Monday, November 23, 2009

New Moon

Here now is the second installment to the hugely popular Twilight saga. I have not read any of the books. And up until this movie, I had no intentions of reading it at all. Now I'm considering it. I didn't read any of the books so that I wouldn't feel disappointed with the movie. As with most movie adaptations of novels. The book is often better than the movie.

This movie somehow sparked my interest more in the saga. The first movie focused on Bella Swan and her relationship with hot vampire Edward Cullen and his vampire family. This movie expands our knowledge of the Twilight universe by focusing on werewolf Jacob Black and and his clan. Or should I say pack of wolves. Other than that, this movie also introduces us to the Volturi. They are the the leaders of the vampire race who are very fierce and very powerful.


This movie showed me why the books are very popular. The premise is quite interesting. And something to look forward to. At the end of the film, I actually wanted to know what happens next.

Though the story is nice and all. The dialogue isn't quite good. I know this isn't suppose to be Shakespeare or anything. But the conversations seemed rather plain to me. Plus the acting wasn't the best either. The young stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner have a lot of potential. But they still have a lot of growing to do in terms of acting. They should take the opportunity to learn from they're veteran co-stars Michael Sheen and, agree with me or not, Dakota Fanning. Among the young and relatively new cast however. One seems to shine in this film. Ashley Green has done a terrific job playing Alice. Her character is now one of the most interesting characters of this series.

From what I've heard. The book was rather boring. So I have to give credit to the filmmakers for making this movie exciting. Though a lot of improvements still need to be made. This movie has already greatly improved from the first one. And somehow, I have a feeling that the next movie would definitely be better than this one. Indeed the Twilight series is a very exciting saga to follow. It has made a follower out of me.

Monday, November 16, 2009

2012

From the director of Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow. Roland Emmerich gives us another film where he destroys the world in spectacular fashion. How does he destroy the world this time? Well, the world ends due to a massive solar flare caused by planet alignment, which in turn heats the earths core and causing crust displacement. This is supposedly has happened billions of years ago and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The ancient Mayans have predicted that it will happen again in the year 2012. I must say, I found this theory interesting and cool. And the movie did an excellent job of explaining it.

Though Roland Emmerich has proven that he's the best when it comes to the apocalypse. His act for story telling seems to have taken a step in the wrong direction. The movie feels like it tries too hard to find an excuse to be able to show you visually stunning sequence. But I think that was the intention all along. The film makers didn't set out to make a great film. I think they're goal was to give the audience a visual effects extravaganza. Which they did successfully. It's still to early to say. But I think this film will bag the visual effects & best sound editing Oscars next year. The special effects, regardless of what silly excuse they thought of to show you this, is a lot of fun & worth seeing.

This movie also features a terrific cast. I think the director has a talent for is choosing the right actors to star in his film. This film stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Jimi Mistry & Danny Glover. All pretty likable and talented actors. It's nice to see them in this type of film. And though some may disagree, I think they gave good performances and turned the characters they portray to be interesting ones.

To sum it up. This film is alright. It's a lot of fun as long as you don't pay too much attention to the plot.