After three films released in the past three years, “The Hunger Games” movie series comes to a grimly satisfying end with “Mockingjay Part II.”

Picking up instantly where part one left off, “Mocking Jay Part II” thrusts Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and her allies into the last confrontation with President Snow (Donald Sutherland) over the control of Panem.

On his third outing as director of “The Hunger Games” series, Francis Lawrence doesn’t disappoint. “Mockingjay” continues the goal of being a well-made film, not just a poorly put together cash grab, which has become an unfortunate trend throughout Young Adult fiction movies.

The actors themselves did a great job continuing the relationships between all of the characters. The odd respect/hate connection between Snow and Katniss is especially poignant.

With part one of “Mockingjay” being dedicated to set up, part two barrels on into the climatic action of the finale. This is a strong point of the film, as it is mostly action-driven and requires viewers to have seen the previous Hunger Games movies to understand the characters and subplots.

But a downside to the exposition-free plot and quick pace of the movie was that there are some character deaths and emotional moments that are rushed. As a result, they weren’t as impactful as they should have been.

As a finale, “Mockingjay Part II” ties up everything nicely and is a fine ending for the dramatics and action of “The Hunger Games” that has led to this point. I have never read the books, so I don’t know how well the films stack up to the original material, but for those of you who haven’t read them either and want to see the movies they are certainly worth checking out.

If you want a concise, gripping story, thrilling action and don’t mind dark or grim plot elements, then “The Hunger Games” movies are for you.