5 posts tagged “twilight”

Suggested by Janet:

How about, “What’s the worst ‘best’ book you’ve ever read — the one everyone says is so great, but you can’t figure out why?”

Well, honestly, I don't know.  If a book doesn't get me hooked in the first 30 pages or so, I put it down for good.  It doesn't matter if it 'redeems' itself in the middle/end.  If the beginning is crap - I'm done. I don't waste my time.  

The only books I can think of right now that are not as 'awesome' as people say are the Twilight books.  They are just fanfic...it's not great writing.  I enjoyed the first one.  The characters are interesting to me.  I love character studies and highly descriptive writing, so I did like that aspect of Twilight. The middle books were ok, but the last book was positively atrocious.  I understand why the teens are loving them though...it's that little obsession that all teens have.  Mine was New Kids on the Block. ;)  I didn't go nuts over them or anything, I've never been that kind of person.  I really dislike that kind of behavior....it's not flattering.

The thing is, while I'm glad teens are reading - I'm appalled that they say things like "omg, they are the best books ever written!".  WHAT?  Someone needs to introduce these kids to classic literature, STAT.  When you read a book and there is layer upon layer of brilliance...THAT is great writing.  Twilight is just a nice, cute, safe story - not great writing.  But, I'll enjoy the frenzy of Twilight while it's here.  It's fun, anyway.

Although, I'll be avoiding any store that sells DVD's this weekend though - mass chaos.  Mass chaos.  I have no interest in being in a room full of screaming children. LOL

On a side note, there are some books that are 'hyped' up that really are amazing books.  The Road by McCarthy is one of them.  The Book Thief by Zusak is another.  Both of these books are written brilliantly.  Not only are the stories within great stories - beautiful portraits of humanity, hope, death, love, etc...but also, the authors were very clever in how they formatted the books.  The physical experience of reading these books is wonderful. 

In The Road, you are thrust into this stripped down, wasteland of a book - very little punctuation and structure...just like the world you are reading about.  You EXPERIENCE the loss, the emptiness, the alarming oddness of it all with the characters.  It took a while to get comfortable enough to read the book - and even then, you never really get comfortable.  Just like the characters, we experience this unnerving story in an unnerving way.  It's moving.  It's poignant.

The Book Thief does the same thing.  It's as if you are the diary that the narrator is writing upon.  Scribbles.  Thoughts.  Random sentences and random ponderings.  Descriptions of images.  It pulls you in and you are experiencing these memories with the narrator - like an elderly person telling stories of their youth.  Partial - something are faded, some things are vibrant.  Sometimes they remember the smell more than the conversation.  Sometimes colors are vibrant, even if the memory is not clear.  This is the way of human memory.  The author did a great job developing a visual style in the book that allows us to experience these memories with the narrator.

Maybe the stories aren't for you - the pain and the dispair.  But there is hope, happiness, love as well.  What makes these books great is that they are accurate portrayals of humanity.  Real, raw - nothing is photoshopped or airbrushed.  It's honest.  Heartbreaking.  Hopeful.  Human.  I think, if you read these books and allow yourself to actually EXPERIENCE them....you will understand how they are great peices of art.

Thirteen quotes from Twilight (the movie)

• "I know what you are."
• "I had an adrenaline rush. It's very common.  You can Google it."
• "You don't know how long I've waited for you."
• "The lion fell in love with the lamb."  "What a stupid lamb."  "What a sick, masochistic lion."
• "How long have you been 17?"
  
• "I don't want to be a monster."
  
• "Bella, I was standing right next to you."
• "I don't have the strength to stay away from you."
• "You really should stay away from me."
• "Would if I'm not the good guy?  Would if I'm the bad guy?"
• "I just want to try one thing.  Stay very still."
• "I'm not afraid of you."
• "You are my life now."

Twilight, the movie based on the young adult vampire/romance novel, is out in theaters. Are you planning on seeing it?

I did see it.  I've seen it twice actually.  I went to the midnight showing, because I can't pass up a midnight movie.  I LOVE midnight movies!  :D  I go to them all the time.  :D

SPOILERS WITHIN:

Anyhoo, I went and of course, the theater was full of 16 year old girls.  Through the entire movie, they were laughing, giggling, talking on their phones, texting, talking, GETTING UP AND WALKING AROUND.  What?!  I missed most of the movie because these girls thought they were at a pep rally.

