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.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/771549
JANUARY 11-17, 2017 UCW 19 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM The Twilight franchise glorified an emotionally manipulative love story between a dirty old man and a naïve young girl with the emotional range of a toaster. Passengers (116 minutes) attempts to justify a selfish idiot destroying the life of a young writer with love. Proceed through the review at your own risk—in order to show my utter disgust, I will need to reveal spoilers. Though, despite my disgust, I did enjoy the film (hence the four star rating). There are 5,000 colonists on an interstellar journey to their new planet, Homestead II. Since the trip will take 120 years, the colonists and crew are in hibernation pods, scheduled to wake up two years from their final destination. Things do not go as planned. Due to [irrelevant], mechanical engineer Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) wakes from hibernation 90 years early. He is left to roam the halls of the luxurious ship, with only a robot bartender, Arthur (Michael Sheen) for company. Over the course of the next year, he descends slowly into depression, symbolized by his large beard, drinking liquor straight from the bottle and refusal to wear pants. Somehow, he manages to keep his muscular physique. Despondent, he contemplates suicide and then happens across the sleeping Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence). Despite his inability to gimmick the door to the flight crew hibernation pods, hack the food system for better meals, make his own hibernation pod work again or even figure out that the ship is slowly destroying itself, he decides he can wake Aurora up to play Eve to his Adam. The story sort of works because Pratt is a likeable guy and Lawrence looks good swimming in zero g. But think about this. Really think about it. Preston stalks her via the passenger manifest, falling in love with, for lack of a better description, her Match.com profile. Then, even though he has no way to know if she will survive her premature awakening, he initiates the end of her hibernation, dooming her to live with him and him alone until they both die. "Sure," you're thinking. Chris Pratt can live out his LMoE (Last Man on Earth) fantasy with me anytime. But what if Preston was played by Danny DeVito? Or the creeper next door who sleeps until noon and lives on Taco Bell and energy drinks? Attractive kidnappers are still kidnappers. What makes this more insulting is that it didn't have to be this insulting. This script has been circulating for a while. How did it not occur to anyone that Aurora Lane could play the mechanical engineer while Jim Preston is the writer? I mean, when Preston first woke up I thought there was a reason his pod malfunctioned. The ship, knowing it was suffering a cascade of errors, unable to access the flight crew because of any number of reasons I could make up in about 30 seconds, instead wakes up the passenger most qualified to make repairs — the mechanical engineer. But you know what? He was apparently woken up by random chance. After being alone for a while, the script could have steered him towards noticing a major problem with the ship, thus justifying a review of the passenger list profiles that would have revealed someone capable of performing science until that ship worked again. Make Aurora the engineer, and he has a reason to wake her up, a reason better than love at first sight. Because this thing where he falls in love with the Aurora he made up in his head and then systematically seduces her, armed with private details of her life story instead of meeting her and getting to know her … is just not okay Towards the end of the film, I thought the film would redeem itself by having her knowledge of his betrayal destroy their relationship, and she would go back into hibernation without him. Sadly, the filmmakers went another way. Now showing at Patriot 14 + IMAX. Stockholm Syndrome Passengers (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910 484-6200. Fayetteville's CONCERT CONNECTION ANSTEAD'S TOBACCO CO. 320 N McPherson Church Rd 864-5705 • ansteads.com HUSKE HARDWARE HOUSE 405 Hay Street • 437-9905 www.huskehardware.com Jan. 13 Tommy King Jan. 14 Tommy King LUIGI'S 528 N McPherson Church Rd. 864-1810 • www.luigisnc.com Jan. 13 Live Entertainment Jan. 14 Live Entertainment KICK BACK JACKS 5081 Morganton Rd. • 223-7676 Friday Live Music Paul's Place 719 Starling St. • 910 779-2898 Live Music THE CROWN COMPLEX 1960 Coliseum Dr. • 438-4100 www.crowncomplexnc.com Jan. 27 Lee Brice and Justin Moore Jan. 30 Beach Boys Feb. 2 Travis Tritt Feb. 12 NewsBoys Feb. 21 Brain Candy Live! Feb. 25 Foreigner March 4 Ron "Tater Salad" White March 10 Luke Bryan ROCK SHOP 128 S. King St. • 321-ROCK www.therockshoplive.com Live Music Christian Albums • WCLN 107.3 Christian Listening Network • Visit us online at www.christian107.com 1 CASTING CROWNS One Step Away 2 CHRIS TOMLIN Jesus 3 ZACH WILLIAMS Chain Breaker 4 WE ARE MESSENGERS Magnify 5 MICAH TYLER Never Been A Moment 6 AFTERS (THE) Battles 7 DANNY GOKEY Rise 8 LAURA STORY F/ MAC POWELL Open Hands 9 TOBYMAC Love Broke Thru 10 HILLARY SCOTT & THE SCOTT FAMILY Thy Will Expires 3/31/17 $i. 50 Drinks. $i. 50 Drinks. $i. 50 Drinks. $2.00 before 6:00 p.m. $3.00 after 6:00 p.m. $1.00 extra for 3D MOVIES Movie Monday: $1.50 All Day(Holiday or 3D movies excluded) Buy one get one free! Buy one get one free!