Thursday, December 10, 2015

One More Arrow For Jennifer Lawrence

Elizabeth Both
Arts & Entertainment Editor

Katniss Everdeen has been the ultimate powerhouse at the box office for the past 3 years, and with the last installment of the epic franchise it would seem that it would make over 120 million at the box office in its opening weekend, but something didn’t quite click. Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 only made 102 million in its opening weekend compared to Catching Fire’s opening weekend that broke a November record with 161 million. What gives? Why did it drop 60 million in the past two years?
 Mockingjay Part 2 was a fitting finale for the franchise. That’s what all movie critics are saying, and they’re right.  The whole franchise was pretty epic to watch on the big screen, but something still didn’t feel right by how the movies portrayed the books. Hollywood made The Hunger Games into one of the biggest blockbuster series of the 2010’s, yet the fanbase has seemed to die a little.  I was more of a fan (and speaking for my peers as well) in middle school when the first movie came out. It was a huge hype, and always is, to see a favorite book turn into a live action reenactment. Attending the midnight premiers was fun for the moment, but all of a sudden growing up just came into play. The moment they announced that the last film would be split into two parts, I lost my interest.
 The reason for my loss of interest into seeing the films is because right then and there, I realized that this franchise is just like any other, it’s about the money. The Harry Potter series deserved to be split up into two parts to be able to portray the book correctly; that made sense. Splitting up the Twilight Saga was a little bit different. Twilight consisted of four books, and it seemed unnecessary to split it up into two (terrible) movies, when it could’ve been done in one. Hunger Games just consisted of three books, yet they still wanted to split it up.
 The reason why I’m even still holding onto a piece of the franchise is due to the one and only--Jennifer Lawrence. Lawrence has got spunk, humor and true talent on screen. She brings Katniss alive from the books. I still do like the story for the purpose that it centers around a strong, female character that can do combat without a man trying to save her. Compared to the other young adult novel, Twilight, this was the exact opposite, and at the time it seemed like the Hollywood spectrum was reversing on Young Adult novels.

 Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 was well done, and was on a much larger scale than first two movies. It actually was a little bit more fun just to see Jennifer Lawrence making awkward jokes during the all the promotions for the movie itself. As the world says goodbye to the franchise, Jennifer Lawrence hits theaters again one last time in 2015, for the movie Joy, playing Joy Mangano, creator of the Miracle Mop. It sure is a different role than the young, dystopian leader in Hunger Games but it’s just one more film to prove that Lawrence is ready to tackle other projects and say goodbye to Katniss.