You'd think that with how much they love these books, they'd want to actually see the movie.  *sigh*

So, I went the next day, to the 1:30 showing...since I knew they would be in school.  It was much better.  There were mostly middle-aged couples.  A few single ladies like myself, probably my age..or maybe in their 20's.  There were also 3 middle-aged men...alone.  Interesting.  lol 

But, being able to focus and get into the movie was much better.  It's not a typical Hollywood movie.  It's not big budget, it's not flamboyant and loud.  It's just there, to-the-point....and filmed quite beautifully, actually.  The atmosphere was perfect.  Dark, dreary, yet...electric and exciting.  The whole film was in these blues and grays...very cold colors, but it never felt cold.  It felt a little off center...which is should.  Edward and his family are a little...off.  I think the director and DOP did a great job with that aspect of the film.  Beautiful, real, yet...completely creepy undertones.  This movie is an intense little indie film.  If you go into it realizing that, you'll get so much more from it.  There's a lot of humor in the movie too...and they did it pretty well.  I don't laugh during movies very often.  And the little bits from the book ...the little Easter Eggs, if you will...they were great.  The movie isn't exactly like the book...no movie is.  They can't be.  I enjoy books and movies for different reasons.  I like seeing how the director interprets the book.  How he or she imagined things when they read it.  It's so fascinating!  The cafeteria, Edward's sparkle, and the Cullen House were three things that didn't look anything like how I imagined them...but I still liked how she imagined them.  The only thing that really bugged me was the portrayal of Jaspar.  The poor guy looked constipated the whole movie.  Poor Jaspar.  lol  I think the final scene, at the prom, was really lovely.  Very nicely lit...very warm, compared to the rest of the movie.  It represented the fact that Edward and Bella were no longer hovering close to one another...wondering, waiting, excited yet afraid...now they were together.  Love is warm.  :)

My favorite scene..hmmm, well, I really like the look of the whole movie.  The scene where Bella tells Charlie that she has a date with Edward...that's a great scene.  :D  All the stuff in the woods is great.  I like how lush the greenery is, how it's not really a cold color like Edward...but not warm like Bella either.  It's in between....it's the mix of them both.  The cold blue that is Edward and the warm gold that is Bella.  (yeah, I like color.)  The baseball (or shall we say Thunderball?) scene was great.  I loved the little thing that Jaspar does with this bat.  And, the crash of Edward and Emmett...that was funny.  :)  I thought the ballet studio scene was pretty well done too...I would have liked to have seen more growling. Or, heard, rather.  I thought Kristen was excellent in this scene.  The scene in Port Angeles...when Edward drives up.  He growls.  That. was. COOL.  And then he drives away...holy cow that guy can drive!  That was pretty cool too, although it would have been funny to see Bella's reaction to that quick turn.  ;)  Oh, and of course, the school stuff was good.  The first biology scene was HILARIOUS.  Oh man, the look on Edward's face when he gets a whiff of her...and then she's checking her hair.  OMG...hilarious!  :D  And then the van scene...and hospital scene.  I think they were well done.  Captured the surrealism of all of it.  Bella saw it, she's knows she did, but the rational thing to think is that she hit her head...which everyone says she did...yet, she's sure that she was this supernatural thing happen.  It's just surreal.  And then, to have the supernatural creature fight on the side of normal...even more surreal.  I thought both actors did well with that whole sequence.

So, anyhoo, you can see that I was impressed.  I like how they did the movie.  The atmosphere, the world...it's all right.  The relationship is there...it's not exactly blocked out like the book, but it's all there.  Edward is more casual than in the book, but it works for the movie.

I recommend it...leave the stigmata behind that it's a teen romance flick...because it's not.  It's an intense, independent thriller with a dark, yet funny love story intertwined.  :)

The Music Memoirs
List 10 songs that sum up your weekend...or were on your weekend playlist...and one picture that relates back. (oh, and if you feel like it, tell us why you picked the songs you did)

1. Decode - Paramore
2. Never Think - Rob Pattinson
3. Let Me Sign - Rob Pattinson
4. Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
5. Claire de Lune - Debussy
   
6. I Caught Myself - Paramore
7. Prelude 12/21 - AFI
8. I Giorni - Ludovico Einaudi
9. You Spin Me Round - Dead or Alive
10. River Flows in You - Yirum

All of these songs are from the soundtrack of the movie or influenced by the fact that I read the Twilight books and saw the Twilight movie this past week (well, two weeks).

Yeah, I'm probably not gonna make it to 50 this year.  LOL  Unless I count all the journal articles I've been reading.  ;)

Anyhoo......

This week I read the 4 Twilight Saga books.  I really never thought I'd read these books.  I'm not into romance and sappy love stuff and teenage drama.  Just didn't interest me.  But, many of my friends online have read them and were always talking about them because of the upcoming movie (next Friday).  I still wasn't persuaded to read them really...but I figured I'd see the movie, just for the heck of it.

Then, I got the flu last weekend and on my trip to Walgreens, they had the books there.  I don't know why, but I bought the first book, Twilight and went home and began reading.  My friends were very excited.  lol  I ended up enjoying the first book very much.  It wasn't nearly as sappy as I thought it would be.  So, I bought the other 3 books and read them too.  Finished last night.  (Yeah, I tend to read a novel in one sitting, sometimes two.  I can't put books down. lol).

