Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series consists of three books, but Hollywood in its wisdom has decided that the film franchise should - in the footsteps of Harry Potter and Twilight - split the final book into two parts.
What this does is show up the industry's desire for profits as a disservice to the source material. This film is little more than a two-hour teaser for the finale, which will arrive on screens some time next year. Dragging out the book makes for a dull, listless and lazy adaptation that runs along by the numbers, ending just as things are about to happen.
Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is now camped out with the rebels of District 13, led by the earnest and charmless President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore). Peeta Mellarck (Josh Hutcherson) is in the Capitol and has become the mouthpiece for President Snow (Donald Sutherland), leading to a propaganda war between the two sides in which Katniss is pressed into the service of Plutarch Heavensbee's Mockingjay videos.
There's one battle scene in which Katniss and her lovelorn homeboy Gale (Liam Hemsworth) play a small part, but on the whole the film plods along as Lawrence delivers her least convincing performance of the franchise so far, overreacting, half-crying and generally looking less than convinced of what she's supposed to be doing.
Director Francis Lawrence does his best to convey the underground claustrophobia of District 13, but there's not much excitement-inducing material to work with, and it soon becomes clear that what appeared to be a bad idea on paper is even worse on screen.
The previous film benefited from a strong political premise that held it together, but here the lame attempts to make points about propaganda fall flat and are swallowed up by the general dour atmosphere of the story. It'll have to be part of the box set once the final film is completed, but it's easily the one you can skip without missing much. It only proves profit margins are bad for creativity. That's a valuable life lesson people can learn in more constructive ways than by wasting their time watching this.
What others say
When the story gets interesting towards the end, it screeches to a halt and cuts off, leaving fans wriggling for a finale they won't see for another 12 months.
Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly
Delivers dazzle without sacrificing smarts. The suspense is killer. Ditto the thrill of the hunt. The film uses the extra time to develop characters and give this dystopian fable a human scale.
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
The saga, with its ass-kicking, independent heroine and unusually grim subject matter, could become an international screen sensation.
Mark Kermode, The Guardian
It's largely satisfying and comes loaded with special effects and action scenes, and embellished with brand-name character actors.
Manohla Dargis, New York Times
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