On a personal note/rant....

Okay no one expects movies to be exact replicas of their book origins.  Everyone has their own mini movie playing in their head when they read the books before movies, but come on.  When it comes to certain crucial scenes, I don't think anyone's going to get mad if that scene isn't exactly as they visualized, but I'll be damned if those very same people would happily accept the blatant disregard for said scenes, the ones with meaning to the series as a whole.  You just can't DO that.  This is getting out of hand.  I mean for real.  Movies made from books ought to be the easiest movies to make. You have the source of it all right at your fingertips!  You have the blueprints!  Why is it so hard to follow at least the basic guide of them?  It's like having a map to a treasure, but you cut out, scribble, and tamper with it just because you don't like a route through a certain direction.  "Oh hey, let's just cut out this whole mountain range and proceed this way."  Then little do you know, you're missing out on crucial things, like what you will see on your journey to get there. 

This movie could have really worked if they just made it longer. What's with the rush?  Who cares about the audiences who can't fathom sitting still for longer than 3 hours?  Their lack of presence or support for movies of THIS nature will not be enough to stop the success. You know good and well that most people who watch these movies are those who are FANS. People who have read the books or people who just simply love the movies.  These fans far outnumber the casual moviegoer.  They far outnumber the sourly negative critics who make a living off of bashing movies that will do well.  Who freaking cares about any of them?  What's important here is the fans.  These fans will pay big bucks to watch these movies more than once.  These fans would not mind sitting there for a 3 hour movie if it meant that it can still bring out the crucial storylines from the book without skipping a beat.  And you can't say that it doesn't work.  You can't complain about the length.  Look at freaking LORD OF THE RINGS, for crying out loud.  Each of those films are over 3 hours in length and they were madly successful. The people who complained about the length were powerless to stop their success.  But nooooooooooo.  We have to sit here and take 2 hour movies that could have very well been 3 hours and not be flawed at ALL.

On to the review of sorts...New Moon...my love, hate relationship...

[SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!]

So yeah, "New Moon."  There's TONS of good.  There is fortunately more good than bad. Oh man, there was so much that was so spot-on, I don't even know if I'd be able to possibly fathom where to start.  It's fresh in my mind, sure, but my thoughts are all scrambled between good and bad and I can't keep them straight.  This one blew "Twilight" right out of the water and into outer space where even Superman can't follow.  Lame analogy, I know, but it's true.  It was WAY better.  I immediately thought that man, this movie might actually do GREAT with the translation.  And you know what?  For the most part, it did, but only when it comes to the scenes they chose to keep, even if those scenes had tweaks.  So much has most definitely improved since the first film; and I know I have the new director to thank for that.  But I also have the new director to thank for where "New Moon" went horribly wrong, and yes, in several crucial ways, this movie went wrong.  The crucial book scenes not chosen to be portrayed, or those scenes portrayed in a rather ugly fashion (much like Twilight's first kiss scene) were tremendously disappointing.  Especially the end.  Um, WHAT?  Are you freaking kidding me?  The ending should have been so easy to figure out how to make work. But they didn't.  It was way too awkward to see it end that way, knowing full well its true way.
 
The Good

Alice, Jasper, Carlisle, Emmett---The best good vampires in the whole film.  Just seeing Alice her leaping over the rail at school was enough for me to say she was pretty perfect.  THIS was the Alice I pictured.  Dancing her way around, as Bella always said she did in the book.  Jasper FINALLY got some more screen time, and pleasant ones too!  "It'd be great not to want to kill you all the time." Priceless!  I loved how they finally did integrate his power into the movie, though it should have been introduced in Twilight.  *shakes fist at Catherine Hardwick*

The Breakup Scene---True, I wish the build-up was more involving Edward's cold nature towards Bella.  It wasn't....dramatic enough, him leaving.  It made his decision to leave look too much instantaneous when there was no proper build-up.  Bleh.  BUT...I did like the actual scene. I actually was expecting it be more butchered than it was, but it totally worked for me.  They kept in a lot of vocal exchanges between the two, and Robert Pattinson's general boringness as Edward (sorry, but he's very boring.  But Bella is too, just to be fair) worked to his advantage here. Cold and uncaring.  No hint of remorse or regret for leaving.  He played it out exactly as I pictured it being played out when I read the book.  I wanted to smack him simply for being male when I read the scene. And yep, that feeling existed still when I watched it.  As I said, I expected it to be chopped further than what it was.  For instance, after he leaves, I was expecting her to just collapse to the ground where she stood and then be there until dark to be found by Sam.  It would have taken off a couple of minutes from the movie, and knowing Hollywood, that's exactly what they'd want.  Anything to shorten a movie.  But nope.  She actually went after him in a daze of sorts, all the way until nightfall.  It was very well executed, I think. I do also wish that the aftershock of the breakup was more focused on too, like Bella frantically searching for the stuff Edward hid from her.  Oh blah. Still, I was well done what they used.  Pass.

The Party Scene---Even seeing it in the previews, I had a suspicion it would be fairly accurate to the book's version of it.  There's not much to express on the idea.  It was literally straight out from the book, save a couple minor, but acceptable tweaks (Emmett and the radio, for instance).  I still find the whole paper cut thing very dumb, even in the book, but oh well.  I would have accepted a tweak there.  I can't believe that Jasper would be that crazy over a trickle of blood, but be totally unfazed when she was gushing from her femoral artery in "Twilight."  It didn't work. But alas, it was still accurate, and that's what matters.  Even Edward's rather careless tossing of her across the room into the glass table was perfect.  Talk about d'oh!  Jasper still reacting harshly, fighting his family to get at her.  Alice being swayed too by the gash on her arm.  It was all very well done. Pass.

The Movie Scene---Haha it was all very enjoyable for me.  For reals.  I still chuckle at it.  Jacob with his juvenile arrogance and Mike with his quiet desperation, though very, very sick.  Just as humorous as the book.  I can't believe they even kept the whole hand thing in there.  It was so cutely awkward.  And Mike being sick with stomach flu was priceless.  The actor pulled it off with amazing colors.  In fact, he's just as perfect for his role as Charlie.  Simply perfect.   It was playing out soooo very well.  And they kept Jacob's, "What a marshmallow!" quote.  I loved that!  In fact, his whole quote was in there.  "You should hold out for someone with a stronger stomach.  Someone who laughs at the gore that makes weaker men vomit."  It was quite the treat to hear him say it.  The rest of the scene was definitely tweaked, but it was acceptable.  Why? Because the basic gist was there.  I didn't need an exact replica.  I got good chunks of it and dealt with what was missing.  Bella and Jake waiting for him and talking.  Jake reaching for hand early on, instead of while they sat as the book said. Perfectly acceptable because it was still so cute.  (Sigh. I love it when they do that, especially when you like them, even if you deny you do).  It was all so sweet, just like the book. Pass*

*This same scene, while progressing very nicely, ended it badness.  Like horrible badness.  Wrongness.  So wrong.  It was going so perfectly and stopped so abruptly in a way it should never have been stopped.  WRONG!! But this isn't the section for badness yet.  

Jacob Black---I'm not even saying this because I'm a "Team Jacob" person.  I love his character in the book and in the movie.  He's flippin' awesome.  Way cooler than Edward.  Much more interesting.  Kudos to Taylor Lautner, though.  I thought he did an amazing job with what he had to work with, and it was VERY obvious that this young man is putting in the most effort into his character, physically and mentally, than everyone else.  I read in interview after interview that he read up on the books, truly studying the character.  And it shows.  It really does show.  I was quite impressed at how all his efforts paid off, that he wants to really be the Jacob Black as fans imagined him to be.  Including the jerkiness.  But see that's just it.  He's got the jerkiness as in the books, but yet somehow manages to still show those hints of remorse for being jerky or hurtful or whatever, just as in the books too.  It was so..surreal.  He embodies the Jacob Black from the books quite perfectly.  Sure, he's not as gargantuan as the book described him, but his persona more than made up for it in my opinion.  And quite frankly, the boy is beautiful to watch shirtless.  Damn that youth of his.  And damn this geezer age of mine.  Oh well.  He'll be legal soon enough and then it will be okay to admire his physique.  Pass.

The Old Bella Dream---The beginning of the movie, beginning of the book.  Perfect opening sequence and VERY awesome.  It was literally the beginning of the book lifted off the pages to me.  Maybe a few minor, yet great tweaks, (I like how Bella yelled out to him not come out, that he'll be seen) but definitely the same spirit of the scene.  It actually gave me the shivers seeing an elderly Bella on screen with a much improved sparkly Edward.  Even a little scary to witness (for her sake).  That could have anyone's nightmare pretty easily.  And if that's the old woman from the movie "The Happening," that's probably why it was creepier.  It was actually one of the most perfect scenes from the whole movie.  When it was over, I thought to myself.  "Perfect."  Admirable that there was at least one they wanted to get right, and to me, they did. Major pass.

Jane---Everyone had their doubts about Dakota Fanning being brought on board, mostly because she's a little older than how she's described in the book, but I'm sure those same people are shutting their pie holes up for good now that they can experience her.  What an absolute PERFECT casting choice for Jane.  That beautiful, youthful innocence in her face coupled with the most nasty of vampire powers.  This vampire is FIERCE in the book, and dammit, she's freaking fierce in the movie too.  So cold and calculating, like everything's just a game for her.  Oh man, she was just so right-on.  If there's any other word synonymic to "perfect," it belongs to Dakota Fanning's Jane.  Pure awesome.  Pass.

The Volturi---They were actually pretty cool!  Especially Aro, the leader.  Michael Sheen brings him to life much better than I anticipated.  Aro in the book is always so eerily patient with things, calm and cool, and always so easily fascinated by things that are out of the norm for him.  He's almost like a child discovering things for the first time and celebrating the coolness of it.  Aro is exactly this way in the movie.  The whole, "Ha ha ha! How fascinating yay!" vibe is very obvious and very cool.  His lighthearted exuberance is even kind of bubbly, like you'd be a fool to be afraid of him, even though you should.  And this is exactly how he is supposed to be.  Marcus was great too.  Bored as he always is supposed to be.  The others were great too, though I don't remember who was who.  Yay for Colossus being a big brawny vampire!! Very cool, the Volturi. Pass.

Edward's Apparition---It worked.  I'm no fan of Edward, not really, but if I was, I would have been grateful to see him and not just hear him.  I appreciate the filmmakers integrating him into the storyline a little better without straying too far away from the whole point of the book:  the introduction of Jacob's more involved presence.  You still get to hear his voice, but being able to see a sort of spirit of him sort of made it something we could all witness along with Bella.  It totally worked.  It was cool to see him brooding around all sad that she's being reckless. Serves him right!  Pass.

