WHAT’S HAPPENING TO PEETA?: Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) has been pressed into service to help quell the insurrection in Panem. Nonetheless, she worries about the fate of her friend Peeta, who is under the control of Panem’s president Coriolanus. (Photo by Murray Close – © 2014 – Lionsgate)

In recent years movie studios have split their adaptations of finales from young adult book series — most notably, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Twilight: Breaking Dawn — into two movies. The ploy is apparently an attempt to milk the last dollar out of the end of movies about the series of books.

The Hunger Games is no exception as it divides in half Mockingjay, the last book in Suzanne Collins’ bestselling science fiction trilogy. Unfortunately, the movie treads water while it is setting the stage for the dramatic conclusion that will occur in the final film.

Directed by Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), the movie again stars Jennifer Lawrence (as protagonist Katniss Everdeen) with a support cast featuring Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, Liam Hemsworth as Gale, Woody Harrelson as Haymitch, Jeffrey Wright as Beetee, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee.

At the point of departure, we find the country of Panem in chaos and on the brink of revolution. Hunger Games victor Katniss reluctantly allows herself to be recruited by the leader of the rebellion, Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), to appear in propaganda videos that are designed to foment insurrection.

However, except for Katniss fretting about the mental state of her pal Peeta, who is in the clutches of Panem’s ruthless president, Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland), not a lot transpires in this anticlimactic film. And — we will have to wait another year for the denouement.

Fair (H). Rated PG-13 for intense violence, disturbing images, and mature themes. Running time: 123 minutes. Distributor: Lionsgate Films.