So, here are my reviews for the Twilight Saga

Book 15: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

As I said, it wasn't nearly as sappy as I thought it would be.  It was certainly a teenage romance book, but it had some depth too.  I actually found myself identifying with Bella.  She was a bit of an outsider.  She was quiet and a loner.  She had parents that were separated.  She was a bit of a traveler and she adjusted well to new surroundings.  When she made up her mind, when she made a decision...she stuck to it.  She took care of her mother.  She was a lot like her father and had a good friendship with him.  She was attracted to the quiet, odd boy.  She liked old things.  Finally, she was a klutz (I'm not nearly as bad as Bella, but I have a few scars. lol).  So, Bella was interesting to me.  Then we had Edward, who was written as this beautiful, perfect 17-year-old boy...but that isn't what attracted me to him.  I'm not all gaga over him, but I was very interested in the character.  I think Meyer did a great job of describing him in such a way that he was appealing and interesting and yet...very, very creepy.  The stillness, the reactions, the smiles..they were all in character.  Never did he feel like the typical romanantic male lead (thankfully).  I really like the character of Edward.  The darkness and the conflict of good and bad.  I'm not a girl who likes the bad boy.  What actually appealed to me about Edward was that he was dark and scary - but when you got close to him and studied him, he was not dark and scary at all.  He fought the darkness, and that was cool.  I know it's been done before...the good vampire; the vampire love story; etc...but I think Meyer did a good job of describing him as not human and creepy, and she stuck to it.   The story was also not bad.  I could not agree with Bella on the weather thing....I'm the exact opposite.  I love cold, snow, dreariness, overcast days, rain....I hate the sun.  But, I could identify with her passionate dislike in regards to the weather.  She did finally give in though...and I won't.  I do not like summertime and I never will.  But, back to the story.  It did feel to me that Bella figured "it" out too easily and that Edward accepted her too easily.  But, I realize that this was part of the deal...they were like magnets to one another and couldn't help but understand the other.  I like that we get little glimpses of Edward along the way...that's he's just as curious about Bella as she is about him.  He's just as scared and freaked out too...which is different.  You wouldn't think a vampire would be frightened of anything.  But, that's the character of Edward.  That's part of his personality.  So, overall, I think this book is worth the read.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend the entire series to everyone, but I think everyone would enjoy some aspect of this book.

Book 16: New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

This book was good as well.  I liked the four books in the order they are written, liking the final book the least.  In this book, we still have Bella and Edward, but they are happily together...in that time in the relationship when they are still new, but they know each other pretty well.  Then, the book takes a weird turn.  A few things happen and we are left, for nearly half the book, with a depressed Bella, alone and empty.  We also get to know Jacob more, a character introduced to us in the first book.  I liked Jacob in this book.  This book gave us more of the in-your-face supernatural stuff with vampires.  Not just the mystery of them.  Lurking...knowing what they are, but not really being part of it.  In this book, we go to Italy and meet the Voltari.  Creepy Italian Vampires that are very bossy.  lol  We get a lot deeper into the character of Edward too and he's even more interesting now.  Overall, my 2nd favorite of the series...although I did cry with Bella for about half the book...which was exhausting.  :)

 

Book 17: Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

This book gave us a very different Jacob...and I hated him.  I just wanted Bella to deck him.  To smack him silly.  I really, really disliked Jacob in this book.  Edward and Bella were still themselves..but we got a look at a more violent, angry Edward.  We had seen this side of him before, but now he had some added pressures to give him anxiety and make him upset.  With that, we also got a closer look at his level of self-control.  I'll tell you this...Bella's view on marriage is STUPID and I hated that whole plot line.  How incredibly lame.  If she wanted to become a vampire and live with Edward forever, practically from the moment she met him, why would she be so against marriage?  It's just a flippin' ring to symbolize what she's already asked for and wants.  The whole mom hates marriage thing and Bella being all weird about it.  That was just stupid.  I rolled my eyes at the whole thing.  Meyer succeeded in making Bella look like a stupid fool.  *sigh*

Book 18: Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

This was my least favorite of the four.  In fact, I can't say I liked this book at all.  Edward and Bella were so weird together.  Their characters were off...not quite in character.  Meyer wrote them a little differently.  They didn't feel like they had progressed to this place...it actually felt like I was reading someone's fanfic based on Edward and Bella (and we all know that fanfic writers never get the characters exactly right).  And then we have sex scenes...not graphic, mind you.  In fact, Meyer cut away as soon as we knew that the deed was about to happen....but still.  Everytime the two of them were alone, they were like bunnies.  It got old.  Also, she had this whole freaky, monster baby plotline...which was disgusting, weird, and not appealing at all.  That thing was creepy and I could not identify with any of the characters and their 'love' for this freaky thing.  Jacob did redeem himself a little in this book.  I liked him better.  And then...all this tension, all this drama...and then it's all just 'fixed'.  The ending was too 'perfect' and 'happy ending'.  Not that I wanted some tragic thing to happen...but it was just so anti-climatic.  So yeah, pretty much this book sucked.  :)