Bella's Cliff Dive---It was both good and bad.  But this is the good section.  It's the scene we all wanted to see unfold before our eyes.  And it was awesome to see it.  It didn't look as corny as I thought it would, and it was a pleasant surprise to see Victoria in there with her.  At least glimpses of it.  The way the book describes the scene is a little more...confusing I guess. Drawn out beyond the actual scene in upcoming pages.  But for the movie, it was a little more simple and to the point, bringing it all together instead of something to be discovered later, like Victoria for instance. It was the most fitting place for Edward's apparition too, because unless I'm mistaken, it was one of the moments where Bella saw his face before she thought she was going to die.  And I loved how they kept those few lines there.  "You wanted me to be human. Watch me." More Eddie begging.  "You won't stay with me any other way." So in these ways, it was very well done.  Pass.

The Almost Kiss---Awww freaking cute.  Just like the book.  Hand on face, near lip contact.  Only they had them go a little closer in the movie.  Which was great; though I love when the finally do kiss, I did not want it to happen in this movie.  But alas, the rest of the scene was bleh.  I'll cover that later.

Laurent---Hmm...he reminded me a little a more suave Jack Sparrow hehe.  I liked it.  It was cool to see his death instead of just being told about it.  We get to see glimpses of it.  I liked that.  At first I thought he would straight away put up a fight, but instead, they still had him react in shock to the wolves and then flee, just like it was done on the pages.  I guess to make things interesting, they had Laurent attempt to fight them (appreciated more than expected), but to no avail.  The scene itself that led up to his death was for the most part, satisfactory.  Much of the dialogue was straight from the book too, but---and I can't believe I'm saying this---it felt a little too rehearsed.  Too MUCH from the book and not enough improvisation.  The flow of it seemed off, like it was a well-thought out plan rather than something that was supposed to be happening sporadically. There weren't enough delays or hesitations.  The show Gilmore Girls was alot like that too.  Almost like the characters' interactions were never really genuine.  No emotional response to anything, just plain rehearsal.  It's evidence that the characters were merely expecting what the other person was going to say and had an already pre-conceived response to it.  That was how this meadow scene felt to me.  I don't know if that makes sense.  It's not enough to make this bad, however, just....could have been better, but still good.  Pass.   

The Adrenaline Junkie---At first I sort of sneered at the thought of Bella's first brush with danger taking place with men with motorcycles.  It's not at all like the book.  But now that I've seen it, I understand it, and you know what?  I liked it better.  I suppose just walking over to a bunch of strange guys isn't as dangerous as walking over to jump on a motorcycle with one.  It made it a little more intense, I think.  A major tweak that went well for me.

The Bad

The Movie Scene---If memory serves, this is pretty much where the movie started going very wrong.  So wrong.  The concluding portion of this scene left my eyebrows a bit furrowed.  I was thinking, "Wait stop....this isn't right!! This can't be happening! Don't do this!"  Just as quickly as Jake was being all sweet to Bella telling him how he'd never hurt her, he suddenly snaps in anger at the sickened Mike, like grrrr, I have a beast in me, I must go home too! And then he leaves, leaving Bella and Mike all puzzled and confused.  No, no, NOOOOO!!  That was a cruel and careless end to what was supposed to be a much more tender scene between Bella and Jake! And it was ruined. RUINED!! Jake gets all huffy at Mike and just leaves?  WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?  The book's scene of this is so different, but so much more meaningful. What was the difficulty in letting it all roll out the right way? I mean, they started it out brilliantly and then closed the scene like THAT? Bella was to drive Mike home in his vehicle while Jake followed.  Then Bella hops into Jake's vehicle where more honesty was revealed about Jake's intentions.  There's that whole line of "I know you've been hurt all the time" etc etc.  His temp would skyrocket, she'd suggest he gets home, yells at him to call as he pulls off.  And then he never calls.  Oh, but I guess they just had him spurt out the whole "I'll never hurt you" stuff while at the movies just to "get it out of the way" and then have him run off like his inner hulk was about to explode. Ugh...NO!  So stupid.  And such a freaking waste.  UTTER AND RIDICULOUS FAILURE.

The Almost Kiss Interruption---I didn't care for the phone call scene at all.  I loved that they kept the phone to interrupt, but to have Jacob KNOW it was Edward and then hang up? And then Alice stroll back in a second later? Nooooooooo.  He shouldn't have had a clue it was Edward, but answer the question, and then hang up (after getting hung up ON) He was to have thought it was Carlisle.  Bella would have gotten mad, he'd have gotten huffy back. And then, only THEN should Alice have come in.  She was supposed to have asked Jake what was said, and then collapse when she knew it was Edward. It would have dramatized the entire scene.  Added the "Oh God, no!" weight to it. Ugh, those freaks screwed it all up.  FAIL.

Pacing---It didn't flow too nicely in too many areas.  Scenes jumped from one to next without much feeling of transition or lapse of time.  It made it all a little less believable to me.  I can't remember too many right now; I just know they're there.

Acting---Not much has improved with the two central characters.  Kristin's great when it comes to having nightmares or seizures or having extreme outbursts of pent up emotion, but when it comes to more subtle requirements, I don't think she has it.  I find it very difficult to believe she's in pain over something.  There's no tears, no real breaking of voice.  Unless, of course, she's screaming or talking very loud.  Bella has absolutely no personality whatsoever; I really don't see what either Edward or Jacob see in her.  Robert's not too grand either, in my opinion.  He's just too boring.  But you know what, I guess Edward's pretty boring in the book too, so in that sense, Rob's fairly fitting for the role.  That's why I like Jacob so much more.  He sparkles much more than any other vampire simply because he's more interesting.

The Crucial Absences---I'm talking scenes.  Major scenes that so needed to be there, but weren't, and for no reason I can think of.  They wouldn't have even been long scenes.  Most of these crucial scenes could have been pulled off in a few seconds worth of time for each scene.  Maybe all of them could have been put in for an extra 10 minutes.  Heck, even 5 more minutes.  Like I said, I don't expect literally EVERYTHING in the book to come alive for me, and I highly appreciate what DID come alive for me.  But I can't shake the ones that should have been there, simply for the sake of drama.  Like for instance...

• No visit to empty Cullen house?  I know that she's depressed over it.  But I didn't FEEL it.  Was this left out because they felt we the people would have gotten the point that she was saddened?  I didn't.  I mean, I know it already since I've read the book, but come on.  To see her willingly go to their abandoned house with overgrown weeds would have really added weight to their absence and it wasn't there.  She could have driven there or walked...got a quick glance of it and just break down in tears or something. Anything.
• Any OTHER scenes that involve Bella and Jake's interactions, like her attempting to find the meadow with him, or her telling him he can keep a bike in return for his lessons and hard work.  What they had was definitely cute, but they needed more.  Something else that can lead one to believe that this will be a true love triangle.  Heck, even some smidgen of proof that she truly intended to hide it from Charlie in the first place. I got the impression that she found these reckless only because Edward's apparition thinks so, and not because of Charlie.  I didn't get the feeling that she was trying to hide anything from him at all.  It made the whole motorcyle thing a little pointless.  The freaking ending of the movie didn't help much either! But I'll cover that later.

The Motorcyle Scene---Oh it was cool in some ways, but in more ways kinda eh.  I wanted to see more trial and error on her part.  Have the bike fall on her as it did in the book.  In the movie, it's actually not even surprising that she crashed because Jake was horrible teaching her (in the movie).  He didn't stress anything to her and poof there she goes flying into the rock already. It ended far too quickly.  There was not much reaction to her blood either. It was all like,  "Oh okay, you cut yourself badly, that sucks. Here take my shirt and blot it on your forehead, but let's not do anything else and end the scene right here."  WHAT??  No stitches? No gauze? No nothing?  That's it?  See, if they had implied somewhere in there that Charlie would hate that she had motorcyles, they could have shuffled around doing whatever they could to change their story. Make their friendship a little more fun, like a secret club.  Sigh. Fail.

Bella's Gash---I can't reiterate it enough.  Talk about wow.  She heals pretty fast.  Again, totally unrealistic transition of scenes.  One scene, she's bloody and talking about how beautiful Jake is and the next, she's having lunch with her friends in the cafeteria again. Totally would have been fine if she wasn't supposed to have hurt her head earlier.  So it didn't work!  They might as well just have left out the motorcyle thing altogether if they weren't going to utilize it the way it was supposed to.  The ending made this sooo much worse, but I haven't gotten there yet.  FAIL.

Bella's Cliff Dive---There's no storm?  No raging wind and rain to make her choice to leap...errr, excuse me WALK off the cliff a little more crazy?  Heck, she never even asked if Jake would take her diving at all in the first place.  It made the whole concerned for her safety thing a little more watery than it should have been.  If they had her ask him to take her while they saw the pack doing it, he would have said "okay, some day." And that was it.  They could have had a sudden storm swoop in while the pack was hunting for Victoria and Bella was on the cliff.  It would have fallen into place the exact same way, except with the details that so needed to be there.  Jake would have saved her as usual, and just stressed the fact that she ought not to do anything like that again when he's not around.  It would have worked.  Fail.

Bella's Rush to Volterra---Yes, it's fast and spur of the moment in the book.  But the movie's depiction of the desperation was pathetic.  Where's the tension? The anxiety? "The oh my God, we have to move for reals!"  There should have been more running around like crazy, the desperate clawing at a junk drawer for a paper to scrawl a sloppy note to Charlie about having to leave. It would have been just 10 more seconds.  And okay fine, if you don't want to do that, how about some more stuff on the plane with Alice?  Have her be concentrating like normal, telling Bella about Edward's plans, etc, rather than just have them arrive in Italy five minutes after they leave Washington.  I know we all know the flight would have taken longer, but as I said, it doesn't feel that way. The transition was tacky and forced.  Flat out dumb.  Fail.

The score/soundtrack---I'm a score lover.  Anyone who knows me well knows how much I LOVE certain movie music.  But this one sucked all around.  ALL OF IT.  It's one of the most hated things I have towards the movie.  I hated the score. I hated the stupid songs playing in the background.  STOP the freaking singing already and shut off the sappy tunes! Just let the scene play out for ONCE, dammit.  Let it play out and let the words being spoken be the fuel of it.  Let the drama we SEE be what draws us in, not that damn music that's seeming out to MAKE us feel something for the scene.  Way too distracting when I didn't want it to be.  Way too corny too.  It drowned out whatever intensity was supposed to be there.  It was as if they were desperate to make the scenes meaningful by chucking in some lame songs and even lamer music.  Twilight's score was more grown-up, more ominous. Mysterious.  Brooding.  But this score was crap.  Why couldn't they just integrate a little of those original tunes in this one?  Gosh I hated it all.  HATED IT!!!!  FAILURE!!

Sam's Cult---Really? Is that what that was?  Because they just seemed like a bunch of guys to me.  There was not enough focus on Jacob's fear of Sam's gang of guys.  There was no inner turmoil about any of it.  Sure, there was the rather tiny speech he told Bella while she was watching them cliff dive, but that was it.  From that speech alone, we were supposed to be led to believe that those guys were trouble, that they were a cult that corrupted the innocence of young boys. So it made Jake's "fall" to wolf a little less....meaningful.  Bella's anger with Sam and the guys didn't seem to have much merit either because of this.  Blah, there just should have been more interaction with the guys so we can better know who they were before they became who they are.  The only reason I can think of is to spare the movie further complications, but still.  Fail.

