Tuesday, July 20, 2010

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART

It's somewhat like Harry Potter and Lord of the Ring.
You are either a fan, or dread the time of the year when the "Twilight Saga" season comes around because basically every corner of every store is filled with promotional posters and merchandises with the face of 2 pale looking couple and one brownish (but hot) werewolf.

While "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Ring" carry mystical and magical themes, which bring audiences to out of the world fantasy-lands, "The Twilight Saga" indulges in a sad, pathetic love story between two souls who have nothing better to do in life.

I remember writing a review on "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" for my job interview.
Oh well, I guess I didn't get the job because the editor loves Twilight hahaha....or perhaps, I'm just not objective enough. I was a bit too harsh in my comments and a bit too crazy about Lautner, highlighting a lot of him. Maybe the editor is a vampire....

But nothing is going to stop me from being real honest about "The Twilight Saga".
I admit that I once enjoyed it because I love the unity of the Cullen clan - I love the fight scenes and I love watching the Cullens as a family.

I hate watching Bella and Edward. I do not get why they look at each other awkwardly, although some might argue that they look at each other with love...Sadly, we clearly have a very different feeling about love.

Frankly speaking, Bella is one of the most painful character to watch and it makes me not really adore Kristen Stewart. Perhaps she is good because of her strong, accurate portrayal of an over-emo girl, who is different, truly different.

Many had said that the movie butchered the book, because the book is very much better than the movie. I believe that's true. I mean, Harry Potter movies did not live up to the books standards, so I think the same would apply to the Twilight Saga. I think to be fair to the author and the whole story, once has got to read the book and sadly, I have yet to do so. Thus, I can only comment on the story portrayed in the movie.

I know Twilight is mainly on the theme of forbidden love, but I find that part the killer of the movie. It is a bore to watch the love triangle between a vampire, a mortal and a werewolf. Thus, New Moon was a complete waste of time and money for me because it centered around just the three of them mainly.


I went into the cinema expecting the worst for Eclipse but it was surprisingly okay. 
This has definitely got to do with the fact that half the movie is more about the Cullens and the werewolves working together to protect Bella and defeat the army of Vampire.

The CGIs were amazing, one of the least fake ones I've seen so far. Technology has definitely gone a long way since those good old days where those created monsters look ridiculously stupid because of the weakly embedded images using not so advanced blue/green screen techniques. 

I particularly love the huge werewolves, they are lovely and beautiful.
They blend in in the movie as if they are real creatures. I also love the action scenes between the Cullens. The action scenes were enhanced by face-paced camera movements, which could be annoying but brilliant at the same time - really depends on how you look at it. The fast paced panning of the camera, shifting focus from the various characters during battle scenes do make audience kinda dizzy but at the same time, in my opinion, did manage to create hype and excitement.

The only reason Eclipse is to a certain extent entertaining is the fact the the other Cullens have more screen time and their history one how some of them became vampires were mentioned. That makes the whole movie more interesting, rather than just LOVE LOVE LOVE! By offering the background story of some of the other Cullens, we get to see some other character developments, rather than just Bella and Edward, whose character are as stagnant as the drain water behind any local hawker stalls. I mean, from the 1st movie until the 3rd, we are still looking at both of them look at each other...so tell me, besides the fact that they can't live without each other, what else is there?

Annoying to watch is how Bella can't seem to choose between Jacob and Edward. 
Oh well, it's just me because I really dislike watching girls being fickle-minded when it comes to love. As if in life there is nothing else more important than to choose between two guys. Like I've stressed over and over, I am not a fan of the character Bella. I think it is mainly because we think very differently - she would give up everything for the love of her life, including her parents...I mean, I can't imagine not seeing my parents for the rest of my life. It's funny that she is only 17 and all she can think about is spending the rest of her life with a guy when other normal teens would be thinking about which education path to follow. Again, like she said, she is different. 

Jacob is as hot as usual but I find his persistence in courting Bella a bit annoying. I am biased however since I am so madly into Taylor Lautner and therefore, I am less critical about his character. But if another dude was portraying Jacob's character, I'd really give him one tight slap in the face and say, "Aiyo, enough la! People got boyfriend already. You move on and find other hot girls lar!" But I believe some girls find Jacob's persistence and love for Bella admirable. 

As for Edward, I just don't get skinny vampires. However, one of my friend adores the way he looks at Bella - she claims that he looks at her as if he would give her the world. All I can say is, I failed to notice the sincerity in his eyes but if someone else felt it, I believe Robert Pattinson did a great job in portraying his character and love for Bella. 

