Filmknitter

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Eclipse, possibly my favourite of the books, is the most actiony of the Twilight series to be made into films so far and as I suspected the film-makers struggled to pack it all in. Although, to give them credit, Melissa Rosenberg and David Slade do manage to keep many story points true to the book. Having been reunited at the end of New Moon, Bella and Edward have decided there's no point trying to live apart and are attempting to have a normal teenage relationship. One problem with this - our fanged hero is an old-fashioned boy and isn't willing to deflower our hormonally charged heroine without wedding her first. Bella, being a 21st century girl, thinks that getting married at 18 is, like, so last century and would rather just take advantage of the beautiful new four-poster Edward buys for a sleepover. As well as this, Bella's best friend Jacob, declares his love for her and tried to steal her away from our favourite vampire. Naughty werewolf. When old nemesis Victoria (now played by Bryce Dallas Howard after Rachelle Lefevre was booted off) turns up with a ravenous pack of strong newborn vamps, the Cullens and the werewolf pack must unite to protect Bella.

There's a lot of story in this one, and unfortunately the first half of the film feels rather rushed. It's great too see so much of the book realised visually but when every scene is a few minutes long and the plot isn't clearly laid out it does feel somewhat like an extra long trailer rather than a film. Slade has lost some of the easy-going feel of the first film. My flatmate commented that this may make it confusing for people who haven't read the book, but my response to that was that if it makes confused film fans read the books then that's all to the good, and also it proves that these films are now aimed squarely at the fans, which I'm fine with if it means more faithfulness to the text. However, the second half of the film settles down a lot - once we get into the main plot of Victoria heading for Forks and the wolves and vamps having to team up everything feels more cohesive and you can catch your breath. Not for long though as the battle at the end is immensely exciting, and the famous 'tent bit' is just as emotional, and amusing, as it is in the book. My only gripe is that they didn't include the part where Edward chucks Jacob across the tent - a highlight in my opinion. Dallas Howard puts in a professional performance as Victoria but sadly she's a little too wispy-looking, she's excellent at sweet heroines in M. Night Shyamalan's oeuvre and can't quite carry off truly vengeful and scary. Boo to the evil suits for getting rid of Rachelle Lefevre!

Slade does a fair job of this film and has successfully made it his own without losing too much of the feel of the book, and seems to have done so without suffering the anxieties that poor old Chris Weitz went through with the last one. He definitely brought more darkness, and elements of horror to Eclipse, which worked well. The flashback with Jasper and his female sire is downright chilling, and the battle at the end fairly hard-hitting with heads being ripped off left, right, and centre. I also really liked the flashback to Rosalie's 'birth' as a vampire, which was brilliantly realised and successfully fills out the ice-queen's character. Overall I definitely enjoyed Eclipse, and once again we made the right choice in seeing it at the big Magdalen Street Odeon, which was full of Twilight fans - there was cheering when Bella finally agrees to marry Edward (and again when she kisses Jacob - fickle creatures in the audience). However I feel like I need to see it again to fully appraise the story and be a little more objective. As with New Moon my expectations were so high that I suspect I'll need to see it a couple of times before I can accept it on its own terms.

New Moon

After a year of waiting it's here - New Moon was released at midnight on Thursday and we went along to the Odeon in Oxford to see it last night. The queue to get in was incredible; stretching all the way back to Borders, even though we'd booked tickets. Thankfully the screen at Magdalen Street is huge enough that we didn't feel too squashed once we got inside. I was worried that watching it with a load of Twi-hards would get annoying but apart from a few bursts of spontaneous applause (one of which occurred when Jacob whips his shirt off for the first time - my gosh that boy has worked hard for this film!), people settled down and were thankfully quiet for most of it (apart from the girl in front of me who had obviously dragged along her giant-headed boyfriend and had to keep explaining the action to him - grr). In fact it was nice to experience the atmosphere of excitement after so much anticipation for this latest installment in the Twilight saga.

I've been looking forward to this one, though in fact New Moon is my least favourite of the books so I didn't have too high hopes. Frankly the main problem is that there's so little of Edward in it! However, whereas in the book you feel like Bella's terrible heartbreak lasts for ages, the necessity of condensing the story for the screen means that there isn't too much wallowing in this one, and instead there's plenty of werewolf action, which I enjoyed immensely. My flatmate griped that they still haven't got werewolves on film right, but I felt that Chris Weitz got pretty close with these beasts. Instead of being freaky monsters they are giant wolves, looking equal parts cuddly and dangerous, exactly how I imagined them in the book. The CG was great and I can't wait to see more of the werewolves in Eclipse.