The Ugly

Volterra Intervention---So Eddie's pretty shaken up about Bella's apparent death.  He wants to make a scene in front of humans so the Volturi can have an excuse to kill him.  He strips himself of his shirt, (eww) getting ready to step into the sun while all along, Bella's running towards him in desperation, calling out his name to stop him.  In just the nick of time, she manages to jump at him.  That's all well and good. Just like the book, though a little too quick.  But then, under the shock of her presence, he falls backward into...well, the inside of the Volturi's building.  Um, LAME.  And then he suddenly goes into his famous speech about why he left, how he was so surprised she believe him so easily.  All of this and they weren't even out of the woods yet?  All of this speech never took place until they were back overseas in the comfort of Bella's room.  But nope!  They felt it better to put it in Volterra which made it incredibly stupid.  Oh! And then, Felix and Demetri are just sort of....there.  Then Jane's sort of...there.   The ominousness of the alleyway where all of these vampires are clothed in dark robes to make their entrance is gone.  Fail.

Alice's Vision---Okay the future vampire Bella and Edward frolicking through the forest?  WOW...

The End---There was no fulfilling "reunion" between Edward and Bella.  The whole thing was just....so screwed up. So choppy and sloppy.  Nothing of any significance, not by what I saw anyway.  Pretty much because one of the crucial speeches was rushed and had already taken place in Italy.  So back home the two of them were sort of...thrown back together and there wasn't any sort of melodrama at all.  Hell, not even the supposed "argument" between when to turn Bella had any meat in it.  They disagree once and then bam, they're at the Cullen's doing the vote, which was still pretty well played out, but still so freaking rushed.  Most of the pieces were definitely in place, but none of them created the actual puzzle.  They were just laying there, scattered.  Unorganized.  Useless.  What's worse???  Jacob's final scene. So Eddie's driving with Bella and then Jacob just...randomly standing in the road looking kind of dumb.  Um, WHAT THE HELL?  No bikes at Charlie's house?  No angry Charlie?  No feisty Bella about Jake's betrayal?  Would it have been SO difficult to have the truck pull up to some trees and see the bikes visible?  And THEN have Jake randomly standing there? Oh, but then again, as I said before....the sheer recklessness of the bikes was never established, probably for this purpose.  Just so the importance of them can be tossed aside.  So now Jacob's desperation to keep Bella isn't really there anymore.  His attempt to get her grounded as a means of keeping her away from Edward does not exist.  And her anger at him for this is not there. Tacky. 

And then...THEN!!!  Just after the little scuffle between Edward and Jake (one that does not exist in the book, but one that was perfectly okay for me in the movie), Edward suddenly decides to negotiate a little more with her.  While in the forest.  Nevermind the fact that she's hurting over Jacob's departure.  Let's just awkwardly continue on in a pathetic attempt to negotiate her transformation.  While in the forest.  He asks gives her one condition for him to change her.  While in the forest.  He then proposes to her.  WHILE IN THE FOREST. What.  The.  Hell.  New Moon's end does NOT stop at his proposing her.  This is NOT the most crucial, closing moment in this book.  This book's point all along was the painful relationship and revelation between Bella and "her Jacob."  The proposal should have taken place in her room, along with all the pretty speeches.  But they shoved it all in these other scenes where other moments should have been happening.  They part ways and Bella faces her angry father with Edward by her side, ready to face her next dilemma.  The crucial moment was supposed to have been between Bella and Jacob.  There should have been tension.  Anger.  Sadness.  Intense emotion.  I suppose it was still there in a way...but now that they had this movie ended up with a "Marry me" as the final line, so much of it had to be put aside.  Bella marrying Edward is NO BIG DEAL. But Bella facing her fate with her destiny at her side, THAT was the big deal and this movie FAILED in delivering that.

As one can quite plainly see, I had SO many thoughts on this movie. This is like...the longest review ever.  Probably not even really a review.  Just me breaking things down that I liked and disliked, and it's probably not everything I can think of.  I did NOT hate it by any means. I loved it more than I hated it.  In fact, I loved the movie, but hated parts of it.  And the things I hated, I admit, is because I know and love the book, but hated knowing that good stuff was left out.  I found it insanely awesome and I appreciated seeing so many of those scenes that I never thought I'd see.  I suppose I ought to be grateful for that and not be so wrapped up in what was missing or what was too much altered.  I just hope that "Eclipse," the 3rd book will be safe from too much butchering. It is my favorite, and I'm hoping the movie will be just the same.  But alas, I will still be worried.  Which of my favorite scenes will get the ax?  I'll find out next year.

...alright. 

SPOILERS PRESENT

I enjoyed Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk a whole lot better, though, especially Iron Man.  I so love Tony Stark.  He's a player, yeah, but wow is he ever funny.  You can spear me and gut me if you want for not praising the movie that seemingly the whole country is praising, but it's true.  I just don't get into these modern Batman movies as much as everyone else does. Fixation on the Batmans of old, perhaps?  Bleh, but after Batman Returns, they got a little weird, so that can't be it.  I know they weren't great movies, but I remember them so well.  I grew up with them.  My sisters and I friggin' kissed the screen when Michael Keaton's face was on it.  Gah, I so wish I knew why these movies don't work for me.  I so want them to work! Everyone else out there is lovin' on them but me, I'm like, "Yeah. Shrug."  I just miss that "playfulness" about the older Batman's.  These ones are just way too serious for me.  But hey, at least I don't think it sucked.  It didn't suck.  Not at all. Still...I don't see what the big fuss is all about, if I can be perfectly honest.  Sure it was good.  Sure it was entertaining.  At least, some of it was. 

Honestly, though, for like the first half of the movie I was incredibly bored.  I was thinking, "Gawd, can't I get at least ONE intense scene here? I might as well be yawning here."   Too much mumbo jumbo and confusing jargon that just lost my attention.  But that proves another point:  my mind is not programmed to accept a serious Batman movie.  It didn't for Batman Begins (which I actually wasn't fond of at all), and it hardly did for The Dark Knight.  It's already programmed to want the less dramatic ones.  So eh, I don't really blame the movie at all.  I blame myself and my purposeful rejection of a Batman who's not fun to watch.  I suppose that's because of my seemingly deeply rooted, still-existent lack of interest in an overly serious Batman movie.  It's my understanding that these movies are so wonderfully praised because of their close similarity to comics, dark and brooding.  If I were a fan of the comics, I sense I'd be lovin' on this movie right alongside all the other geeks out there, and I mean "geeks" in a good way.  I so wish I can be just as excited about a comic book movie gone right as everyone else out there! I like that it went right, but how would I know what's right anyway?

So I don't think my opinion on the movie should really count in anyone's eyes.  I only know of the Batman presented to me in the movies of old, and that's the only Batman I cared to know.  I liked him.  I liked the Batmobile and the batcave and all his bat vehicles.  I liked all the bats being around him like they were his pets.  I still don't think this movie sucked at all, though.  I found it good, better than the first.  Honestly, the only reason I even wanted to see this one was to see Heath's Joker.  None of the previews and trailers--seriously, not ONE--garnered much of my interest.  I was like, "Oh, okay, the next Batman. Go Heath. You're a dirty-looking Joker, but hey, love ya anyway. Yawn."  There was nothing too impressive action-wise in the trailers, nothing that made me think, "Wow I MUST see this."  Unfortunately, that also became the only aspect I truly enjoyed on the screen.  Any time Heath was on there, I was just fixated on him and his performance, trying to comprehend why this role was something he was so focused on getting right that he sacrificed much of his own personal way of thinking to get into character.  But when he wasn't there, I was like, "Blah. Booooring."  I hated that, but loved it at the same time.

I suppose I just have a grudge against The Dark Knight after Heath died.  Heath's Joker was freakishly real, probably the best depiction of Joker, as people out there keep claiming.  Not that I don't believe them, but for me, it's a fairly new thing to think of Joker as sadistic, but hey...I didn't read comics, so if that's the way he's supposed to be, then great.  He certainly pulled it off well.  Like overly well.  What a fantastic actor.  What a crazy Joker.  While I was yearning to see if his talent paid off, it still kinda ticks me off all the more.  At the creators.  At this movie. At the comics. At the obsessive fans.  Heath's obsession with bringing to life such a psychotic character like this certainly showed on screen, but I hate wondering if that obsession warped his mind into bad judgments that would thus lead to his death.  Yes, I have a grudge against this movie because of it. Frankly, I don't think this wonderfully psychotic joker that every fanboy wanted was worth the death of such a versatile actor that could have had friggin' Johnny Depp getting a run for his money.  If only they chose someone else for such a role.  Someone else who wouldn't have put so much of themselves physically and mentally into it.  Seriously, are you happy now?  You've got your wonderfully psychotic Joker in his fullest, brought to life all prim and proper.  But look at the price that was paid. 

So you see, as much I can like this movie or can friggin' LOVE Heath's involvement in it, I hate the fact that it was so overly serious.  What if the Joker was a little less disturbingly devilish and a little more...a jokester? How would Heath have worked the role then?  Would he have focused on being so cold, uncaring, and evil?  Blah.  Everyone wanted it, and now they got it.  An evil Joker who just happens to be the Joker everyone wanted.  He was great.  He really was.  What a freaking psycho that you just can't help but love because of it.  But I would have rather had an average Joker than a sadistic one if it meant we'd spare any emotional troubles of the brilliant man who'd bring him to life.  Blah.  But that's what everyone's talking about is Joker and how Heath's portrayal will forever go unmatched.  I for one happen to love Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face just the same as Joker.  He too was friggin' awesome, more scary than Joker because you don't know what the hell he's gonna do when he leaves everything to chance.  The Joker is clever in his schemes, but you somehow always know in which direction he'll lean.  Two-Face, on the other hand, can go either way.  Will he show mercy?  Will he not?  And that freaking face of his, WOW.  What excellent...EXCELLENT visuals there.  I absolutely loved how he looked, and was surprised his role was more than just a couple of minutes.  I hope to goodness he'll return so I can have a new reason to watch the next movie.

At any rate, I know this isn't really a review of the movie.  As always, I think I'll need to see it again to get a more informative take on it.  The plot was interesting when it was understandable, but so much of it dragged and got choppy that my interest kept fading in and out.  The action was droll and uninteresting to me.  I got too much of a "been there, done that" vibe from some of the scenes.  The flipping semi scene was blah and fake looking. I thought for sure it'd be cleaned up since the trailer.  Either way, I found the truck flipping scene in Terminator 3 to be far, FAR more cool than this one.  At least that one seemed plausible.  But this one was like...okay what...suddenly a trailer can defy gravity?  If anything, the truck itself should have flipped, and the trailer should have plummeted into it accordion style.  Even if it was possible for the truck's bed to flip over perfectly into the air, it wouldn't have been that clean looking.  There was no weight to it.  It looked like a paper truck or something.  Yah, it's nitpickiness, but still.  Just didn't look right to me.  My friend all commented how "tight" it was that Batman did this weird flip thing to turn himself around after the trailer got flipped, but I thought it was too cartoonish.   *shrug* Oh well.  I'll give it 2 stars out of 4 as a regular movie.  But Heath's Joker and Aaron's Two-Face being present in this movie can give it one more star to make it 3 out of 4. 

