But Lawrence takes this career-making role seriously, as always—and brings her usual, accessible mix of bravery and vulnerability—as Katniss prepares for the ultimate showdown with Sutherland’s diabolical President Snow in hopes of bringing an elusive peace to war-torn Panem. Leading up to that climactic moment at the Capitol are a lot of dreary strategic conversations in a lot of poorly-lighted, underground hideouts. For a movie about a society that’s on the brink of destruction, “Mockingjay – Part 2” features a lot of hurry-up-and-wait.

It picks up at the start right where “Part 1” left off, with Katniss reeling from an attack by brainwashed Capitol mouthpiece Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), her fellow former District 12 tribute-turned-fiancé. Merely serving as a symbol of hope in manufactured propaganda films is no longer enough, she realizes. She must join forces with her fellow rebels in their quest to bring down the totalitarian regime that has torn apart the land and taken so many young lives.

Among Katniss’ fellow fighters in Squad 451 (a number that may ring a bell with you from high school English class) are her hunky BFF and hunting buddy Gale (Liam Hemsworth, relegated to sulking and shooting); the charismatic Finnick O’Dair (Sam Claflin); tatted filmmaker Cressida (Natalie Dormer); and the all-business Boggs (Mahershala Ali), the soldier who’s the right-hand man of rebel President Coin (Moore, whose severe bob says everything you need to know about her trustworthiness). 

Eventually, they also take in Peeta, who provides some poignancy as he’s clearly working through post-traumatic stress disorder. And as for the potential awkwardness of the Katniss-Gale-Peeta love triangle in close quarters, it’s to the film’s credit that the boys are the ones discussing it—and their respective roles within it—rather than Katniss herself. She’s got more important things to do, as she has throughout the series, like liberate a nation.

Along the way to the president’s mansion, they must avoid a series of “pods”—think of them as high-tech IEDs—scattered throughout the city. These obstacles provide the film’s few heart-pounding thrills. A wall of black ooze surges toward the rebel fighters, swallowing several of them whole in gnarly, ferocious fashion. But it’s the lizard mutt attack in the sewers that’s the film’s high point—or low point, if you want to get literal about it. Reptilian and ravenous, these fast-moving creatures are just devastating, and they add an element of paranoia and fear that the rest of the film desperately needed. (Seriously, I was curled up in a ball, watching this scene through my fingers. And James Newton Howard’s appropriately insistent score definitely ups the anxiety factor.)

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