Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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16 UCW DECEMBER 30 - JANUARY 5, 2016 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM This franchise is definitely going out with a whimper instead of a bang. After three books and four films, my response to Mockingjay Part 2 (137 minutes) is somewhere along the lines of "Are we there yet?" All the same components are present, but everyone just seems so tired. Mockingjay Part 1 held my attention more, but the second half is an afterthought. Since this was my least favorite of the books, I can't even properly tell the difference between what actually happened in the book and what was left out or added for the film. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is in recovery after being nearly murdered for the hundredth time, because heaven forbid a strong female character be allowed to maintain the integrity of her body and mind throughout an action movie franchise. I mean, the things that happen to her are legitimate and interesting parts of her character, but by the fourth film her brains have apparently leaked out of her ears. She is manipulated at every turn and her decision making skills are nonexistent. The opening scenes catch us up. Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) is still a pawn whose place in the story is to be a point in the default love triangle that no young adult dystopia can be without. Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is still a ghost in the machine. Johanna Mason (Jena Malone) can still run circles around Katniss, as can President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and President Snow (Donald Sutherland), in addition to basically every other character in the franchise. Katniss is sent to District 2 where she gives one of her famously spontaneous speeches on the importance of unity and is (surprise) almost murdered for the hundredth and first time. This murder doesn't stick any more than the others and she is returned to her hospital bed once again. President Coin decides that she should retire, but after talking with Johanna at the wedding of Finnick (Sam Claflin) and Annie (Stef Dawson) she decides that a suicide mission to the heart of the capital is the way to go. Sneaking onto a medical transport to reach the front lines, she shows up expecting to walk into the Capitol and kill President Snow. Instead, her method of sneaking, which amounts to causally walking into a transport and making no effort to hide once she arrives on the field, has totally given her away and the leaders of the revolution have already manipulated her activity in the war to a public relations stunt. Then, the audience is introduced to a bunch of people who are not named Peeta or Katniss, so feel free to start the betting on "first to die" in your own personal death pool. Overall, the franchise has limped to an anticlimactic conclusion, much like the young adult novels the films are based on. Even so, producers have made tons of money and are already trying to figure out some sort of Hunger Games prequel series. On a final note, I am sort of curious as to how the film achieved a PG-13 rating when one of the penultimate scenes involves the (spoiler alert) firebombing of at least thirty kids, while another involved an angry mob tearing a man apart with their bare hands. Now playing at Patriot 14 + IMAX. Nothing More to See Here The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. e 2015 Annual Holiday Members' Exhibit "Vessel", Guy Jencks " 'Neath the Vines", Rose S. Kennedy "Purple Grapes", Sook Sienkiewicz "Mugs", We can help you learn what is happening in and around Fayetteville! In print and online! Look for it online now at www.upandcomingweekly.com. 208 Rowan St. 910.484.6200 Connecting a Community What's going on in our community?