Bale is awesome as Bruce Wayne, but as Batman, far too clunky.  He looked strange in costume, too stoic.  And I cannot STAND the growly voice he makes when he's in costume. I get why he does it, I really do, but it just seemed too forced.  Too purposeful.  Too obvious that he's disguising his voice like he's trying too hard.  And it was just flat-out annoying after awhile. I got tired of him talking when he was Batman.  Still, as I said, Bruce Wayne was funner.  And sexier.  I loved that Katie Holmes was nowhere to be found (yay!!) and thought Maggie's portrayal was much more convincing.  Seriously, if Katie stuck around, how would that have worked?  She was way too young to begin with.  Could you have imagined her dating Aaron's Harvey Dent?  Or even in the interrogation room trying to be tough?  No.  Not to mention the fact that she too is very annoying to watch.  Nothing against Katie, though.  She's a pretty girl (I guess), but her voice is grating and that sideways smile is like...*groaaaaaan* The only role I liked her in was "Disturbing Behavior," but I sense that's because she was so much different than her Dawson's Creek character.  Seriously.  Anywhere I see her it's like I'm watching the girl from Dawson's Creek, just stuck in the middle of another world.  She's always the same.  I wasn't really interested in this movie, but once I found out Maggie was there instead I was much more accepting. Too bad they killed her off, though.  But I guess that means a new female lead will come into play, and yay for it probably being Catwoman. Though dammit, that means someone will have to top Michelle Pfeiffer who'll be TOUGH to top. Grrr. Still, at least I'll have reason to see the next one again.

Oyyy, anyway....I'm rambling now.  The Dark Knight.  Worthy of a theatrical view, but nothing too fantastic for lindy.  My attention span just isn't there for this franchise.  *sigh*  I need more than just seriously dark drama.  Some movies I prefer the drama, and some movies I don't.  This one is definitely one where I don't.  Which sucks because apparently, Batman is SUPPOSED to be dark and serious, right?  Bleh.  Perhaps my mindset will change the more I see these movies.  Oh, but on the major plus side, the music was wonderfully spiffy.  That doesn't surprise me, though, since it's composed by two of my favorite composers: Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard.  Yay for movie scores!  So this one may just be the next movie on my score collection. 

Anyway...I'm sleepy. 

Ta-ta. 

So I saw Stephen King's "The Mist" on the Eve of Thanksgiving just after church.  And...well...WOW. What a movie.  What a freaking movie.  It started out kinda rough, and for awhile I thought the monster would be just one monster whose appendages were nothing fantastically new to gaze upon. Fortunately, the movie had more to it than meets the eye.  Apparently, I must have missed many of the TV spots with the trailers for this movie that had quick glimpses of the other monsters, because I sure as hell wasn't expecting all of those crazy critters.

SPOILER ALERT!

I'M DEAD SERIOUS. DON'T READ ANYMORE IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE BUT PLAN TO

Well anyway, as I said, what a freaking movie.  Not only were the monsters cool, (even though many were very obviously CG, but I'm not complaining) but the plot itself was cool.  It wasn't a horror movie just for the sake of being a horror movie.  And actually, the monsters weren't even really the point of this movie all. There was so much more going on than mere mist filled with creepy creatures.  In fact, they were more the catalyst of the movie instead of just the threat of the movie, something to trigger a series of events that were far more crucial to the plot, and that otherwise would never have been put to the test.

And that's actually what it seemingly was:  a test.  A test of humanity and their reactions to strange, mysterious, scary, or flat-out dangerous situations.  A "what would YOU do?" type of test.  Gradually, as their fear of the unknown begins to dominate them, many begin to lose their grip on whatever hope they may have had left, and in desperation for answers, will cling to whatever may make the most sense.  As the movie progresses, the real monsters begin to emerge, and they're not from the actual mist at all, but from within the deep recesses of the tormented souls of humanity.  Souls tormented by the dread of what they cannot comprehend.

Sometimes, I just love movies when they're not JUST gore-fests. Not that I don't appreciate some mindless monster killings every now and then, but once in a great while, I find it refreshing if there was more to a movie than that, something that arouses the mind to think beyond normal things.  This one is one to do it for me.  It's almost like a slap-in-the-face about how mankind can stoop so quickly to what he was before the luxury of technology and the like to solve his problems.  There's always a possibility that even the most primal of emotions can come out when all you have is you, your neighbor, and any sort of surrounding terror threatening your safety.  In this day and age, we have all sorts of solutions to our most greatest of fears. But what happens when those solutions are taken away from us? What happens when the solutions we DO come up with quickly begin to unravel before our very eyes and prove to be utterly useless? How long before we all break down?

This is pretty much what "The Mist" covers. It isn't at all just about some mysterious mist or the monsters that roam within its gloom.  This is about what people can do when they're overwhelmed with fear, doubt, uncertainty, and whatever else.  This is about what can happen if too many people lose focus, lose faith, and most importantly, lose all hope.  And already, most of the internet is already buzzing like friggin' worker bees over the insanely altered ending, which apparently is not at all how Stephen King ended it in his book.  But even King himself has approved of this new ending, claiming that he would have definitely made this his ending if he thought of it, and I can totally understand why he did.  The ending of this movie was absolutely crazy, but in a good way.  It defied all other movie endings out there, both the unpredictable and predictable alike.  This wasn't no mushy, gushy, feel-good, cheap Hollywood ending. This was a horror movie's ending in all its raw glory.  This was an all-out freaking GUTSY ending that, to me, was definitely a proper close to the entire message of the movie as a whole. 

Yes, it was horrible, yes it was disturbing, and yes, it was completely shocking and totally unexpected.  But damn, that's the very reason why it was great.  My sister was in shock and literally jaw-dropped. She couldn't say not a word even after the credits rolled.  But as disturbed as she was, even she preferred this movie ending to the book's ending.  This one surely broke the mold of movie endings.  There are plenty of people who despised this new ending and preferred the one in the book, in which the remaining bundle of people just drive off into the mist, not knowing what to expect and not knowing how far they'll go. And that's where it ends. No explanation and no closure.  It was apparently up to the reader to use their imaginations as to what could have happened.  But King offered nothing and left it all a mystery.  I love King and all, but damn, I'm glad that route wasn't taken for this movie. A movie with this deep of meaning and this much going on can't end so inexplicably.  I'm one to definitely want a REASON for what happened, or even what exactly happened at all.  This ending is a total 180 from the book's ending, something altogether different, something that definitely does make you think.  All you can ask is simply, "What would YOU do?"

What a great, great movie.

END SPOILERS!

Trans-freaking-FORMERS!

There's not really any major spoilers, but read with caution anyway.

It will be one I'll see a few more times, I'm sure.  I definitely want to see it again during the weekend with a more crowded theater, like a SATURDAY NIGHT LATE SHOW with a hell of a lot more people who are totally ready to get more into the film than the boring-ass crowd we had.  Granted, my showtime was 6:05 p.m. which is the first evening show and not as popular as later shows, expecially on a weekday, but come on...opening day? And not even a crowded theater?  It just wasn't one that packed tons of people like I expected.  It seemed to have been totally lacking in Transformer geeks and was overloaded with CHILDREN who shouldn't even know of the existence of Transformers, and old people who didn't seem to care either way. Where's MY generation, dammit? Where's all the fellow 25 to 30 year olds who really give a crap about Transformers?  Though I believe my audience enjoyed themselves, they surely weren't too expressive about it.  I mean, this is TRANSFORMERS!  You need to get into it!  REACT to the scenes for crap's sake!  I'm not even a fan of the original Transformers and even I knew to get excited from this!  There was plenty of laughter, no doubt, but no real "ooohs" or "ahhhs" in reaction the freakingly awesome action there was.  Seemed to have just been me, my sister, and my friend reacting to the stuff.  My sister had her shares of "oohs!" and I had my shares of "YES!" and "freaking awesome!" and my friend had his shares of DAMN! and "This is off the CHAIN!"  So yes, I need to see this film with a much more engaging audience and not such duds. 

Either way, THIS is the summer blockbuster I was freaking waiting for.  Entertainment-wise and action-wise, it was way better than Pirates and Fantastic Four, (even though I still loved the both of them), but it absolutely OBLITERATED the repulsive odor that emanated from that over-hyped Spidercrap that stunk up the place two months ago.  But it's not like THAT was too difficult to achieve.  Sure, there are definitely worse movies than Spiderman 3, and I'll probably still end up getting it on dvd just for the sake of completing the failed franchise, but this year in comparison to all the others?  It's a turd of a movie.  A turd that needs a good flushing to the depths of the nastiest sewer with all the other turds.  I've read a few negative reviews about Transformers, some of which have very good points that I can agree with, but the action-starved movie-goer in me was perfectly willing to accept just mindless action, even it it IS all over the place.  Yah, some scenes were a little hard to follow, but you really just don't care sometimes cuz it's freaking robots beating the hell out of each other and being slick as hell doing it.  And I promise you, you're gonna wish you had your own Transformer...a REAL one. I had no idea that's all they do is scan things to Transform into them, ANYTHING that's electrical.  Is that a concept from the 'toons?  Either way....cooool. One day I could be driving my Matrix, and the next day I'll drive my Tiburon.  Can you imagine? Well, probably not, but....oh well...let the child in me who was starved of Transformers have a little fun here, won't you?

The Autobots were cool, the Decepticons cooler.  Especially Starscream the Jet, who I predicted would be my favorite just by the movie trailers.  My predictions came true, and he was definitely my favorite Decepticon, probably because I already love watching jets in movies.  And to have a jet that transforms into a robot in MID-FREAKING-AIR to shoot at other jets before transforming back to a jet again was a thing of great beauty.  He was awesome and I wish they had more of him in the film. He was a little underused, even though the scenes he WAS in were jaw-dropping.  I would have been just as ticked off as I was with Darth Maul at his underuse for the movie, but since he didn't die and was the main "trigger" for a sequel, I'll accept it.  He has plenty more opportunity to leave me in awe. Megatron was awesome too. So EVIL! And so disgusted with humanity, like people are towards insects!  I love it.  As I said, though, the Autobots were still cool in their own right.  I loved Prime and Bumblebee, even though I was so ready to love the others if there was more screen time with them doing what they do best.  Ratchet didn't do any medical things for his conrades, which was a little sad.  Of course the fight scenes between ALL the 'bots were just....you can't even find the words.  But you can't take your eyes off the screen either. It's like hypnotic.  And I KNOW I missed plenty of things, but a second or third viewing will get rid of that problem plenty quick.

