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New Moon Review

November 20th, 2009 at 10:23 am / Amy Bennett / 5 Comments »

The short version? New Moon was fantastic. It blew Twilight out of the water 100 times over.

The long version.

What I liked:

Chris stayed so close to the book. That by far is my favorite adaptation I’ve ever seen. He took all the best scenes in New Moon and then made any other subplots work around it. I recognized so much of the dialogue from the book and then there was other stuff that just made it better.
The movie was so rich. So nice to have that blue tint gone.
The acting was better. I was a little worried that the stuttering manic Kristen we saw at the end of Twilight would be all we saw of her this movie but I was wrong. She did a fantastic job. And all the supporting actors were fantastic as well. I was also a little worried about the werewolves but I felt like their acting was authentic. Even Quil and Embry were funny. Even Emily’s small part was great. And Harry! He was funny.
Charlie was amazing. He’s so funny and real.
The makeup and hair was so much better. I am in love with Victoria’s red curls!
I loved that the setting was the same. I guess I thought for some reason that her room might be different or the school or something. I don’t know. Even with all the changes, a lot of it still felt like Twilight, which was nice.
Edward’s sparkling was SO much better. I loved that one scene when they were taking them to see the Volturi and you got one small glimpse of his shoulder in the sun. I really felt like he glittered!
The cliff diving. So much more authentic than I thought it was going to be.
Bella learning to ride the bike. Loved that Jake still had a sense of humor.
The volturi. Especially Aro. He nailed his character. The fight scene was cringeworthy and even as an addition, was perfect.
The werewolves. They were AMAZING. Really. So, so, so realistic. I loved the color of Jacob. It was so perfect. And the way they fought. Everything. It was just how I imagined and even better.
Edward smiled! It was so good to see him and Bella happy. I know he’s a tortured soul and all but in the book he IS happy.
In fact, I loved all of the Edward/Bella interaction. I felt like we got to see Edward’s devotion to Bella, not just Bella’s.
JACOB!!!! Taylor Lautner KILLED this movie. Yes, he looked um, great (17, 17, 17) but his portrayal of Jacob was just amazing. Huge kudos to him. I loved the scene in the kitchen when they almost kiss. It nearly tore my heart out when Kristen chose Edward. Seriously, that tore me up much more than when Edward left Bella. I knew Edward was lying. But Bella? She means it. She’d pick Edward over Jacob any day and wow, Jacob loves her so much. And I love that Bella says she loves him but it’s just not enough and it broke my heart!

What I didn’t like:

First and foremost, the worst part of the movie was the stupid scene when Aro reads Alice’s mind and sees Edward and Bella running through the forest. Seriously? That’s how she knows Bella is a vampire? Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Makeup was a *little* sketchy. At one time I saw Edward’s hand looked a little dusty. Also the Volturi makeup was a tad weird for me.
Not a huge fan of the music placement. Seemed like good songs on their own but not entirely crazy about them in the movie.
The elevator ride to the Volturi. The music was really weird here, it was unnecessary screen time and it felt more like a ride down to the Spa.
I have to admit the kissing between Edward and Bella seemed a little awkward. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe Edward can never truly relax around Bella. But compared to Bella and Jacob? Sorry, don’t care for much screentime of them kissing. Boo.
Jasper still seemed odd in this movie.
Alice’s scarf and outfit in Italy was weird.

The things I didn’t like were very, very nitpicky. I just felt like Chris did an AMAZING job at sticking with the book. In fact, I would almost say that I liked this as much or even more than New Moon. Then again, it was my least favorite of the 4 so possibly some things that didn’t translate well on paper went over much better visually. I don’t know. All I can say is I’m extremely happy with the movie. I wish I could write down what I loved about every single scene and all the quotes that were so funny and moving. Maybe I’ll continue to do some posts about it just to get it out of system. In the meantime, I’m trying to figure out when to get back to the theater to see it again!

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Chat with Twilight Director Catherine Hardwicke

November 25th, 2008 at 8:47 pm / Amy Bennett / 7 Comments »

OK, that’s a really bad picture of what I was doing this evening. And if I could ever find my Flip video I would have recorded the whole thing for you but I’ll do the best I can. I do have about 2/3 of the audio recorded that I can post as well.

We had I think 37 people in the chat. Several web site operators, several winner and then some Summit people. Catherine got on about 7:20 and stayed until about 8:05. She seemed genuinely sad that her time was up and even looked at her watch and asked that another question be allowed.

She was very, very down to earth. She was eating a “celebratory cupcake” when she first got on. You could tell she really wanted feedback from the fans and felt like she was talking to herself. She even suggested they use Skype next time. She seemed really into interacting with the fans.