One may argue that the most striking thing about the vampires in the movie are their eyes. You should notice that throughout the movie, their paleness highlights the intensity of their eyes and thus, I believe that if you play the role of a vampire in the movie, you must at least be good in conveying messages using your eyes. If you are a werewolf however, you'll have to make sure you have a tonned body, which hot abs and hot chocolate coloured skin. That's about it haha.

But it is cool that they managed to include some humour into the movie. There are funny moments that got me laughing at little - my favourite was when Taylor Lautner said, "Besides, I am hotter than you". Watch it in the context of the movie, and you'll get why it's funny haha.

So basically the third installment of the Twilight Saga presents 2 main story: 
1. Vittoria trying to create an army of vampire to kill Bella and Bella sought protection from the 2 guys who love her like mad, and indirectly creating a pact between the disputing Vampire clan and the werewolf clan.


2. Bella trying to choose between the vampire or the werewolf, which metaphorically means choosing to be different or normal. While she do so, we see many moments where Jacob and Edward taunt each other and Bella standing in between...so...ya..

Basically that sums up what Eclipse is all about.
Whether you like it or not, it is still a phenomenon. But this 3rd movie is considered bearable (if you limit it to one-time watch only).


TC-My Ratings:











Saturday, July 3, 2010

HUNTING FOR LOVE

Sometimes I forgot what feel good rom-coms (romantic comedies) are for.
When you are stressed like hell and you just need to watch something without the need to get your brain neurons to work, you select a romantic comedy for the purpose of catharsis.

Watching "Bounty Hunter" was a pleasure for me although one any other sane day, I'd not enjoyed it as much. For your information, this is the movie that united Jennifer Aniston and Gerrard Butler, and their love blossomed from reel-life to real-life. (I'm not sure if their love has withered yet though because it's been quite some time since I follow celebrity gossips.)

I squeezed "Bounty Hunter" into my life last weekend. I sort of promised myself that I must watch at least one movie just to keep the drought away from my blog.


Reading the synopsis of the movie, you really wouldn't expect much.
To wrap up the whole movie in one sentence, let's just say it's about a guy who's named after one of my favourite drinks, Milo who is paid to bring his ex-wife, Nikki to jail.

The movie is made interesting because it incorporated an element of crime solving, in which we see Nikki trying to solve a murder case. Although the main focus wasn't the case, but it did make the movie a more interesting watch, besides the dry humour presently reasonably well by Jennifer Aniston and Gerrard Butler. Perhaps I'm biased because I love both of them. Truth be told, I'm more awed by the gorgeousness of Jennifer Aniston's body and tan and Gerrard Butler's hunky manly looks that I wasn't really paying attention much to their acting per se. Then again, both of them are established actor/actress, so why do even bring up their acting skills.

Another fun part of watching the movie is seeing their funny antiques in trying to outwit one another. Though it is generally predictable since we all know that they will end up rejoicing in a happy fairytale ending, there were also moments that came across as quite fresh. I mean a bounty hunter hunting down his ex-wife...hmmm not bad for an idea...


It's hard to be analytical with romantic comedies because generally, the follow the same story structure that has to involve a guy and a girl. I have yet to watch a rom-com with 2 guys ending up together, and "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry" doesn't count since Chuck & Larry didn't really end up together. No matter how their play around with the guy and girl in the movie, the lead characters will eventually end up together...romantic comedies and I'm not talking about love stories ya. Love stories could take a drastic turn and try to make things painful by sometimes killing off one of the characters or purposely separating the two leads for one reason or another.

But Gerrard Butler's manly character made this movie a tad less girly for a rom-com. Added some X-man factor in it which I love. Personally, it toughen the movie and made it strike out more compare to other romantic comedies.

At the end of the day, I still think it is a good watch although I wouldn't classify it as my all-time favourite. Although the scene in which Jen Aniston described the tattoo she planned to get is friggin' hilarious and left an impression, generally the movie is kinda forgettable. Gerrard Butler is charming but his spells didn't work in making the movie one that gets me wanting an encore. So ya, I'm really watching "Bounty Hunter" for a one-time laugh.

I'll leave this post short and sweet, because that is basically what romantic comedies are like.
So I'll leave you with a K.I.S.S!

TC-My Rating:






With Lotsa Love,
TammyC

In-Sight MY-Movie

"I love movies for its subjectivity. A movie is debatable. A single scene can mean a million things and the fun part is talking about them."