I know this isn't really a proper review, but I just don't care.  Plus, I still have to fully grasp the adventure I just had, even if it'll take several more viewings. I had fun. Freaking fun.  Too much fun that even the blatantly obvious flaws and the ever-present annoyances, (like the overly long scene with Sam's parents and his hunt for the glasses, or ALL the scenes involving that Sector 7 guy who so totally got on my nerves rather effortlessly, in which I was glad Bumblebee chose to uh..."lubricate" him without thinking twice lol), simply cannot compare.  It'd be silly of me to see a Transformer movie and focus more on the non-Transformer parts. I'll just watch, enjoy, and look forward to more Transformers. And did I mention the freaking music score?  Wow that was just as awesome as the bots.  Really sucked you into the movie, that music. Really powerful, but not in-your-face-to-distract-you powerful.  The tension can really build for a scene just because of the music you hear. Amazing.  I love movie scores like that.  Bring on the sequel!!  And SOON!

Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer

I saw it twice this weekend, which says a lot.  I enjoyed it, and the audience gave a round of applause the first time around.

As a general moviegoer who knew absolutely NOTHING about the Fantastic Four, I actually LOVED the film. Obviously not perfect, and I do wish it was much longer (I hate when movies I'm seriously enjoying are too short) but still a great flick, a much better and entertaining ride than that Spidercrap 3.  Maybe it's because I'm clueless about the truth of FF, comic-wise, so am rather unaware what should or shouldn't have been present in the film, which pretty much means I'm capable of sucking up whatever they dish out, but eh I guess it worked.  I'm sure if I was a rabid F4 fan like I was for X-Men, I might have been singing a different tune, but thankfully this time around, I can enjoy myself without overly analyzing or complaining.  I can be like normal audience people who go to the movies just to have fun without having to overly expect anything.  And it's PG! Go friggin' figure. Of course, I'd prefer a darker "R" flick any day, but this one was still an awesome experience. 

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Mr. Fantastic was cool I guess, though it took the second viewing for it to occur to me that his clothes are stretching out when he stretches out.  Shouldn't that not have been the case?  Johnny burns his clothes when he flames up, Sue can't make her clothes invisible along with her, and Thing well...that's obvious.  So Mr. Fantastic shouldn't have the ability to stretch out his normal clothes like he can with his suit, right?   I think that's why the dance number for his bachelor party was a bit weird-looking, visually.  Too cartoony.  Now I'm wondering if part 1 was just the same. Gawsh, guess I gotta see it again. 

The Thing was cool, but I suppose there's nothing new you can add to him.  What was odd was that he can now manage to get on planes and sit on chairs in a bar, where before he broke beds and couldn't ride elevators. Did they forget how much he was supposed to weigh? And when he pounded the bar table, it didn't shatter. But I suppose I can just say he's learned to control his powers just like everyone else. 

Invisible Woman was semi-cool, but she was the least cool of all.  She had a few Mary Jane moments (when it comes to being annoying in her girliness) but it wasn't so excessive that it caused me to hate her.  Jessica Alba is, I'm sorry to say, not a good choice for the role.  I know I know nothing of the Fantastic 4, but from what I've seen in toons and comics, she's supposed to be a blonde girl with blue eyes.  A REAL blonde with REAL blue eyes, that is.  I thought it was a tad pathetic giving her blonde hair and totally fake-looking blue contacts. Was that the best they can do?  So eh, I didn't like the physical changes they made for her.  It was too desperate. They should have just been more careful when casting Invisible Woman, or should have just let Jessica stay the way she was. She's NOT a caucasian, no matter how much they try and hide that fact.  Even now, I can visualize Scarlett Johansson in the role.  I'm sure guys will gush over her just the same, right?

Johnny Storm was of course, still cool (or should I say hot?).  Wonderful eye candy, even with his shirt ON. Not that his chest wasn't nice to look at, but still.  But I don't wanna sound shallow like a guy.  I did love the evolution of his character, though I hope the change won't threaten too much of the boyishly juvenile traits I learned to love about him in the first place.  Not that the change was bad, of course, because as I said, I did love it.  I liked how he was finally beginning to realize that his actions and decisions matter to everyone else and not just himself, be them the wrong or right decisions.  And of course, his interaction with The Thing was peachy and squeaky clean.  Good freaking fun.  I particularly loved that line: "I just don't want to wake up one morning to find out your girlfriend was killed in a rockslide," which was of course in reference to Thing's relationship with Alecia.  Thankfully, there was plenty of banter between him and thing, like a sort of sibling rivalry, and it was great.

Dr. Doom was EH at best.  I would have been just fine if he wasn't in the film, to be perfectly honest.  Perhaps that's because he more "in the way" this time around hehe.  But then again, if he WASN'T in the film, I wouldn't have had that cool Doom/Surfer moment. Gawsh I LOVED that moment when he ticked the Surfer off and the Surfer turned around and gave him this "Oh no you didn't!" type of look before blasting him away.  But Doom just doesn't do it for me as a bad guy, not in this movie anyway. I'm sure there's much more to him, but they're certainly not giving up the reigns it seems!  He's kinda annoying, if I must admit.  Can someone enlighten me as to what kind of character he's supposed to REALLY be? Because I don't see the major threat. What ELSE is he supposed to be other than a guy with lightning? Because as of now, all I'm seeing is Dr. Christian Troy, a horny plastic surgeon who can't get enough sex.  But I guess I'll just have to do my research on the guy and see just why in the world is he such a big, bad villain.

Now as far as the Silver Surfer? OH MY FREAKING GOODNESS.  He was cool the first time around, and even cooler the second time around.  He has got to be the most awesome character I've seen in a freaking long time on the big screen.  The visuals were out of this world, much like his character is. He was just so, so...addictively cool. You couldn't take your eyes off him. I mean, you know he's not real, but something about him captures your attention. He was so smooth and elegant, no doubt thanks to whoever the guy is that's portraying him. Doug Jones I think his name is.  He was scary, yet gentle.  I loved when he penetrated Sue's force shield just to stare her down with that eery glare of his.  You can't help but wonder what he's thinking. Then when he protected her? Whew, I loved that.  Or, at least the girl in me did.  Not to mention what he looked like when he was OFF his board, too.  My gosh.  Freaking awesome make-up job they did on him.  He was like a living, male manequin.  Brilliant casting choice, brilliant visuals, brilliant make-up, brilliant character who's now gained more of my interest than even Spiderman and X-men.  Even the voice of Lawrence Fishburne was very cool to hear. He can actually sound pretty sexy when it's just his voice I hear.  Silver Surfer, where have you BEEN all my life?

I loved his character so much, that when he wasn't on the screen, I got antsy. Like, "Ugh, can I see Surfer again please?"  Not that I didn't want to see the rest of the movie, but I just loved watching him.  And it's not because oh he's a man who has muscles and may even appear to be kinda naked.  It's just because of his whole presence.  He was like my new Darth Maul, but in good guy form.  Obviously, not better than Darth Maul, but he had just the same coolness.  Surfer's got the advantage of getting his own movie, though, unlike Maul (sniffle)  I did hate how Doom got ahold of the board, thanks the Four knocking him off of it, because that just meant that it's less screen time with Silver Surfer on it strutting his stuff. And boy did he strut his stuff.  Not enough time strutting his stuff, to be honest!  Blah. I didn't care to see Doom ride around on that thing.  He didn't have that same "Wow" factor.  Wanted more Surfer!! Perhaps that too is why I was annoyed with Doom this time around.  Just getting in the way of Surfer's coolness.  But anyway, I cannot WAIT to see the Silver Surfer's spin-off.  Gawsh he ruled. RULED I SAY!

Now a lot of peeps seemed disappointed with Galactus, who, according to my only comic source DJ, is supposed to be this huge, giant Sentinel type thing.  And honestly, I'm kinda glad that they didn't go that route. I think it would have been too MUCH a stretch on the big screen, at least this soon in.  I think it would have been just TOO unrealistic. I mean, we're already accepting what we're being presented with, beings with superpowers, but a huge robot-like man trying to eat the earth? Eh.  Pushy.  I kinda liked the idea of the huge cosmic cloud getting to literally suck the earth into its gaping "mouth," or black hole, if you will. It still spoke volumes as to how much a threat Galactus was. He was big enough to kill earth, regardless of whether or not he had a form of a big man with a big helmet.  It just seems more "threatening" if the earth topples into a black hole that's actually trying to suck it in.  I don't think a huge purple robot sentinel thing would have been too menacing, or at least too convincing. This isn't Transformers ya know!  (not yet anyway )  But hey, that's just me.  It would have been cool if Galactus had more of a voice than an eery rumble, though, so he'd be more a "he" instead of "it," a freak of universal nature, but it's cool.  This film's Galactus was menacing enough even if you can't really see him. 

But anyway, I just loved it. And other than Spiderman 3 (I still can't forgive that atrocity! Grrr!), I found myself quickly thinking after I saw it the first time around, "Man, I gotta see that again!"  Which thankfully, I did.  I was supposed to see Pirates 3 today with my folks, but F4 had more convenient showtimes.  Such major fun.

Did I mention how much Silver Surfer ruled?!?

*cracks knuckles* 

As I said in my review on Countingdown.com, after seeing Pirates, I was sighing in relief. Sighing in FREAKING relief.  It did well in making me proud, much better than Spiderman, that's for sure.  Now of course, it definitely wasn't perfect and as almost all films in the world, it had its flaws.  But in this one's case, the flaws weren't so numerous enough that I hated the movie.

We saw a 10 pm show opening night, and even when we still had 45 minutes 'till showtime, the theater was already getting crowded.  I'm like "Niiiiiice." Of course there was this obnoxious guy at the front row who insisted on telling us all to "Shut the f--- up" so the usher can make his announcement about keeping cell phones off and such.  People were all gasping and stuff, and a mother was like, "I have my 3 year old daughter here!"  But his obnoxiousness continued on, even after the usher made his speech. He was like, "Y'all hear that?!?"  Then this other guy in the audience just shouted out, "SHUT UP!"  Thankfully, someone else in the audience informed a nearby manager, who proceeded to walk in with an intimidating gait, which promptly shut the obnoxious guy up for the movie.

But anyway, back to the point...

THERE WILL BE PLOT SPOILERS HEREAFTER! I'm serious! You have been WARNED!

