Currently reading Born of Night by Sherrilyn KenyonI haven't done a Movie Mania in a while, but since I managed three first-run movies in the theater this weekend and because Zita asked nicely, here we go:
Friday - Twilight: Eclipse
The director followed Meyer's plot and severely sliced out the Bella whininess, so this turned into a decent movie. I'll admit I'm prejudiced because this is my favorite book of the series. I also think Meyer gave the movie people a preview of the Bree Tanner novella because they used scenes from it to flesh out the story. The snarkiness between Edward and Jacob in tent was still the best scene. And rather than this turning into a gore fest, it looks like the director and the fx crew actually read the book (a novelty in Hollywood). The vampires broke like the stony material they were supposed to be.
Kudos include the added scenes of (1) Bella's actual graduation, for Jessica's valedictorian speech and for the hilarity of Carlisle and Esme faking the happy parent thing for the millionth time and (2) Charlie and Bella having "the Talk." The only bone I have to pick is the movie ended with Bella's admission she needed the ring before telling Charlie about the upcoming nuptials, insteadof Jacob receiving the wedding invitation.
Overall, I'd give it a B.
Saturday - The Last Airbender
*face palm* There are no words to describe the awfulness, and this is while totally disregarding the race casting controversy. DH, GK and I are diehard fans of the original series, and even GK bitched up a storm on the car ride home. Jackson Rathbone, who was so believable as Jasper in Eclipse, couldn't save this piece of crap, and he was the best actor out of the leads. I'm willing to forgive M. Night Shamylan a lot, but not this atrocity. If I graded on a curve, Airbender would a D- only because Happily Never After was so much worse. (The guys have never forgiven me for dragging them to HNA, and I'm still apologizing years later for wasting two hours of their lives.)
Sunday - The Sorcerer's Apprentice
By far, my favorite movie of the summer, and not just because I love Nick Cage. Bruckheimer, Turtletaub and the rest of the cast and crew bring a solid, compelling story of good vs. evil to the silver screen, one I can enjoy with my kid. Alfred Molina added a touch of humanity to Horvath with the same grace he did for Doc Ock a few years back in Spiderman 2. Jay Baruchel was pitch perfect as Dave, the apprentice. My only wish was that they did a little more with the Fantasia-inspired mop scene, but I'm sure budget conderations got in the way.
My major gripes:
1) Magickal theory lacked some consistancy (one of my pet peeves) though I loved Balthazar's scientific explanation of magick.
2) Who the hell did Alice Krige's make-up and what were they thinking? Seriously, I kept expecting her to say "Resistance is futile" every time she was onscreen. C'mon, people, she's playing Morgana Le Fay in this movie, not the fucking Borg Queen!
Overall, a A- and a definite addition to the home library.
Anybody got an opinion? Seen anything good lately? (Though if you saw Inception this week, PLEASE NO SPOILERS! I haven't watched it yet.)
FTC Warning: I paid for these movies, and the popcorn too, with my hardearned dollars. I can say what I damn well please about them.
Thank you for the reviews! I'm disappointed about Airbender. I'm a fan of the original, too, and I wanted to see it, but if it was that bad I will wait and not see it in the theatre. Sorcerer's Apprentice sounds like a winner. Maybe I'll see that, instead. I'm not a Twilight fan, so I won't go see Eclipse anyway, but I've been hearing that it's actually not too bad, so good for them. The plan to ungirlie it seems to have paid off. I am looking forward to Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It looks like Disney will be making the whole series. I really enjoyed reading the Chronicles of Narnia and have liked the movies so far. We'll see how they do with Dawn Treader...
ReplyDelete