New Moon

New New Moon HQ Stills!
Originally uploaded by Luuuucia:)

New Moon is a much better movie than its predecessor. Just because I say that please do not assume that I liked New Moon.

If you remember my blogs about Twilight I ended up seeing it multiple times because to this day I think it’s so poorly made and directed that I can learn an immense amount from it. I disliked the film so intensely that I couldn’t stand to support New Moon in the theatre simply because I couldn’t fathom sitting through two more hours of a poorly crafted world, but I wanted to see it so that I could see the results of putting an entirely new team behind the franchise.

I am happy to say that unlike Twilight I no longer cringed at poor directorial choices or groaned in agony when the camera swayed around like mad and took you away from the characters at dramatic moments; Chris Weitz didn’t do any of that. However, since Hardwicke’s flailing directorial style was taken away and replaced with a visual look and craftsmanship that didn’t repulse me, I was able to see a whole new set of problems.

I will admit that I have read the book series that the films are based on and until Breaking Dawn I was even a fan of them. In the books Bella has always managed to be a delicate yet strong willed character and while I think Kristen Stewart is a decent actress with a bad public presence, Twilight and the mania surrounding it didn’t leave me room to see anything in her or Bella. With New Moon both Kristen Stewart and Bella became a lot more clear. Kristen Stewart, if she could drop the attitude and angry/snobbish public persona could eventually be an accomplished actress; however, Bella translates incredibly weakly from page to screen in a way that I don’t think Stewart has anything to do with. Onscreen Bella practically fades into the background and seems to do nothing out of her own will or desire, she simply seems to do things because it’s written that way. Stewart displays some decent acting chops allowing Bella to fall apart in New Moon but if that weren’t clumsily written in via voiceover the audience would merely think Bella was too tired to do anything but sit, her internal struggle and anguish is never allowed to bubble or surface and therefore Bella never changes. A band-aid is merely placed on her pain by the end of the film because the climax must come to get to movie three.

With my next sentence it is quite possible that I will enrage every Twihard on the face of the planet. Having seen New Moon without the distraction of Catherine Hardwicke I am now of the opinion that Robert Pattinson was horrifically miscast as Edward Cullen. I don’t know if Pattinson can act, plain and simple. The only other film I’ve seen him in is Goblet of Fire and that is not enough to see if he has some acting chops, but speaking strictly on the merits of his performance in the Twilight Saga I can say that he is a bad Edward Cullen. Not only do I think he lacks the charisma and beauty attributed to Edward in the books, but I spent most of the movie desperately wanting him to emote. I do believe Pattinson was trying to show Edwards inward war with himself, but instead he spent most of the movie looking tense and slouched over. I literally at one point found myself wishing Chris Weitz had told him to stop channeling a pre-Out of Sight George Clooney, tilt up his head and relax his jaw. I know the gold contacts probably inhibit some of the emotion that we all show in our eyes from coming across on film, but it was as if his entire face had been shot with Novocain and couldn’t move for most of the film –and when he did finally try to give a different emotion near the end of the film it felt so wholly out of place that it was almost creepy.

My final complaint about New Moon is one due to the time and budget spent on the film. The special effects are awful. This is what fast and cheap look like. The reason movies like Iron Man take two years to pump out a sequel is because they know post production is going to be key to making the events of the film believable – to make a man in an iron suit fly you need ILM, Stan Winston and a hearty amount of time for post. New Moon was pre-production to release in about a year…this schedule means you have to make some sacrifices, and while the effects are much better than the effects in Twilight the werewolves alone look utterly computer animated and unfinished. They sacrificed craftsmanship for a release date.

After brow-beating the film like I have I actually need to give Chris Weitz a shout out. Thank you, thank you, thank you for getting rid of the Tikerbell-esque sparkle sound effect. If that had stuck around I might have thrown something at my tv and it’s too pretty to damage.

Even though I am interested to see what it will look like for a franchise to yet again switch horses mid-stream and push out an effects picture far too quickly I won’t be able to see Eclipse in the theatre. The Twihards might kill me…that is if they don’t kill David Slade first. There’s rumors going around that he actually treated Eclipse like a real horror movie and this guy has the legitimate style and savy that could manage to make Eclipse into a real movie, which isn’t really what the Twihards are looking for.