'Twas simply a great, entertaining movie.  Darker than the previous two, and with such crazy surprises!  Literally ANYTHING goes now.  Anything can happen.  I of course have to see it a few more times before I can fully get a grip on the newest plotlines, as I did with part 2, but still...I was very pleased.  As I said in my formerly posted review, it did what it was supposed to do: be a concluding chapter of a franchise without leaving too many ends loose.  And it wasn't supposed to be anything more than that.  This was a PART 3, the next chapter of one big story.  It's not a standalone and it should never be treated as such.  I wouldn't say it's better than the previous installments, but see, it wasn't really meant to be.  Now don't get me wrong, it's great when part 3's of franchises are the most intense additions yet, but if too much of what made the original ones great is sacrificed to get there, it's not really worth the love.  Like that Spiderman 3 crap.  It was supposed to be the most intense, most action-packed one, but WITHOUT the sacrifice of what made the first two great.  I still grumble about Spidey 3. *sigh*

Visuals--I absolutely LOVED the visual effects in Pirates 3, but then again, is it possible to NOT love them?  Okay I admit, I do miss the sea beast, the Kraken, and the heavy additions of Davey Jones' insanely awesome crew because I'm a sucker for monsters like that.  Giant squids, dinosaurs, you name it.  Unfortunately, the Kraken's role was played out in part 2, and we see his corpse on a beach in this one. I'm like, "Aww man."  I honestly wanted more of that beast.  I wish they explained how he got there, why he died, and why he wasn't used as yet another tool in taking out the biddings of the East India Trading Company.  After taking out ships including The Black Pearl and our beloved Jack Sparrow to Davey Jones' locker, he deserved SOME bit of explanation of his death.  But that's nothing too major. Just my monster and creature lover wanting more of a good thing.  But yes, the visuals in this one were stunning. Very stunning. Especially the wonders "at world's end."  Frozen shores and seas, monstrous waterfalls, floating ghosts, and Jack Sparrow's crab friends.  Let's not forget to mention the wondrous Davey Jones and his crew, still looking as fantastically real as ever. We got to see Davey do a direct kill this time around, shoving his tentacled beard into every single hole in his victim's face.  WONDERFUL.  I especially liked the newest addition to his crew, a man with a moray eel as a head.  Gosh that was freaking cool. And of course, the visuals of even the basic ships was something magical.  I wish there was indeed more ship-to-ship conflicts in the final battle instead of just the two main ships going head on around a whirlpool, but that's okay, and certainly forgiveable.  Just one of those things that gets your mouth watering without actually quenching the thirst.  While you're mad that you're still thirsty, at least it was enough to MAKE you thirsty.

Plot--Yes, it indeed had one, the main one continued from Dead Man's Chest, and of course, a few new ones. Yes, it can get confusing and difficult to keep straight, but this is why LINDY loves them.  If the rest of the world can't understand it without even trying to, then that's their loss.  I mystl don't want a Pirate movie to be too simple.  I've accepted it as more than that.  I'll have to see it a few more times to be absolutely certain of the plotline, but I'll see what my memory serves me.  I can't remember every single detail, but from what I gathered, the East India Trading company mercilessly pursues its mission to eliminate the world of piracy, with the help of Davey Jones, and it does that by obviously slaughtering every one of them. Upon hanging a massive group of them, a young boy, who's holding a mysterious coin, begins to sing a song that all the other would-be pirate victims join in unison to sing. Apparantly, the song (through the coin) somehow triggers the remaining pirate world about their impending doom, and thus causes them to have to gather at a certain place to go to war.  Each pirate "lord" has a piece of a sort of puzzle that must be reunited at their gathering, Jack Sparrow being one of the lords.  So hence, Jack and Elizabeth have to save Jack to get what he's got.  Now of course, we still have the plotline of Will wanting to free his father, of Jack wanting to "run away" with his beloved Pearl, Barbosa wanting to take back the Pearl, etc etc.  You basically just have several stories surrounding a single one:  War with the East India Trading Company for the salvation of Pirates. 

The couple of plotlines I did NOT care for, though, was that of Calypso, a sea goddess who turns out to be the woman Davey Jones fell in love with. Who is Calypso in the movie? Tia Dalma. I didn't like the idea of her being a goddess, and much preferred Tia Dalma as a basic voodoo woman he fell for.  Her being Calypso kinda complicated the movie for me, because now all of a sudden this goddess must be freed from her human prison, which also means that everyone has to turn against her, even after all she's done for them.  Then when she finally gets released, all she does is grow into a giant woman (literally), shouts in a deep, evil voice, and turns into a bunch of crabs, which then pour into the sea.  I suppose later she causes the storm and the whirlpool at the climax of the movie, but still...her role wasn't explained too much beyond that, not from what I remember anyway. That's why I must see it again. The other plotline that was kinda too weird to stomach was Jack's multiplicity. After being at world's end for a certain period of time, he went a little crazy, and invented multiple versions of himself, the only company he had.  Even after he gets rescued, those multiple Jacks still pop up every now and again, helping him figure ways out of the situation at hand.  While I think Johnny's talent shows heavily, since he's able to be a different Jack with each Jack, I still think it was weird and unnecessary. But alas, it didn't ruin the movie for me.

I never once got bored with this movie, even through the lengthy, talking scenes.  There were plenty talking scenes to go around, but still...there was crucial things being said that contribute to the story, and I found myself just listening intently without getting bored.  It didn't drag at all, not like Spidey.  It kept me busy.  Kept my mind rolling.  I knew that each of the scenes was going to have some bearing on the story.  I appreciated the comic relief, the random jokes and proddings between the pirates, especially between Barbosa and Sparrow, both insistent on being captains of the Pearl.  It was cute, like older brother and younger brother quarreling for what they think is theirs and theirs alone.  I loved the evolution of the characters, too, from part 1 to this current part 3.  Not even Elizabeth annoyed me anymore, not her character, anyway.  Her voice is still grating, bothersome to my eardrum, and not something pleasant to listen to, but her basic character was pretty cool, at least the evolution of it.  Not even Will annoyed me! He wasn't some overly heroic pansy like before. Now he's got backbone to dare to be something else. He broke the rules. In fact, everyone at one point or another broke the rules.  Everyone's character evolved into something crucial for the plot, some of which were DEFINITELY unexpected. There were things I did NOT see coming and I was definitely cool with it, like whoever stabbing the heart of Davey Jones would then have to take his place. That was a new addition to the story, but it added new drama and I loved that. You would expect Jack to want that heart all to himself so he can forever be captain, but once Will's life is threatened, Jack once again sacrifices his own wants.  I wasn't expecting Will to be stabbed, wasn't expecting Jack to be more concerned of Liz's love for Will than his own self, wasn't expecting Will to be a Pirate captain, nor Liz to be a Pirate queen. Wasn't expecting any of it! But it was new, and yet continuing on where we left off, and as I said, I LOVED that. 
 
So no, Pirates 3 didn't fail me.  I didn't overly expect anything, which probably contributed to my openly accepting it more than I did Spidey.  But it still matched my expectations, even despite my complaints and its flaws.  I definitely intend to see this one again to get a better grasp on it. But all in all, a great film, and I had much fun with it. Now I await Fantastic 4 and Transformers.  

Spiderman 3 [spoilers]

Wellllllllll, quite honestly, (and it pains me to admit it) I was a bit disappointed. *siiiiiiiiiiiigh*

[SPOILER ALERT] you have been warned 

Now I'll admit that this isn't really a review, just a list of complaints.  I think the movie has to grow on me for me to review it fairly.  So in the meantime, I'll spew.  Frankly, it was a little too much drama for me.  My sister disagrees with my assessment, but that's the beauty of opinion, I suppose.  She really liked the movie.  I give it maybe 2 stars.  Blah, I really wanted to love it.  But as I was watching it, it just kept dragging. And dragging. And dragging. Dwelling WAY too much on little mushy scenes and conversations.  It took for freaking EVER to get to the point.  'Twas a little too much lovey dovey mushy gushy Mary Jane Watson crap shoved up in my face and inside my nostrils then down my throat into the pit of my gut until it upchucks in my vomit.  Yet again, she was there just to get into trouble and be something else for Spiderman to save.  Screaming and wailing without even trying much to get away.  Only at the last minute did she decide to put a little fight into escaping.  She just stayed in the cab as it dangled in the webbing instead of crawling out the window WAAAAY ealier than when she did.  "Ooh, let me just sit in this car and be a victim and scream and scream. Spiderman's already trying to fight two guys at once, but hey, he can still manage to save me!"  Even after she decided to crawl out, she still just sat there being a victim.  Crawl towards the building you moronic twit.  UGH.  When it came to the love story, I GOT THE FREAKING POINT.  Life's sad, full of tough choices, broken love, blah blah blah...just focus on being Spiderman again.  And for crying out loud, GIMME VENOM. Ugh, yes yes I know.  He's not the main character. I was just antsy. 

But I guess that's my own fault.  I should know better than to overly expect these superb 3rd addition to trilogies.  If Indiana Jones and Terminator can shell out GREAT part 3's, then why not Spiderman? I always expect the 3rd ones to be the best ones. Shame on me.  X-Men and Jurassic Park 3 come to mind.  Then you had that Alien 3 nonsense.  My were they horrid.  They had the cool parts, but as a whole...*groan*  And just like them, Spidey definitely had its cool parts. The visuals were spendid, but then after awhile, it started to get "typical."  I mean, I even found myself thinking, "Yeah, I've seen this already."   I mean, let's admit it already, we already saw a "sand man" in The mummy movies.  We already know Spidey's moves.  I suppose that's why they had to focus a little too excessively on plot and such, but blah. I just wanted so much more.  I wanted insane action, something that would get the audience roaring and cheering in delight from what they'd see.  That's why I wanted to see a Saturday night show, after all.  But it didn't work out like I planned.  There were no random bursts of excitement in the theater. We were all just...sitting there.  We appreciated the funny scenes, and laughed like crazy.  But for the whole of the movie, which was dried up of any action, everyone just kinda sat. 

The villains were cool, I suppose. But there was only so much you can do with them.  Sandman was visually stunning, and though he was much better-looking than Imhotep from the mummy, it was still something I saw already.  So I was leaning my hope on Venom.  Eddie Brock made me fall for him right away.  He was entertaining from the start and I couldn't wait to see more of him.  I was just itching for Venom.  And I waited patiently.  Patiently during all the gag-worthy Mary Jane scenes, from her little whines to her typical kidnapping and her freaking annoying wailing.  Guh.  THANK GOD FOR GWEN STACY.  I'm not even a guy and I was so grateful to lay eyes on her. She was too cute.  Adorable.  Bryce is just a freaking doll.  And I thought about Lexi during all her scenes haha.  I was thinking, "Aww Lexi must be gushing in his chair right now."  I can see why. The girl was just so relieving, a breath of freaking fresh air with her sparkly blue eyes.  But I still wanted Venom. Surely they'll be some crazy action when he gets his chance to shine. 

But ALAS....it was like a Darth Maul thing.  He had so much potential but was so incredibly underused.  And he must have been, because his portrayal on screen wasn't really "all that."  As popular as he is in the 'toons and comics, I KNOW there must have been more to him than that.  Oh don't get me wrong, he was still too freaking cool with his screeching wails and teeth, but blahhhh. I wanted so much MORE!  They did an excellent job in bringing him to life, though I was hoping to see that slimy tongue of his.  Isn't his tongue always supposed to be just hanging out? I remember it annoyed the crap outta me in the cartoon, but it would have been cool to see in the movie. His head looked a little "shrunken" though.  But that was minor and he was still too cool.  I loved, loved, LOVE the visual effects of the Symiote, especially when the sound started to torture it.  Still, as I said, it was just a Darth Maul, Psylocke, freaking Phoenix sort of thing.  Massive potential characters not taken to their full capacity.  But perhaps this was all in preparation for a part 4, if it ever happens.  The end of Venom showed the Symbiote having a life of its own, and if I'm not mistaken, the villain known as "Carnage" is made from that Venom-created Symbiote costume.  But I'm no expert. Oh, but I do have one complaint of Venom:  IS HE SUPPOSED TO SOUND LIKE THAT?  I thought he was gonna be more like...snarly and menacing and drooly with an evil voice.  But he was just talking in Topher's voice.  I'm like uh....?