So here are the questions as best as I can (this is DEFINITELY summaries and DO NOT QUOTE ME):

I want to be a film director, what advise do you have? She stressed a lot of research and a lot of filming. Shoot a film and do everything even adding a title, doing the credits, etc. She also suggested UCLA where she went, UT, USC or NYU.

What went through your mind after the success of this weekend? She said her smile just got bigger and bigger.

Why did the I love you between Bella and Edward get cut? She said they did have a scene where they said it but it got cut. But she feels like they said it in so many other ways…”you are my life now”.

How many takes did the kissing scene take? Eight total. She mentions that it was steamier than what Stephenie wanted and that’s why they ended up using the closeup scenes. Also she mentions Rob ended up looking like he was in excrutiating pain at times and had to tone him down.

Why did they shoot the ballet scene first? Cam (James) got another job and they only had three weeks.

What is the most extreme thing she has seen a fan do? She ran into someone on Saturday at 5 who said she had already seen the movie eight times. She told her to go home!

What scene from Midnight Sun is on the DVD? She wanted us to guess but it is partly in Midnight Sun and partly in Twilight where Stephenie describes what Edward wanted to do. (we were assuming when he wanted to kill everyone in the classroom)

This was one of my questions!! Why didn’t you let Rob use his British accent? Because Edward didn’t have a British accent and Rob does an ok but unique (can’t remember her exact description) American accent.

Team Edward, Team Jacob and Team Switzerland? She was Team Jacob while reading the books because she was fighting for the underdog but once she started the movie, she switched to Team Edward so she could really get into it.

Why is Radiohead in the movie but not the soundtrack? They had already released it for free so they didn’t see a need. She answers another question later that it is her favorite song from the movie as well.

Was the book on hand during the movie? A resounding yes! She had lots of stuff marked and flagged. They referred to it all the time.

Whose idea was Stephenie’s cameo? She mentioned getting the idea from a previous movie she had done and she felt like Stephenie had to be in there because she is the Queen of Twilight.

Were you there when Stephenie saw it? Yes and she was very nervous but Stephenie liked it a lot.

They had heard about Edward initially having long hair. Why? She says she finds men with long hair sexy. It was going to be long and wild and crossed timelines. [amy here - I heard that Rob fought this and it was left out--thank goodness]

How many takes did it take for Stephenie’s cameo? Two or three but only because they had to move the cameras and work on the timing.

What future film do you want to do? I think she talked about having a lot of stuff she’d like to do but mentioned The Monkey Wrench Game

Why wasn’t the blood type biology scene included? She said they considered it but they already had two biology scenes so it would have been repetitive and Edward had already rescued her enough.

Who will be at the UK premiere? Rob, Kristen and her. She seemed really excited and wondered who else would be there.

Why didn’t you actually use the Town of Forks? She seemed really heartbroken about this and said she visited there and ate there and loved it and the high school was so great about sending jackets and stuff but ultimately it was cheaper to film in Portland, Oregon.

Were there any accidents during filming? Yes, Rob hurt is groin. They had to get a professional masseuse on set [amy here - where can I get THAT job??]. She laughed and said Rob said “it was a very sensual massage”. Also the stunt guy who fell down into the floorboards in the ballet studio suffered a concussion.

Whose idea were the owl wings behind Rob in Biology? Hers. She had seen a picture of a boy and an eagle flying behind him where it looked the same and used the same idea.

What was her favorite line from the movie and book? Both were “Don’t Move” from the kissing scene

Were there any threats that the film would be leaked and how were they handled? Yes, there were. She said normally they get a group of about 300 people to view it and give feedback but this time they did a few small “friends/family screenings”. They all had to swear to secrecy and leave a drop of their blood (she was joking about all they had to do ). She had them write down their feelings and she took that back and figured out how to change the film to make the experience better.

How does she feel about the adult fanbase? She feels like age doesn’t matter. Romeo and Juliet wasn’t written just to be enjoyed by people their age. Anyone can appreciate a love story. She told a story about a a 90 year old woman at her mom’s church says Edward is her new beau. [so cute!]

How did the DVD commentary go on Monday? She put her head down and said it was a disaster. She says they all had no idea what to talk about and were just making fun of each other. She apologized and hoped it wasn’t too bad for the fans.

What about deleted scenes for the DVD? One is one of Kristen’s favorite scenes where she asks about her number being up and he says your number was up the first time we met. [squeeee] Also there are some sexy scenes with James and Victoria.

Someone heard there were scenes with Bella, Rosalie and Alice in the bathroom..are they on the DVD? She said they ran out of time and didn’t even get to film that.

I was really happy with all the questions even though only one of mine got answered! I think she did a great job getting through so many! I will work on getting the audio uploaded!

Sorry, had to remove the audio.