Director: Chris Weitz
Writer: Melissa Rosenberg
Bella Swan: Kristen Stewart
Jacob Black: Taylor Lautner
Edward Cullen: Robert Parrinson
Charlie Swan: Billy Burke
Jessica: Anna Kendrick
Jasper Hale: Jackson Rathbone
Charlisle Cullen: Peter Facinelli
Victoria: Rachelle Lefecre
Esme Cullen: Elizabth Reaser
Emmet Cullen: Kellan Lutz
Rosalie Hale: Nikki Reed
Alice Cullen: Ashley Greene
Jane: Dakota Fanning

Bella Swan: Alice, is it possible that everything's true? The fairy tales and horror stories? Is it possible that there isn't anything sane and
normal at all?

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

It’s Harry, Ron & Hermione’s 4th year at Hogwarts and they start the year to a flurry of excitement when magical schools Drumstrag & Beaubatons send students to stay at Hogwarts and participate in the Tri-Wizard Tournament; one champion will be chosen from each school and put through a series of challenges until one is declared victor. As these challenges are extraordinarily dangerous no one under 17 can submit their name for consideration, which is why it’s remarkable when not only do 4 names come out as Tri-Wizard champions, but Harry is the 4th candidate, well under the 17 year old age limit. While this is going on Harry gets close to the new defense against the dark arts teacher, a former auror Mad Eye Moody who has been responsible for tracking down and putting away a large number of Voldemort’s Death Eaters. Harry also becomes more of a public figure as Rita Skeeter, a reporter for the Daily Prophet focuses her stories about the Tri-Wizard Tournament center on Harry. The Tri-Wizard Tournament takes Harry and his relationships to a breaking point until ultimately, Harry must face his darkest fear and the wizarding world will never be the same.

Until The Half-Blood Prince Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was my favorite Harry Potter film, and I think it is still tied for number one; I actually have the teaser poster for the film hanging on my bedroom wall because I think it captures Rowling’s world best. In my opinion Mike Newell was the first director that really understood J.K. Rowling’s world and that need for a balance between fantasy, darkness and reality. Chris Columbus understood the fantasy, Alfonso Cuaron understood the darkness, and Mike Newell began to intergect the much needed dose of reality into the series. Along with making a brilliant film, he put the series in the perfect place for David Yates to make the series into the perfection it is now.

My favorite character in Goblet of Fire has got to be Rita Skeeter. This is one of the most eccentric characters in the series and she tries to royally interfere with everything that goes on between Harry and his friends. I really hope they bring Miranda Richardson back into the series. Me, myself & I want her back.

However, this was the first film where the Fred & George Weasley I know and love from the books came to the big screen. While they’d always been the funny, irksome older brothers to Ron they finally became the comedic, brilliant, troublemaking wizards they were in the book. They are beyond fantastic.

There is one scene in the book that makes me emotional just thinking about it, and as a fair warning this is a spoiler. This scene is when Dumbledore has assembled all the students in the great hall after Cedric Diggory has been murdered and Voldemort has risen, Dumbldore delivers a speech about how everything has changed and warns that they must all remember what Voldemort has done, the truth of the situation as the Ministry of Magic will cover it up for their “protection”; he repeats a phrase several times – “Remember Cedric Diggory”. I cried when reading it in the book. Newell doesn’t get quite that emotional response out of me in his version of that scene but he does evoke a pretty powerful emotional response from me; the scene sets up a dynamic that will come to play largely in Order of the Phoenix and the rest of the wizard world.

Goblet of Fire had a lot of differences between the finished product and the book, but like so many of the changes that the series has embraced I have to say that I don’t mind them. While I still wish the racial war from the books was being played up a lot more, the only genuine things I miss thus far have to do with things missing in the first two films. I don’t mind that Nevel not Dobby helps Harry breathe under water, or that it’s a Death Eater not a house elf that gets caught making the dark mark at the Quiddich World Cup, or the dozens of other differences in the series. As long as the series hits the important points, and completes the fantastic character arch’s that Rowling wrote into the series I will be a happy viewer.

