Blog: carolyn

DISCLAIMER: This is a response blog to Erica’s (genkimisao) review of New Moon. This is supposed to be in good fun! I’m writing from the perspective of a rational adult who mayyy have been swept up by the hype of the Twilight Saga.

Let’s say I was once a hater like Erica. But then I was pushed into reading Twilight while studying abroad this past February. I proceeded to finish all four books in about a week and watch a bootleg version of the Twilight movie on my computer. If I could take time out of exploring Florence to read these books, there must be cocaine embedded in the pages or something, right? I agree with Erica, the writing is comically appalling. My friends and I kept admitting that to each other as we plowed through the books but we kept reading. To be fair, I think the characters are pretty compelling if you’re able to look past Stephanie Meyer’s miniscule vocabulary and horribly flat dialogue.

Ok, so with that out of the way, I just read Erica’s review of New Moon (can I just mention how jealous I am that she scored tickets to an early release and I’ll be lucky to go next week? No way am I pushing my way into line with screaming “twi-hards” when chances are, all the tickets in my area have been snatched up by advanced ticket sales.)

A few things: Erica mentions that she hopes Taylor Lautner is ready for the attention he’s about to receive for his new body. I think he has to be! His new physique is not a happy accident. He’s been working out since filming for Twilight ended to achieve his new look because New Moon’s director Chris Weitz didn’t believe in his potential and wanted to recast the role of Jacob with a more “mature looking” actor. He put on 30 pounds of muscle to prove Weitz wrong. And hard as it is to admit, those annoying teenage fans were the ones encouraging him through the whole process. I agree that his acting hasn’t fully matured yet, but he is only 17, and his dedication to the Twilight Saga is evidence to me that he might be on track to rank with some of the pros who go to extremes to embody their characters. Christian Bale lost a record 63 pounds for his role in The Machinist (2004) and then turned around and gained 100 pounds to play the title character in Batman Begins (2005).

Erica comments on the fact that many of the male actors in New Moon are “half naked” for most of the movie. It has to be said that this sounds very faithful to Stephanie Meyer’s novel. In the novels, Jacob and his wolf pack are often only partially clothed. This is part of their power and sexuality, which Bella finds herself drawn to despite all of her “true love” babble. But Stephanie does give a reason for their lack of clothes: when the Quileutes transform from man to wolf, their clothes get left behind and, reasonably so, are ripped to shreds in the process because despite their large stature as humans, their wolf bodies are still much larger than their human bodies. This is why Meyer often describes Jake as having a pair of shorts tied to his hind leg while he is a wolf, so that when he changes back he won’t be entirely naked. When the wolves transform quickly or out of anger, this is why you see shreds of clothes flying in every direction (as in the trailer) because they didn’t have time to consider the destruction of their clothes when their fight instincts have kicked in. Also, the wolf boys’ body temperature runs at about 108 degrees. They don’t need to wear clothes to keep warm – sexy. If you, like Erica, think New Moon is unsuitable for young eyes just wait until Midnight Sun – I seriously have no idea how they’re going to stay faithful to the text and keep it PG (and not for the reasons you’re thinking, if you haven’t picked up a copy of the book yet).

Also, if like Erica, you find the action sequences to be the most compelling parts of New Moon, I have to recommend that you stick with the saga and see Eclipse when it comes out next year! Kellan Lutz, who plays Emmett, has said that Eclipse was his favorite book in the saga and the most fun movie to film in the series thus far because there is so much more action intrinsic to the plot. Get ready for 2 hours of action sequence directed by 30 Days of Night and Hard Candy horror aficionado David Slade.

New Moon is my favorite book of the Twilight Saga and I can’t wait to see the film! As an intelligent almost-22-year-old woman, I know my obsession doesn’t make sense or make me look cool, but I have to own it, because vampires are, like, totally awesome!

To say that I’m a Rob Zombie fan would be an understatement. I’ve listened to his music since my ex boyfriend turned me on to White Zombie when I was about 15 and forced me to watch House of 1000 Corpses, which is to this date one of my favorite horror movies. I don’t really know whether Rob intended it to be a spoof of horror films but I’ve always thought of it in terms of Scream; it’s creepy in and of itself but totally self-reflexive.

I love Rob’s “horrorshow” kind of performances both on set and on stage and the image he’s built up around himself; for me he represents Halloween all year round. Below is a clip of him doing “Living Dead Girl” at the Palladium this Halloween – he recorded Living Dead Girl over 10 years ago for Hellbilly Deluxe.

When Rob stops orgasming over his own remakes of Halloween, he’s going to be focusing his time on a new project, currently slated for 2013, called “Tyrannosaurus Rex.” Sheri Moon Zombie is the only actress signed on for the project thus far. My initial disappointment that the movie will not, in fact, be a bloodbath in which a dinosaur haunts Manhattan or what have you was quickly assuaged by the real synopsis of the film.

Zombie reported: “It’s a story about a washed-up prize fighter who goes to prison for like 14 years and his life is of course destroyed… He’s basically this born-to-lose maniac who can’t control himself, and he gets into the world of underground fighting.”

I’m not sure how I missed this, but I just saw the trailer for Mammoth on Apple for the first time today. Lukas Moodysson directs a cast that features Michelle Williams and Gael García Bernal as the “perfect couple.” But, as the tagline states, “perfection is never what it seems.” The premise is that surgeon Emma (Williams) and website creator Leo (Bernal) live the “perfect life” with 8-year-old daughter Jackie (Sophie Nyweide). Things begin to fall apart after Leo goes to Thailand on a business trip that extends into something more (“You know what? I wanna have a fun time.”) and Emma’s work begins to keep her from attending to her own daughter’s needs. Tied into this, it appears that the Vidales’ maid, Gloria (Marife Necesito) has a dark connection to the world Leo is entering in Thailand. Gloria talks to her boys in the Philippines, who struggle with their mother’s absence, but near the end of the trailer, her mother calls from the Philippines (subtitles: “My dear daughter, I don’t know how to say this… but something bad has happened”). Presumably, from the image of a large white man leading one of Gloria’s sons away, her family is now caught up in the very same sex trade that Leo has become a part of. This film appears to be relevant and timely; from the preview, it has been handled with grace and deserves a look. Mammoth comes to theaters November 20.