Anyway, my biggest complaint of all was Peter's "dark side" and the ending.  His dark side was just more of a comedic side.  He doesn't scream "I'm evil."  He was just making worse decisions with stuff, I guess.  Oh sure, there were moments when he spewed and such, but for the most part, his dark side was just excessive dorkiness.  His hair was absolutely horrendous.  Either Toby doesn't know how to be evil, or that's just the sort of evil they wanted to make him.  It was just too funny to be dark.  And the ending? OYYY.  So lame.  Just more Mary Jane and Peter mushy gushiness hugging and crap and then poof, the end.  Lame, lame, lame.  And seeing as how there was no clapping or praises from the theater when the credit rolled, I know more people must have been feeling a little let-down.  I guess I don't really know what I was looking for in Spiderman 3.  Just...more than what it was.  I got more plot, that much is certain.  But plot alone doesn't make a Spiderman movie for me. I just need SPIDERMAN.  Oyyy.  So far, Spidey 2 is the best of the bunch.  And if they make a Spidey 4, well...we shall see.

Now I await Shrek 3, Pirates 3, and Rush Hour 3.  Please let them be great.  Please, please, please.

SPOILERS PRESENT!  (thanks Ais )

It was actually a pretty enjoyable movie (and it's way over two hours long! Impressive), though of course, I still have my complaints.  I hated the costume.  It just didn't seem like Superman to me.  It was just way too dark, and this coming from ME, a person who happens to like dark colors.  But eh, not for Superman. He's too much a hero to be gloomy like that.  We already have Batman and his dark history being reason enough for his brooding, mysterious presence and the X-Men with their black costumes, and even the Fantastic 4, but couldn't you just leave Superman in all his brightness?  Without that, all I have is Nacho Libre.  Oyy.  I love the color red, but not the deep, maroon kind that can almost look black. Closeups of his boots seem like I'm just looking at Batman's boots.  There's just nothing that screams Superman to me.  Something about the "S" symbol bothered me too, and I now realized that it's because it's too small.  It's not in your face screaming, "Yes, I AM Superman."  It's just like eh..."I'm some guy dressed up in my own version of a Superman costume."  I had no idea that the S symbol was too small until my friend DJ pointed it out to me, and I also looked at some comic Superman pics as well as the older ones. 

Brandon Routh did a pretty decent job, I guess, but all along I just really missed the amazing actor that was Christopher Reeves.  He played both Superman and Clark Kent to the utmost perfection, I think.  He absolutely pulled off the two different personas without a hitch.  Routh, though, didn't quite hit that mark.  Not that I expected him too, because heck, you only get one Christopher, and he's no longer with us. (sigh) Routh even seemed like he tried to mimic Chris as much as possible, and certainly sounded like him for several scenes.  But eh...I dunno.  I never missed someone so much from Hollywood like I missed Chris for most of the movie.  This one just looked he tried too hard and it just didn't seem natural.  Oh I got over it eventually and still dared to enjoy the Superman moves and such.  Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane was eh. zLeast she's not as annoying as Lana in Smallville, which was appreciated.  Actually, what bugged me the most about her was her seemingly...uh...well, inability to really show the effects of getting hurt. 

But I guess it's not her fault the way she was written, which seemingly was as a woman who can get thrown around a plane a few times (no bruises or broken ribs???), who can get thrashed in the head with quartz rock (where's the blood? No gash??), and who can swim to the depths of the sea to save Superman only to swim effortlessly back up to the top (when did Aquaman give her his powers?).  So eh, that got a little annoying after awhile.  Can't the damsel in distress show even one smidgen of result from her ordeals? SOMETHING? I know it's petty, but I can't stand when you're supposed to be all like "Ouch that had to hurt!" in response to a scene and the character, who isn't even Superman, comes through unscathed.  The only thing that stopped her dead in her tracks was the door slamming down in her head, but even THEN, not one droplet of blood or gash.  It was all just a little unbelievable.  Heh, and I still can't imagine how no one in this movie even wonders where Clark Kent is.

But besides those complaints, it was still pretty fun.  The effects were rather fantastic, though I wish his laser eyes were more noticeable.  The flying was awesome, and makes me wonder yet again how they still can't manage to get Storm to fly as realistically as Superman.  *shakes head* I loved when he flew through the building to catch the falling planet and of course when he caught the airplane.  Heh, I was thinking during that whole scene, "Man, he's not doing too good a job of stopping this tragedy." I mean the wings were falling off and all that stuff.  I'm surprised he didn't ice breath the fire out. I guess he was just rusty? It was his first rescue of the movie, after all.  But still, a pretty cool scene.  All of his scenes were definitely cool, even though the costume bothered me for all of them lol.  Didn't anyone else thing it was just too dark and broody?  My friend DJ loved the costume, though I don't know why.  Even the poor man's neck seemed like it was being choked by that thing.  But oh well. *shrug* I guess I'll always have my trusty Reeve's version.

Still, pretty awesome.  The romance was actually kinda gag-worthy, but that's probably because it worked.  And I'm sorry, but this line Lois said was LAME:  "I've forgotten how warm you are."  I'm like LOL. What?? It was a weird line.  Awkward. Oh don't get me wrong, now. I'm a woman who can appreciate the warmth of a man close to me just as well. Makes me giddy all over.  But eh, I dunno. 'Twas odd. I'm glad they took their time developing the movie and didn't rush it like that horrid X3 nonsense.  No movie should ever be BELOW two hours in my opinion.  To do so is just wrong.  Poor James, though. Why is it that he's always the second best man?  X-Men, The Notebook, and now Superman lol.  A man as fine as that? Heh.  Anyway, I hope Spiderman 3 will follow the code of being over 2 hours, because actually, I'm truly looking forward to that one.  None of the Spiderman movies have disappointed me yet, so I'm hoping for yet another victory. 

Anywayz...that's all for now.  I currently await Pirates, Lady in the Water, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Miami Vice, Snakes on a Plane, and The Descent, among others that may be escaping me.

Ta-ta.

SPOILER ALERT

Uhhh....yeah. They certainly seemed rather pushy about making it the last, what with some of the stuff they chose to do. 

So I went to see this movie.  I don't think I can ever say what I thought of it in the words of the even bigger fans than me, but...wow.  Blah, I'm trying my darndest not to join the bandwagon, but it's difficult.  I'm so bombarded with everyone else's opiniond that I'm having difficulty finding my own, especially since it's quite similiar to a LOT of those opinions.  As I had predicted, this was Jurassic Park 3 all over again.  Except in this case, I had to deal with new mutants instead of new dinosaurs.  But everything else is practically the same.  Inexplicable scenes horribly thrown together just to make a popcorn movie at the expense of good character development.  Quite the pity.

Okay so as a movie in general, it was great. There were some awesome scenes, even though those awesome scenes were still so short.  But as a movie that dared to call itself an X-Men movie?  It fell short.  It was NOT good.  I can declare all day long what I liked about it as that general movie, but still, this is an X-Men movie. I shouldn't have to make excuses for it.  It wasn't flat out horrible, but blah, it needed so much MORE.  I significantly lowered my expectations for the film after reading several reviews and spoilers (both willingly and unwillingly) and I guess I'm glad I did.  If I had kept myself spoiler free, I wonder if I would have thought the movie was worse or better.  I guess I'll never know.

The movie went by way....WAY too fast.  The scenes were chopped up and thrown together.  And at an hour and 48 minutes worth of time, I guess that's all they could do was just throw things together tackily.  There was no smooth continuity and therefore, not much emotional or character development, though the actors still did do very fine jobs with what they had to work with.  Each seemingly significant scene was not more than few minutes long, so picture a lot of that...numerous short scenes lined up one right after another.  They killed off Cyclops early in the film.  Yeah, I knew it was gonna happen, but still disappointing.  He finds Jean at Alkali, or more seemingly "awakens" her when he blasts the water with his beams.  He gets thrown against the rock and we see beacon of light.  The camera then pans over to the source of the light:  a flaming Phoenix!

NOT.

Tackily and disappointingly, the camera pans to...well...Jean.  Just standing there.  I'm like riiiight.  So boringly put together.  Then you get a nice big kiss following the initial "shock" of her presence, and frankly, as depressed as Cyclops has been, you'd expect a much more emotional reaction to the love of his life suddenly not being so dead anymore.  Oh, but then again, the movie is all about squishiness and fastness, so there's no time for such things.  No such thing for emotionalism, even desperately needed emotionalism.  Anyway, the kiss is a passionate one and last several second before Jean is taken over by her bad side, a.k.a. Phoenix, and supposedly kills her true love.  That's 3 movies in a row in which poor Cyclops is totally underused.  Quite the shame for an X-Men leader.  So much for the greatest love story.

The Danger Room scene was of course cool and much appreciated, but was underused.  Just thrown in there for the heck of it, as if it was there all along.  'Twas too short as well.  Total waste.  However, it was the only time I actually got to see Storm fly as realistically as I always wanted her to fly and I must admit, it gave me the shivers.  I actually forgot for a moment there how much I didn't want Halle Berry to be Storm, but when you fly like that, I can totally forgive you. Too bad for the rest of the movie, though, cuz her "flying" seemed more like being lifted up in air by those trusty wires.  Not convincing at all.  And that tornado spin you see in the trailers?  That was the most stupid looking move ever.  She should have just made hail the size of softballs to crack open some skulls. 

Wolverine was of course wonderful, but that goes without saying.  Unfortunately, he seems to have robbed Cyclops of the Jean scenes that should have been his.  Beast was awesome too, but not used as much as I would have liked.  I totally loved his short-lived fight scenes, though; that was beyond cool.  It reminded me so much of the video game Beast, what with that huge slapping motion he does.  Too cool.  Angel was eh...cute and all, but useless and pointless.  Too much was missing about the relationship between his father and himself.  You get the idea that there's supposed to be this real bond there, but alas, we were robbed of that necessary character development as well. Rogue was wasted and was pretty much there to forcibly absorb Colossus' power to avoid getting demolished and then to just...well...stand and walk around while being jealous and hurt and stuff.  She ends up getting the cure and that's enough of that.  Iceman was awesome in his own way; it was great how we finally see his entire body ice up.  It looked better than I thought it would.  Kitty Pryde was cute and all, but every time I saw her it felt like I was looking at a 12 year old.  So hearing Juggernaut calling her a bitch seemed rather weird, cuz I'm like, who calls a kid a bitch? *shrug* Pyro was cool and had good fire moments.

