New Moon

Prompted by my cousin’s excellent review I decided on impulse to watch this movie in the theater. As anyone who read the Twilight saga is well aware by now, the movie is a make of book 2 where new friendships are forged in the wake of a terrible heartache for a supposedly heartless vampire and a totally doped high school girl.

As the movie progressed, I thought Bella looked like someone who was high on grass or whatever drug and looked like a desperately drowning damsel who wasn’t even capable of breathing without her vampire love interest Edward. I mean people go through break ups but her emotions seemed a bit too overdone.

I confess that the only reason I even sat through the whole seemingly soggy drama is the part of Volturi. I really wanted to see how that whole episode would look in real-time and actually that was the best and the most liveliest part of the movie. The werewolf and vampire fight wasn’t really impressive for me though.

And so the film ends with the Volturi’s ultimatum to Bella’s life. And I fled as soon as the doped couple moved out of Volterra. Tyler Lutner looked every bit the character of Jacob Black while Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart looked totally doped and goofy. According to grapevine, the two actors are dating and I guess a huge part goes to all that emotional roleplay that they had to do to make the movies convincing enough!

Movies in 2009

Yes, another post on movies again!!

I’ve been meaning to blog about a few of my favourite movies for quite sometime but I think this brief 20 mins is the only window period I’ll get to post anything .

First off I’m quite grappling with the fact that the human mind, although still a mystery especially with its unbeatable search engine capabilities, archiving abilities, virtual storage mechanism and ofcourse the speed of data processing and computation (what can I say… you learn them on the job)… its proven to be still slow enough to skip out on ‘observing’ the time pass by. I mean its still slow that we don’t notice time pass by which can be noticed otherwise. Ok…end result, time flies by so fast!!!

So before I move onto drooling over the schedules of my fav movies slated to release this year and next, I would love to acknowledge Variety magazine for working tirelessly to post interesting and very informative articles on the Entertainment industry!! Although the content can be quite repetitive at times, its very useful. Also their new feature (atleast I’ve discovered it a couple of months back) of showcasing trailers is a great feature to have for any entertainment magazine. I get to decide which movies to watch and which to skip just with that. I wish Gamasutra (its where you get all the news you would ever want on Gaming industry) would learn something from this website on content positioning and presentation (sigh!).

Happy to note that Warner Bros finally came out with Harry Potter sequels’ release dates. But you never know till the movie is actually released right?! Also the dates have been set for Twilight as well. Vampires in this movie so rock although their lives are quite uninteresting!

‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ has finally released and this movie marks the momentous occasion of other movies that I’m looking forward to watching…

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – July 17, 2009
• Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows I – Nov 19, 2010
• Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows II – July 15, 2011

Onto Twilight series,

• New Moon – Nov 20, 2009
• Eclipse – Jun 30, 2010 (they’ve actually moved it by a few months here)

Other anticipated movies on my list include (unless they are cancelled owing to the ongoing recession):

• Avatar
• Wolverine
• Monsters vs. Aliens
• Dragonball Evolution
• 17 Again
• Star Trek
• Angels and Demons
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
• Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
• A Christmas Carol
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Alvin and the chipmunks sequel
• Sherlock Holmes
• The Princess and the Frog
• Blood: The Last Vampire
• The Elfstones of Shannara

I heard that quite a few marvel comics are also been adapted to movies this year. Do post on them in the comments if you know of any.

Eclipse

The 3^rd installment of the Twilight series seems to be all about never-ending vendetta that vampires are known to hold against each other. The concept of ever after always seem to come with its share of vengeance.

Anyways, picking off from New Moon, just when Edward and Bella seem to recover from the Volturi and focus on graduation, they are shaken by the turn of events in Seattle. News of new born vampires attacking people left, right and centre reaches them making the already gloomy atmosphere of Forks all the more gloomier. A sane person would make a run for a more pleasant and sunny place but people in this story seem rooted to this place.

After a quite a deal of day dreaming and musings, Bella concludes that the creator is none other than Victoria. How dumb can vampires get??!! All of them are obviously baffled and shocked by the news but none the less prepare for the battle with the help of the shape shifters (they are not werewolves). You can then skip through those numerous pages that exist for the sole purpose of capturing Bella’s tears, fears and other emotions (Ugh!)

The fight starts and all the baddies are vanquished or burned rather. The Volturi sends their troops at a leisure pace to clean up the mess. They just have one vampy to kill! The book concludes with Edward and Bella’s engagement. Again, not much is said about Volturi.

On the whole, the entire series can be perused through in a jiffy if you hate the mushy parts and manage to skip through them. Otherwise, it’s a pure play high school romance series with supernatural hero and villains thrown in.

New Moon

The 2^nd installment in the Twilight series, the book focuses on the Quileute tribe of the La Push reservation. The incident with James, a tracker vampire, forces the Cullens to make the decision to leave Forks for good. What they are oblivious to is the effect the decision has on Bella. Bella Swan slips into a stupor, going about life mechanically until she visits La Push to call on Jacob Black, an old family friend.

Bella realizes that immersing herself in extreme sports is the only way to stay connected to Edward’s voice. Matters don’t help when the tribe and Bella discover Victoria in the neighborhood intent on avenging James’s murder through Bella. However, Bella oblivious to the danger around her attempts cliff-diving which is interpreted as suicide by Alice Cullen in her visions. Basically, through a series of miscommunication Edward rushes off to Volterra with the impression that Bella is dead.

As the Volturi ponder on whether to grant Edward his death wish or pursue him to join their army, Alice and Bella race across continents to save Edward in time, only to gain the attention of Aro, Caius and Marcus (most commonly heard vampiric names). After promising the Volturi that Bella will indeed be turned into a vampire, the trio make it back to Forks safely.

The plot drags slowly describing in details, all about Bella’s anguish and suffering including the Quileute tribe and the shape shifters. You can just flip through the pages and finish the story in day. It’s certainly boring although it creates a tiniest bit of connection to the subsequent plots. However, it does nothing to explain anything about the Volturi and how they came to exist. That would’ve surely caught the readers’ interest.

Breaking Dawn

The finale of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn has given an apt ‘Happily Ever-After’ ending to the story. As the series evolved, the author ensured that each character evolved with the storyline, specifically Bella Cullen. Bella as a vampire appears to be more rational and logical compared to Bella as a human. As Bella says herself, she fits more into the supernatural world than with humans.

The story kicks off with Bella and Edward’s picture-perfect wedding with an exotic location thrown in for the honeymoon. What starts out on a happy note takes an anxious and agonizing turn with the birth of Renesme or Nessie as she’s fondly referred as. Nessie, a human-vampire hybrid, however proves to be an exceptionally gifted angelic child as she wins over everyone from the Cullens and humans to the shape-shifters and the other vampire clans.

The challenge is presented in the form of Volturi seeking to eliminate the Cullens under the pretext of creating an immortal child, a terror that created a significant impact in the history of vampires. The Cullens and their friends rise to the challenge together and win over the Ancients owning to Bella’s exceptional abilities, the ability to shield her family and friends.

On the whole, this book is truly an enjoyable read with a lot of intrigue thrown in. Keeps you enthralled till the end.