a forest with babies. She could have got all that by not volunteering to replace her sister in the first place.
The resolution to the Peeta / Gale love triangle is a tiny bit convenient too. Katniss chooses Peeta eventually because she thinks Gale was in on Coin's warcrimes. Essentially Katniss is allowed to kill Coin without trial if she thinks she can make the world a better place, but Gale isn't allowed to do the same. At least he doesn't get an arrow in the face for his trouble, but it's a case of unmentioned hypocrisy that didn't correlate with the theme of justice that has threaded its way through the whole series.
Anyway, in the end I am more than a bit disappointed. I think that the author decided the main character had to have a happy ending, and that meant getting to be with Peeta and all the authority figures copping it. That might be a nice teenage fantasy, but with 4 hours of screen time to tell the story of the conclusion, it could have been thematically more coherent. Katniss started out being a heroine, she ends up with babies after failing to do the only thing she really wanted - keep her sister alive. Meh.