My main reservation about Chris Weitz was based on the fact that he completely cocked up 'The Golden Compass' in 2007 (see my review here: http://filmknitter.typepad.com/filmknitter/2007/12/the-golden-comp.html); however this was mainly due to his abysmal script and thankfully Melissa Rosenberg stayed on from Twilight for script-writing duties on New Moon. What Weitz is very good at is visual splendour and he certainly achieves that with both the wolfy bits, and the finale in Italy; my favourite section of the book. Sadly the Italy section is a little rushed and he has had to simplify it down for the screen but still our introduction to the dangerous Volturi is more than satisfactory, with Dakota Fanning making an excellent Jane and Michael Sheen being surprisingly perfect as Aro - he's exactly as creepy and courteous as he is in the books. During the first five minutes of the film I was a bit concerned that it had gone too commercial - Bella looks too groomed, Edward far too pale and alien-like, and the horrifically obvious product placement of the Volvo in the first shot at the high school meant it felt too much like a shiny advert. However, despite not quite hitting the perfect level of grungy teenageness that Catherine Hardwicke is so adept at, Weitz does just about manage to rein in his more Hollywood tendencies and retain much of the subtleties and quietness of Hardwicke's film.

As with the first film, the soundtrack is excellent, including contributions from Muse, Thom Yorke, Editors, and Death Cab for Cutie (love that name). I missed the presence of Paramore, especially as they were obviously so involved in the first film; I would have put 'Brick by Boring Brick', their latest single, in there somewhere, but that's just me. It's also a shame that, after a change of composer, Carter Burwell's beautiful 'Bella's Lullaby' is notably missing from the soundtrack. However, Alexandre Desplat's score for New Moon is also rather lovely so I can't complain. What I can complain about, however, is Jasper's hair, which is once again atrocious, progressing from a white man's 'fro in Twilight to the barely improved 'Old English Sheepdog' look in New Moon. Jackson Rathbone is apparently completely over-powered by the terribleness of his barnet and once again fades into the background as Jasper. Thank goodness then for Ashley Greene who once again gets Alice spot on and manages to make up for her mate's failings. Like Bella I was delighted to see her at the end of the film and greatly enjoyed their race into Volterra in an ostentatious yellow Porsche.

I'm planning to re-read the book and go see New Moon again once the initial rush is over, so that I can nit-pick at all the things they changed, but for now I'm happy to say that the second installment in the saga is more than satisfactory and I can start worrying about what David Slade is going to do to Eclipse - released July 2010 apparently!

Twilight

OMG!!! I finally saw it!!! I'll do my best not to write this review like a crazed fangirl, but it's going to be difficult. So, yes, at last Twilight is out in the UK and I saw it last night with my sister and her boyfriend (who actually enjoyed it, honest) at my favourite cinema (Odeon in Tamworth, where I used to work). I can truthfully say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and there was very little about it that I would change. It wasn't perfect, and the second half was better than the first, but generally I'm happy with it.

I won't recount the story at length as I'm sure everyone knows the basics: girl meets boy, boy turns out to be an immortal (but 'vegetarian') vampire who craves her blood like no other, girl doesn't care, girl and boy date for a while before an evil vampire with an obsessive personality decides to eat girl. In a nutshell, that's it. Bella (Kirsten Stewart) moves to the rainy town of Forks to live with her father Charlie (Billy Burke), also the Chief of Police, and starts at the High School there. Being somewhat quiet and reticent she struggles with being the 'new girl' but then meets Edward (Robert Pattinson) and is intrigued by his apparent dislike of her. Eventually she discovers the real reason he avoids her - her blood just happens to be the most delicious thing he's ever smelled, which is a problem when you're a 'vegetarian' vamp who abstains from human blood. They fall in love, of course, and everything seems rosy until a trio of carnivorous (well, you know what I mean) vampires turn up - James, his mate Victoria, and their dreadlocked pal Laurent. James becomes obsessed with killing Bella when he discovers her relationship with Edward and his family, and chases her to her former hometown, Phoenix, culminating in the famous 'fight in a ballet studio' scene.

