Black Sheep Previews: NEW MOON

After its highly anticipated debut at last week's MTV Movie Awards, the trailer for the second installment in the Twilight vampire series, NEW MOON, has reignited the lust for blood in girls around the world. Clearly, from the overtly romantic tone of the trailer, new helmer, Chris Weitz (who replaced Catherine Hardwicke to many fans' dismay), knows what fans connected with in the first installment and intends to play that up this time out. I'm not a big Weitz fan, when it comes to direction, that is. His writing is surprisingly sensitive (CHUCK & BUCK, ABOUT A BOY) but his direction barely holds big pictures together. As it stands, his work on THE GOLDEN COMPASS left the fate of the series in question so it does not bode well for this immensely popular series. That said, he seems to be holding true to the simple hometown aesthetic of the last outing, as opposed to the glamorizing Alfonso Cuaron brought to the Harry Potter series. Well, Taylor Lautner (Jacob - the one who turns into a wolf), got a much needed haircut and has clearly been doing nothing but working on his pecs since the last production wrapped but aside from that, everything seems to be in line with the sincerity that captured both believers and non-believers so genuinely in TWILIGHT. Just remember boys and girls, Lautner is but a baby of 17. No touching.



Personally, I've lost a little interest in the Twilight Saga. I had none to begin with and then was surprisingly impressed with the film. I mean, it wasn't perfect but it certainly had more going for it than I had anticipated. I loved Bella (Kristen Stewart) and her simple demeanor. Even Robert Pattinson as Edward grew on me after I got over his ability to sparkle in the daylight. I am still looking forward to this sequel but I've also been watching the first season of "True Blood" so my experience is tainted. There are far too many similarities between the two and "True Blood" is not doing a good job of it. The wah-wah whiny nature of the HBO series makes Edward seem all the more sappy. It's almost making me wish everyone would just leave the vamps alone already. That isn't going to happen though so I'll just have to hope NEW MOON reaffirms my belief in the possible love between a teenage girl and a decades old man who can potentially suck every drop of blood out of her at any moment.

BLU-REVIEW: TWILIGHT

Written by Melissa Rosenberg
Directed by Catherine Hardwicke
Starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson


Edward Cullen: I wanted to kill you. I never wanted a human being’s blood so much.

It may occasionally sound like a vampire movie but TWILIGHT certainly doesn’t look like any vampire movie I’ve ever seen. For starters, some of these particular vampires are vegetarians. It is much less a movie about vampires as it a movie that just happens to have vampires. You might even say it is the BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN of vampire movies. This is not to say it is anywhere near as good; just that director Catherine Hardwicke cleared the path so that you could see the love and not just the blood lust one would expect. That love is shared between Bella and Edward (played by Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson). She just moved back to this tiny town to spend some time with her estranged father and he too just moved back to this same town after being away for a few decades. She is 17 and he looks like he’s 17 (he also looks like he’s ready for an all vampire cabaret revue with all that face makeup but that’s besides the point) but really he was born way back near the turn of the century, the last century. Doesn’t anyone else see something wrong with this picture? He could realistically be her great grandfather, people.


This is Bella’s story really and her perspective is what brings both sensitivity and assertive confidence to TWILIGHT. Bella’s relationship with her father is understandably tricky. Her newfound friends from school take some definite getting used to. And as if her life weren’t complicated enough already, what with the big move and the inevitable adjustment period, she just had to go and fall “hang upside down from the rafters” in love with a vampire. The best part about the somewhat ridiculous premise (I say somewhat because maybe vampires really do exist, even vegetarian ones), is that Hardwicke has grounded it firmly. Imagine a teenage movie where none of the “youngins” utter inspired brilliance every time they open their mouths. No, these folks are actually awkward; they actually don’t know what to say sometimes. And they actually live in a place where not everything they wear is right off the runway. All of this realism helps make the supernatural element all the more plausible but it also brings to light a couple of points of concern about the teenage girl.


TWILIGHT reinforces one of the most unfortunate clichés around these days. Every girl out there just really wants a bad boy. They don’t even care if they have admittedly drained innocent bodies of all their blood before. We should definitely make sure that the legions of young girls who see this film, or read the Stephanie Meyers book it is based upon, believe that love can resolve any obstacle, be that a difference of opinion, a disagreement or the distinct possibility that your boyfriend may one day wake in the middle of the night to find he can no longer resist the urge to drink your blood. It is easy to get sucked in to TWILIGHT’s lore (Get it? Sucked?) because we all have these distorted ideas of love ingrained inside of us but last I checked, a guy who sneaks into your room to watch you sleep is called a stalker, not a romantic. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from TWILIGHT though, it is that a teenage girl’s love is infinitely stronger than a vampire’s lust for blood. Oh, and that girls love all things that sparkle.


My apologies to the technical geeks and true fans out there. I had too much to say about this film to go into detail about all the blu-ray special features. I will just say that if you are a fan of this film, you will not be disappointed with which your admiration has been rewarded. There is feature commentary with the director and two leads; the behind the scenes featurettes go through most of the production stages and can be seen picture in picture on blu-ray (which, if you're like me and didn't know what that was before, means that you can watch the film and a separate screen will appear in the corner to give you information about the scene that is playing). On the whole, all the special features point towards the care with which this production came to life and how much it has meant to legions of fans. There are even music videos by Linkin Park and Paramore. You tell me, what more could a bloodthirsty teenage girl want?

FILM

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