I won't go through all the characters, but I will mention Phoenix.  Or whatever version of her that was, anyway.  It didn't occur to me until I read someone else's review, but yeah, that whole Phoenix story was sadly massacred.  No fire bird, not even flames.  Not even the glowing eyes we saw in X2.  Her eyes just get black and she gets creepily veiny and evil-looking.  Famke did an awesome job portraying a Dark Phoenix, but geeze, this just wasn't the Phoenix Saga I had in mind, which was far more deserving of so much more.  It was far more complex, more meaningful, more emotional.  And in this movie, it was reduced to practically nothing.  Just some evil personality side of Jean I guess.  I mean heck, after disintegrating Professor X, she's a pretty stoic character.  Just standing around next to Magneto and watching stuff go on before finally revealing her powers once more, which basically consisted of frying people alive and turning them to ashes and just floating a bunch of things.  Lots of people and mutants were VERY quickly killed; you'd miss which ones if you blinked.  It's amazing the number of deaths there were in this movie, deaths of memorable mutants!  But that's about it.  She looked evil all right, and she had the personality perfected, but you can't help but yearn for a flame or two emanating from her.  But no such luck.  She's just a more evil Jean.

All in all, the movie was decent and great fun as just a regular movie, but as an X-Men movie, it was just plain bad.  All I have now is my trusty 90's cartoons, I guess, because at least they deliver a whole lot more than this one did, namely the story of Phoenix.

For a much more thorough, spoiler-filled review that better expresses my thoughts in a much more blunt way, read the following link posted by comic critic at the X-Men boards of Countingdown.com. 

http://www.countingdown.com/movies/2756437/board?viewpost=3873483&folder=0

Ta-ta.

King Kong!
(Spoilers present. You have been warned)

Totally WOW.  What an awesome movie.  A VERY awesome movie.  I don't even know how to properly review such awesomness.  It's just awesome.  End of story.  And how dare anyone NOT see it by now?  To willingly pass on such awesomeness would be beyond my comprehension.  Go partake of the awesomeness that is Kong and I might just forgive you.  Everyone should share Kong's awesomness as soon as possible.  Do it, do it NOW!

Good GAWSH.  Awesome.

I partook of the awesomness at 6:05 p.m. Sunday evening.  My visiting cousin and her husband, my uncle, his son, mom, sisters, sisters' bfs, and friends of boyfriends were my companions to this awesome movie.  Well actually, my cousin and her husband went to see Syriana instead because they had viewed Kong already, but they still were in our car.  Normally I'd never go to a movie that early, since I generally like to go later in the evenings, but alas, I wanted to go with the big group so the awesomness can be better appreciated.  We originally were aiming for the 5 p.m. show, the last matinee of the day, and upon arriving there at about 4:30, we were told that the only seats left were located in the front row, and that we'd have no guarantee of being together.  So we swooped up the next option...the 6:05 p.m. show, in which he had to go join the line that was already forming for it.

Now me, I'm quite accustomed to waiting an hour or more for movies on their opening weekend.  We weren't that far from the beginning of the line, which meant we'd definitely have access to the better seats, and yet, all my uncle was dwelling on was that he was waiting.  Oyyy it was kinda annoying not being able to properly comfort the poor "old" man haha.  He couldn't even appreciate the fact that we're gonna get great seats to a great...no, AWESOME movie.  No, all he was moaning and groaning about was that if we went to the more nearby theater to our town, then we'd be sitting down already and eating our popcorn awaiting for the lights to darken and the movie to start..."theoretically."  I personally think we would have been in the same boat.  Showing up a half hour before showtime, realizing that show's already full, and then having to wait in line for the next show.  You can't escape that expectation from ANY theater.  But alas, he eventually got over it somewhat, and we all just joked and talked and whatever else.  I thought the time went by super fast, but that's just me.

They seated as at about 5:30, as I had predicted way earlier in the hour.  We were betting when the time would be, and it looks like I was correct, me being the expert on waiting in line for movies haha.  We sat alllll the way in the back willingly, so we wouldn't have to worry about our chairs being kicked or people throwing stuff.  Such an awesome movie should be viewed with NO outside interruptions.  That was when we all got up to finally get our popcorns, pretzels, and nachos.  My sister and her boyfriend were lucky enough to get the last two pretzels after spotting the yummy appearance of mine as I was returning with it.  Such copycats. It's quite astounding how much the two are alike.  I seriously hope she'll keep this one. It might actually be the first wedding I wouldn't mind attending.

The Emotion...

GAWSH what an awesome movie.  It's generally agreeable that the middle of the movie was the best of all, since it involved the interractions with Kong and all the rest of the giant creatures on Skull Island.  I appreciated the ENTIRE movie as a whole, even the hour-long beginning that led up to the main "meat" of the action.  I dared to realize that a movie like King Kong has to have more to it than a bunch of monsters fighting each other with no focus on story or plot. That's what Jurassic Park 3 did to me and I didn't want to have to go through it again!  No, a movie like King Kong has to make you believe that a "monster" can be "tamed."  You have to believe that the actors are worth fighting for.  You have to get an attachment to not just Kong, but the people, at least the main bunch of them.  Why recreate a grand epic like King Kong if you're not even gonna bother making the people and their feelings believable? Thank goodness for the awesomeness of Peter Jackson for choosing to direct this movie, and the awesomeness of Andy Serkis to bringing Kong to life ever so CONVINCINGLY. They gave him such awesome subtle emotions, that you can't mistake what he's feeling. It so made me want a pet gorilla.

The Action...

Though I DID appreciate the emotionalism, it doesn't mean that I wasn't fond of all that glorious ACTION.  I mean DAMN!  Oh my gosh there's just too much to think of.  What action! The entire audience was ALL into it.  You can't NOT be into it.  We all became expert commentators lol.  We groaned and moaned and gasped and screamed.  Oh it was freaking fun.  The effects were SPECTACULAR.  Cinematography was devine.  Very pretty island, that Skull Island (though the local natives were unbelievably CREEPY. Wouldn't want to wake up and see THAT standing next to my bed)  Me being the dinosaur freak that I am, I was TOTALLY waiting for those dinosaurs.  Woo freaking HOO!  I wasn't THAT crazy about the first to make their appearance, the apotosaurs (brontosaurs), but I eventually got over it.  The stampede scene that you'd see in the movie previews was of course their own glorious moment, as they and the people were fleeing the pursuing group of what appeared to be mega-sized raptors (I dunno what the actual filmmakers named them).  I did make myself get over the fact that there's no way a bunch of puny humans would avoid getting stepped on by the giant beasts.  And believe me, you would wonder how they avoided getting out as cleanly as they did.  It was pestersome at first, but then I thought, "Well, such giant dinosaurs can't really lift their feet THAT much anyway, so the only way a human will get stepped on is if they trip and fall and be in an easier position to be stepped on."  And yes, I was really thinking that way.  I'm SO into dinosaurs, people.  I want them to be as convincing as possible.  I was very pleasantly satisfied with the result. 

The Beasts...

Gosh giant EVERYTHING.  Gorilla, dinosaurs, iguanas, centipedes, grasshoppers, bats, spiders, mosquitos,...OYY! So much freaking FUN people.  FUN!!  THERE'S JUST TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT AS I SIT HERE PONDERING THE EXPERIENCE! You need to go see that awesome movie and force yourself to GET OVER the supposed slow scenes for that awesome action, if such a case applies to you.  Nobody ever got a break in that movie.  There's always some kind of giant beastly thing around there that wants to eat them.  And there's always more than one! THAT'S what I appreciated.  All along I'm thinking Kong's gonna fight just one V-Rex.  No such thing.  He fights freaking THREE of them all at ONCE. And they didn't even put up a crappy fight! They actually put  up and excellent fight.  GEEZE!  All along he's fighting those things with ONE HAND while holding the fair maiden in his other hand.  And just when you think it's over, when all of them go spilling over the edge of the cliff getting tangled in very tough vines, you get more.  Those V-Rexes never STOPPED trying to eat that girl lol.  Even when they're hanging helplessly in the vines, they'd see her and swing to eat her like she's some worm on a hook.  I was thinking "How determined can you be to eat something so incredibly small? She's like a chicken wing!"  But they definitely were determined. Even after one of them killed the giant iguana (a clever trick to make you think it was Kong that saved her), he refused to drop it when he started chasing her down.  Those things loved to eat and would eat ANYTHING and wouldn't let ANYTHING get away.  They didn't even let Kong kill them too easily.  Thank goodness.  Kong had to try NUMEROUS times to kill the last one.  But dear goodness gracious that was the BEST fight.  Not that the other fights were nothing...with all his kicking and punching and biting and whatever else.  But this one was definitely the most graphic.  He freaking held his jaw open just to bite his tongue to rip it off.  But even then that V-Rex didn't give up, and proceeded to keep his jaws clenched so Kong couldn't rip them apart like he had done to one of the other three.  After several failed attempts, with the V-Rex's legs kicking and thrashing, Kong finally pulled it off and ripped open the things jaw.  Oh but he wasn't done yet.  As "punishment" for giving him a hard time, Kong then twisted his freaking skull sideways, breaking probably everything in that poor dino's neck lol.  And afterward, he "tested" it out to make sure the thing was dead.  AWESOME.

Have I mentioned how freaking AWESOME this movie is????  There's just too much to even talk about, more than what I already mentioned!  I forgot to even mention the guy Kong grabbed just to have his head chewed off.  Go see this awesome movie.  I got VERY close to crying at the end, but since I already knew Kong's fate from the older movies, I didn't give in.  It was still sad though.  The music was a good contributor to the emotion the characters were feeling.  Poor Kong just wanted to keep the girl and protect her from harm no matter what the cost, even his life.  Even some HUMAN males don't know how to pull that off.  It was rather sweet.  It always was.  I might just force myself to see the old movie.  I say "force" because...well...it's an old movie, and the visual effects (though most definitely fascinating in their day) are very tough to watch lol.   

After the adventure came to an end, we all asked each other how we liked it.  My mom and uncle (the oldest people in our group) seemed kinda "iffy" about it.  My uncle loved the action and fights, but was bored out of his mind with the "slow" scenes.  *shrug* I'm sure many a male will agree with him.  I'm not even male and I agree that the action was a big part of that movie, but I still don't toss away the non-actions scenes as useless.  That movie needed MORE than action!  After the seeming lack of enthusiasm displayed by my mom and her brother (my uncle) I was like, "Well screw you guys then, I thought it was AWESOME!"  They then laughed hehe.  All the rest of us younger people of course thought it simply RULED. 

We went out to eat after the movie, just catching the nearby "fast-food" italian restaurant a half hour before closing time.  Yummy. In fact, I want to go finish the breadsticks I brought home.  I'll do that when I'm done here, which I almost am.  We dropped off my family at his house and then proceeded home.  'Twas snuggle time for my one sister and her boyfriend and sleep-time for me, since I had only gotten 2 hours of sleep Sunday.  I came up to crash almost instantaneously after changing into my pajams.  I turned on my soothing lava lamps, answered a late-night phone call from Lexi, and then slept the entire night.  So now here I am, finishing up this King Kong blog, ready to go eat some food.

I am SO seeing King Kong again.  Niether my dad nor DJ has seen it yet, so hey, I could have 2 more viewings of this awesome 3 hour movie!  Maybe I'll go see it today again.  WooHOO.

And ta-ta.