Director: Mike Newell
Writer: Steve Kloves
Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe
Hermione Granger: Emma Watson
Ron Weasley: Rupert Grint
Fred Weasley: James Phelps
George Weasley: Oliver Phelps
Ginny Weasley: Bonnie Wright
Cedric Diggory: Robert Pattinson
Hagrid: Robbie Coltrane
Dumbledore: Michael Gambon
Professor Snape: Alan Rickman
Mad Eye Moody: Brendan Gleeson
Professor McGonagall: Maggie Smith
Fleur Delacour: Clemence Posey
Viktor Krum: Stanislav Lanevski


Dumbledore: No spell can reawaken the dead, Harry. I trust you know that. Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.

Twilight

The Twilight theatrical trailer
Originally uploaded by Billie Joe's Entourage

I was serious when I told all my friends that Twilight is so bad that watching it can make me a better director, I really, really believe that. I truly can’t believe that a movie this bad made it into the marketplace as a serious movie, a movie that has managed a large following and a quickly turned around sequel.

What I can safely say is that the television screen is much kinder to Twilight than the theatre screen was – but that’s not saying much. I still think my favorite thing about Twilight might be the color palette.

One of the cardinals rules that Catherine Hardwicke broke in her directing of Twilight is one of the biggest no-brainers in the book: when you are trying to convey important or intense emotion you stay on your characters, usually in a close-up or some other way that makes the character front and center – you as an audience member need to feel what they are feeling and you have to SEE the character to do that. During most of the intensely emotional scenes in the film Hardwicke not only decides to edit constantly so you can’t keep a beat on the characters, but she also likes to trail the shots far way from the actors and into the scenery or at such awkward angles that it pulls the audience out of the moment because they have to reorient themselves to what they see. IT robs the film of any chance for the audience to emotionally connect to characters or situations and what’s the saddest is that this happens the most when the two main characters are together.

An advantage to the DVD is that one of the special features is extended scenes; the disadvantage is that Hardwicke decides to introduce these scenes. This is a disadvantage because Hardwicke explains that these scenes were shortened because they hurt the pacing of the film. I watched the extended scenes. What the scenes contained can be explained simply in two words: character development. There was a conversation between Bella and her father that explained more of their relationship as well as revealing that the town folk are wary of the Cullen’s, Bella and Edward discuss his blood thirst for her, and two more scenes that allow more time for the main couple to actually have a reason to fall for each other. Cutting these out is an amateurish move by the director because she felt the movie was moving too slow. I am not a fan of exposition, but what Hardwicke cut can’t even really be considered exposition – it’s moments that help motivate your characters and make them and their world three dimensional.

Though the films sequel New Moon is my favorite book of the series, after Twilight the only thing that can make me excited about the film is the fact that Hardwicke and her entire creative team has been replaced.

Edward Cullen: What did you expect? Coffins and dungeons and moats?
Isabella Swan: No, not the moats.
Edward Cullen: Not the moats.

Twilight

Twilight--MAKEOUT!! lol
Originally uploaded by hvyilnr

Twilight was the number one film at the box office over the weekend; we all knew it would be because Harry Potter was pushed to the summer. I read the books and from the trailer and advanced footage I was able to see I knew the movie was going to have issues; unfortunately, I was right. The filmic version of Twilight reads like it was A) directed by someone who never read the book and B) put out by a studio that simply wanted to push out a movie based on a hot commodity ASAP.

One of my biggest issues with Twilight was the editing of the film – I do not have a bone to pick with the editor, but the director. It’s a basic filmmaking rule that every cut you make and shot you choose needs to have a purpose. Catherine Hardwicke seems to have forgotten this. More than once she will cut away to something like the camera moving through trees, or hand held, canted, swinging camera shots that pull you away from the characters and the emotional impact of what is happening and make you think about what the camera is doing. When she should be sticking with the characters she goes elsewhere.