Obviously I had high expectations of this film. The anticipation of Catherine Hardwicke and Melissa Rosenberg's adaptation of the popular book has been frenzied. Poor Rob Pattinson can't even make a promotional appearance in America without getting mobbed (apparently at the UK premiere there were cries of 'Edward, bite me!' as he walked past - eugh). However, it's all ok, the film is a faithful adaptation aimed four-square at the fans with many in-jokes and references to the rest of the saga.  I particularly enjoyed Edward catching the apple in his hands in the cafeteria (a reference to the cover of Twilight), Stephenie Meyer's cameo in the diner scene, and Edward's 'wings' in the first scene in the science lab :) Hardwicke rattles through the plot at a brisk pace that occasionally feels a little too rushed, but it's great to see so much of the plot included and it doesn't make the film confusing or alienating (take note, directors of Harry Potter films). With most of this film the joy is in simply seeing so many of the scenes rendered in full spectacular visual style. The description in the books is great, but imagination can only take you so far and the shot of Edward and Bella at the top of a tree looking out across the beautiful countryside (filmed in Oregon, I believe), or any sequence where there's a vamp driving a car, really conveys the superhuman abilities and godlike appearance of the vampires. I also enjoyed the sections where Hardwicke/Rosenberg take a bit of artistic licence with the story such as the scene where the Cullens are making Italian food for Bella, which isn't in the book but just immediately tells you that Esme and Carlisle aren't your average blood-thirsty monsters.

Considering how different the media of the written word and the silver screen are Hardwicke has managed to get her adaptation very close to the 'feel' of the books, and stay faithful to the story and characters, while at the same time making the film her own and giving it a cunningly 'indie' feel. The style of shooting is a little 'shaky MTV' but it's also informal and intimate, which works very well for the sequences in the high school, as well as the romantic scenes between Bella and Edward, which remain chaste as in the books but are overflowing with teenage sexual frustration (masquerading as teenage vampire bloodlust of course). I loved the look of the film, Forks is just as rainy and grey as it is in the books and the miserable weather means that there is some excellent knitwear on display - highlights include Bella's chunky mittens, her patchwork scarf in the baseball scene, and Rosalie's cream scarf (I have bought some yarn to make my own version this very morning). I think that the hype around Rob Pattinson is completely deserved, there is a wee bit of overacting but on the whole he makes an excellent Edward, perfectly nailing his old-fashioned manners, and stony brooding stares. Bella is a trickier nut to crack, she's very introverted which is fine in the books as we are inside her head at all times so we know exactly what she's thinking, but in the film even with the help of voiceovers it's not so easy to trasmit her character.  However, Kirsten Stewart again does a stellar job, I worried that she would seem too sulky but I think that she finds the balance between Bellas' reserved appearance and inner stubbornness and strong will. The Cullen family all looked good - Ahsley Greene as Alice was the best I think, I enjoyed her balletic pitching in the baseball game.  Taylor Lautner as Jacob was ok, but I reckon he'll need to up his game for 'New Moon' somewhat, he could handle Jacob as a tertiary character in Twilight just fine but I wonder if he's got the acting chops to go through all the emotional transformation in the sequel.

I also must mention the soundtrack, which I'm now depserate to get hold of. Packed full of angsty American rock, of which I'm an unashamed fan, it fits with the material excellently. Fans of Meyer will know that she listens to bands like Muse and Linkin Park, both of whom are included here. I love the Paramore single 'Decode' (though it's a shame that it isn't available to buy individually from itunes- humph).

So I am now looking forward to the next film: New Moon (release date currently set for Novemeber '09). Sadly Catherine Hardwicke isn't at the helm, and her place will be taken by American Pie director Chris Weitz. I haven't yet forgiven him for the abysmal script he write for The Golden Compass, but I love the films he's directed (American Dreamz, In Good Company) and as Melissa Rosenberg is still doing script-writing duties I have high hopes that it will be as good as this one.

Twilight poster no. 3

Here is the newest movie poster for Twilight.  Have to say I'm not overly impressed, Edward looks really scary, and also a little like John Travolta (where have his cheekbones gone?!).  However, the new trailer is due out at the end of the week and I have much higher hopes for it.  Hopefully we'll get a look at Edward's family, or maybe Charlie... fingers crossed!

 

Guardian article about Stephenie Meyer

Interesting article on the Guardian website this morning about Stephenie here.  It's a little obvious at times that the writer hasn't actually read any of the books, but there's some interesting stuff about the impact that Stephenie's religion has on her writing, as well as some biographical info that I didn't know.  It also mentions that Ms Meyer has been criticised as being 'anti-feminist', which is something I wasn't aware of and don't agree with.  Bella is a strong female character who is pro-active, smart and someone who I totally identify with.  These books may be romantic but there's nothing pathetic about the heroine.  As Embry says in the second book "I bet she's tougher than that, she runs with vampires".

Good to see that people in the UK are realising what a phenomenon these books are.  According to this article British bookshops will be opening at midnight for the release of 'Breaking Dawn' in August - exciting stuff!