Survivors of strife, sorrow, subjugation strike back

Lawrence plays heroic rebel Katniss for the last time.

The final installment of “The Hunger Games” ends the action-adventure series with a bang and more than its share of postwar trauma, as the rebel heroine, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), rallies the freedom-loving denizens of Panem for the last time.

But the ruling despot President Snow (Donald Sutherland) isn’t relinquishing his considerable power, and is bent on making the deciding battles a spectacle, just like his televised “hunger games” from years past.

It’s not a bread-and-circus tactic anymore—but showing how the rebels fare in the heavily booby-trapped streets leading to the tyrant’s mansion demonstrates just how drastically this postapocalyptic society has changed.

“Mockingjay Part 2” amusingly depicts that escalation of media manipulation in these final stages of war, as Katniss’ actions shape the clashing propaganda of Snow and rebel leader Coin (Julian Moore). Those “games” of strategy and demoralization are especially intense here.

Katniss has also grown tremendously in the annually released final parts; she’s challenged exhaustively again, from trying to snap Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) out of his psychosis, to going on make-or-break missions with Gale (Liam Hemsworth). That triangle is also plausibly resolved, finally, in this solid and bittersweet finale.

‘The Good Dinosaur’: Déjà vu, with some differences

This is no “Ice Age,” although it feels like it spun off of it, at times. Colossal creatures rule the Earth in Pixar’s latest offering, “The Good Dinosaur,” which examines the unlikely friendship between a civilized young reptile and a feral human boy.

That bond, actually, is more like a pet-owner rapport, as the grieving Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa) is followed around and protected like a dog by the growling, howling Spot (Jack Bright).

Visually, Arlo and his family look like variations of the dino toy Rex, from “Toy Story.” They look rather simplistic, and one tends to expect a little more in that regard, but despite the simpler-than-usual look, the personalities are characteristically developed. It does, however, feel like a hodgepodge of Pixar’s (and other animation companies’) all-ages, coming-of-age plots.

The animated feature directed by Peter Sohn (“Monsters University”), manages to connect with its own subtle heart-wrenching scenes, though, keeping its more emotionally attuned viewers invested.

This “alternate” world where dinosaurs didn’t go extinct also dazzles with more creatively conceptualized and rendered flora and fauna, unlike its plain-looking protagonist.

And while not exceptional or earth-shaking, “The Good Dinosaur” can still be counted among Pixar’s competently done, family-friendly ventures, filled with enough tense scrapes and corresponding life lessons.