Then there is the random cutaways in the movie to the villains activities (which are totally unnecessary) and the cuts to the flashbacks (also totally unnecessary). Both of these pull you away from something crucial that is happening to our main characters. While I understand the desire to show the villains before they confront our main characters this also takes away some of the impact of our villains – they lose some of the scare factor when you see them “playing with their food”.

The flashbacks and dream sequences were another kind of bad entirely – not only were they pointless, but they were really stupid. The flashbacks were filmed in sepia and when they were used even though they were being narrated by characters they seemed entirely unmotivated – I am really not sure how that was accomplished. Rather than having the flashbacks add to the story they detracted from it because they were so incredibly different than everything else on screen and thus pulled you again out of what was happening to our characters and made you feel like you were watching a TV documentary.

The dream sequences were very similar to this. Instead of helping the movie they hindered. Most specifically there is one image that kept repeating that was not only out of character for the film but having read the book it had no place being associated with Bella our lead character; this would be the classic gothic image of Bella in a black dress, draped across a bed with Edward in classic Dracula-esque attire draped over her. This is the image of lust of both for blood & sex – it’s the image of fear not endearment. One of the crucial things that makes Bella and Edward different from the characters in an Anne Rice-type novel is that they are not defined by their lust or the traditional image of the vampire and victim – Bella and Edward fight any urges that would make them into this stereotype for the safety and well being of the other.

I also took issue that Bella all too often seemed afraid of Edward. One of the most crucial things about Bella is that she is never afraid of Edward. Between her dreams, and her reactions to Edward Bella very much seems to be frightened of Edward at crucial moments – her actions do not fit her dialogue.

One of my biggest problems with the films structure was actually the last shot of the film. Instead of remaining on our lovers Edward & Bella who again, should be the focal point of the story we are taken to Victoria one of the villian’s of the piece. It is an obvious trick to set up a sequel and it is unnecessary as the story is already left open for the next chapter by Edward and Bella in the scene before.

On the technical side of things I had to major issues – the makeup and the special effects.

Let’s start with the makeup. All of the Cullen family looked painted white – not only was this unimaginative, but it looked bad. On top of this the makeup staff did not take the time to blend the color into the characters necks or other exposed skin so the vampires looked two-toned. This oversight was student film bad.

Then you come to the special effects; I understand that this film didn’t have a huge budget, but with a film that requires a certain amount of effects and CGI you make sure that you get the best bang for your buck and that it all works in the story instead of detracting from it. One of the major differences between Twilight’s vampires and traditional vampire mythology is that these vampires are not hurt by sunlight, the reason they do not go into the sun is because it would attract attention and show them as otherworldly – they sparkle in the sun. When my friend and I saw Edward step into the sunlight we actually laughed – the effect was cheesy and unfinished looking – it merely looked like they’d sprinkled the actor with glitter. Then you have the fun of the fast moving, quick reacting, super strong vampires – it looked cheap and out of place, not to mention it was used at the oddest times; if you can’t afford the shots find a way to shoot around it without cheating your audience.

There were some good things about this film, but I will save that for if I review this movie again. I do feel like I could study Twilight more and it would be beneficial for me to diagnose why the movie did and did not work; parts of the movie were good and captured the characters decently well, but these were so few and far between that they could not overpower what was not done well in the film. I have seen movies that are much better than Twilight, but I have also seen movies that are way worse than Twilight. In the end I really think that if you handed me the existing footage I could edit the film into a better movie.


Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Writer: Melissa Rosenberg
Bella Swan: Kristen Stewart
Edward Cullen: Robert Pattinson
Charlie Swan: Billy Burke
Esme Cullen: Elizabeth Reaser
Charlisle Cullen: Peter Facinelli
Alice Cullen: Ashley Greene
Rosalie Hale: Nikki Reed
Jasper Hale: Jackson Rathbone
Emmet Cullen: Kellan Lutz
Jacob Black: Taylor Lautner
Billy Black: Gil Birmingham
Laurent: Edi Gathegi
Victoria: Rachelle Lefevre
James: Cam Gigandet

Edward Cullen: And so the lion fell in love with the lamb.
Isabella Swan: What a stupid lamb.
Edward Cullen: What a sick, masochistic lion.