The Hunger Games: Mockingjay brings (or starts to bring; the book has been split into 2 movies) my least favorite of the Hunger Games books to the big screen.

In this, the third book, we leave the games themselves behind, following Katniss’ rescue/kidnapping from the arena at the end of Catching Fire, and are brought into the wider world of Panem, where the seeds of rebellion inadvertently sowed when Katniss defied the capital in the first book/movie are starting to take root.

This is a war film, but one that focuses not only on the ‘exciting’ action of war, but also the more grounded aspects such as planning and, especially, propaganda. Indeed parts of the story are closer to boardroom drama than traditional action movie, and it is to the writers’ and directors’ credit that these potentially disparate scenes tie together cohesively.

Operating from a military installation under the…