twilight, yo

this is a post i wrote for another blog...but i think it fits nicely here:

renee and i saw twilight last night, and if you know anything about me (or have met me in the last 6 months), you know that i fucking DESPISE stephanie meyer and this cute little world she's created. talking about setting an example for the next generation of women. i know when i was growing up, i hoped someday i would have my free will taken away by a man (that's FATE, motherfuckers), and that i would get to leave my friends, family and educational opportunities behind for this beautiful creature that had captured my heart. without giving too much away, i'd like to say that i'm not trying to say that women can't be "just" mothers or wives or anything. but meyer never even gave bella the chance. because it's FATE, motherfuckers.

so ok, the movie. it wasn't horrible. in fact, i kind of liked it. for the first time, i understood edward. in the books he always came off as being incredibly flat to me. robert pattison however, shows the pain, and the desire, and the HUMOR that bella supposedly falls in love with (FATE). also, i was totally impressed with the casting of most of the other characters: charlie, jasper, emmit, esme and carlise (peter facinelli!). and ok, kristen stewart was decent although she played the "omg you're just so STRANGE; can't you tell by the puzzled look that's perpetually set into my face?" card a little too long. the dialogue in the books is just painful, but with this kind of acting talent, sometimes i could buy it (hold on tight, spider monkey!) well done guys!

i do think though, that they really could have done a lot more with this movie if they had taken a little bit more time to think about it. some of the shots of washington state and the southwest were breathtaking. they could have turned this movie into something really beautiful -- and dangerous. the bad guys were typically threatening, and their casting was decent; i really wished they could have pulled something out of their hat and made them creepy. made them terrifying. would it have been too much to ask to have joss weadon step in and direct a couple of scenes? because i immediately got what these vampires were about and just wanted the suspension of belief...suspended? for a little bit longer.

and speaking of suspension of belief, just because you have the technology, doesn't mean you should use it. let the audience use their imaginations. we don't have to see what it looks like when edward runs really really fast because no amount of good cgi is going to make that look anything but laughable. put us in bella's shoes. show us what she's experiencing. that being said, i think parts of the final fight scene were really good. i know we were at just a PG? PG-13? rating, but when alice took hold of that guy's head and twisted...i was kind of shocked. i wish i could have seen that kind of ferocity in edward's fight. the kind of ferocity that shows exactly what he's fighting for and doesn't make me imagine the awkwardness at the dinner table when bella's knocked up, and edward's drunk again and they just don't have anything to talk about.

because honestly, what do they have in common? besides fate, of course.