before i review it...

...I just had an amazing night! All last week I made my sister and I some Eclipse shirts to wear to the midnight showing. My friend was throwing a movie release party so - after a rather intense and lengthy thunderstorm - we went to the party. She had amazing decorations in the resturant and nearly everyone had on Twilight shirts or were dressed up. We watched New Moon while playing a trivia game of the first two movies. I knew most of the answers, but some questions were hard! I did win a Team Jacob tote bag (which I'm using now!) and my sister won a keychain. After the party, we went to the theatre. Wasn't much going on there except a crowd, of course.

My night was amazing mainly because I got to hang with my friends that are here in South Carolina. I don't have many friends and I find it hard to let people into my life after being hurt by people. So I am glad to have had this night!

Review tomorrow if I'm up to it

Movie Review: Toy Story 3

Nostalgic. There's really no other way to describe the recent and final installment of the Toy Story franchise. It has been 15 years since the story of a couple of toys belonging to a kid named Andy captured the hearts of many.

Now, Andy is off to college and the fate of the toys is questionable.

What follows is a truly captivating, heart wrenching, entertaining journey. I was certainly emotional the entire time as the movie kept me on the edge of my seat.

The movie seemed very adult, at least more adult then other Pixar films. Disney/Pixar has seemingly (in my opinion) been moving towards themes that can certainly keep an adult interesting (such as the theme of love and loss in Up). Toy Story 3's main theme is certainly the strange stage between being a kid and growing up. Any adult can relate to this.

Although the movie will be something great for adults, some of the scenes may confuse children and even scare them. I still think the rest of the movie despite these few intense scenes.

Toy Story 3 is a must see movie. It holds the charm of the other two and is an amazing end of the franchise.

Censoring should be BANNED

SPOILERS! HUGE MEGA SPOILERS!
I know, another Twilight related article, but even if you are not a fan you have to admit the franchise is HUGE. Also, you probably do not like censorship so this article might be interesting to you.

After the announcement that Breaking Dawn would be split into two films, director of the films, Melissa Rosenburg did an interview with the LA Time talking about directing the movie...and how she is going to censor it.


There are many great (and horrible...) things about Breaking Dawn that wrap up the series nicely. Bella finally loses her virginity to Edward, leaving her covered in bruises becasue of his strength, but also making her have sex every other honeymoon scene with him. This results in her getting pregnant with the half vampire Renesmee Cullen. The birth scene is rather violent as the ambiotic sac holding the child is made of vampire skin. Edward eventually has to use his teeth to tear through the sac. If that is not strange enough, the weird shapeshifting "imprinting" phenomenon finally happens. Jacob see's Renesmee and imprints on her. Yeeeah...weird.

for a very detailed description of the birth scene, I suggest going here.

But, guess what, fans will never get to see that. Fans will not see the birth scene. The director will leave it out so she can keep the film in the PG-13 demographic. While I understand this choice, it quite infuriates me. Did these teenagers not read the book? Of course they did! So imagining in their head and seeing it on screen are different? I can see if they director decided to not have the scene be so graphic because, lets face it, there is a LOT of blood in that scene. And Edward using his teeth to tear the sac? Yeah, gross. Taking the scene out completely almost makes me want to boycott the films. I can not see the story working without it. It's a major turning point because it also is when Bella become a vampire, something we have known her to want since the first book.

Censorship is horrible in all manners of media. This just seems downright absurd.

Pixar a THIEF!?

I was browsing /Film as I so often do and happened upon another Pixar related article. This article talks about a French short film, Above then Beyond, that could have inspired Disney/Pixar's film Up. After reading the article and comments, this is what my conclusion.


There is not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that Pixar was inspired by the film and seemingly borrowed elements - maybe even direct screen-by-screen shots - for their film, Up. I do not, however, think this constitutes as blantant "stealing".

After reading Sciretta's - the article writer - timeline of the two films (as far as when things were actually published so to speak), it seems Above and Beyond was out long enough for Pixar to see it and get inspired from it. The students, or company, who did the film even have a partnership with Pixar.

While I do not think any idea is an original idea and most certainly not the idea of tying balloons to an object to fly away, i'm a little let down by Pixar from borrowing so many screen-by-screens from the French short film. That sequence in Up was my favorite part and, although the French film's cimentography and such do not tickle my fancy, they still seemed to have done it first. It does not make me like Up any less, but I'm just disapointed that my favorite part was heavily inspired by something else. Considering I thought the movie dragged at so many points after that, I am let down even further.

It seems that both Disney and Pixar draw heavily from other things. That does not make either any less of an amazing coporation for entertainment and film. As a fan, I just wish they were a bit careful about how they put their inspiration into their films. I am sure not many people knew about Above then Beyond - I know I did not prior to seeing it on /Film - but I really do wish Pixar would have mentioned being inspired by it. It does make them look incredibly like theives for not saying they were, especially after some of the comments Pixar made that seem contradictory to each other.

What makes a GOOD film?

After reading this article on /Film - my favorite film blog - and the comments on the article, it got me to thinking about what exactly makes a good film. While I believe the Toy Story franchise is an amazing franchise, I still believe people are entitled to their own opinions about films. With saying that, I do not think anyone should bash a film just because they did not like it. This White guy is apparently and so OBVIOUSLY a troll as he puts down all films that a lot of people like and praises those a lot of people do not like. If that does not spell T-R-O-L-L then it needs to get redefined. I do not agree that every Pixar film is golden and amazing, I still think give a film credit where credit is due.

And the commentors can be the worse. I try not to take offense when a film I love is criticized immensely (which is why I try not to review films of franchises that I am heavily a fan in), but sometimes it is hard to do so when so many derogatory words have been chosen to be used - someone refered to Harry Potter as a "wankfest" in the comments. Whats up with THAT?

These days, too many people are quick to bash something. I see this in the film world and the anime world. If something gets too popular in someone's opinion then some people just HAVE to go against the grain and hate it. That seems life a very sad like when you have to be antagonistic about everything.

With these people out there, the question of what even makes a good film becomes blurred. Everyone has a differing opinion in what makes a good film, but my key ideal would be that the film is ENTERTAINING. That's what a films are: entertainment. So, PERSONALLLY, if a film can keep my interest despite all the flaws, i still find it GOOD. It may not win awards, but it wins my heart.

Movies that excite me: The Last Airbender

*i was going to provide pretty pictures and handy links, but I decided to write this from my phone. Gotta love a Blackberry

Despite the fact this movie should have been called Avatar except the fact some huge movie about huge blue aliens took the name, The Last Airbender is based on a highly popular and amazing Nickelodeon cartoon. The series ended in 2008 and consists of series refered to as Books and the episodes are Chapters.

The tale follows Aang, the last of his kind and the Avatar, and the brother/sister pair of Sokka and Katara. They are in a world where the elements - water, earth, fire, and air - can be "bent" by certain people who have the innate ability to do so. The firebending nation is out to rule the world and Aang, the avatar who can bend all the elements, is supposedly the only one who can stop him.

That's the basic story. There are so many layers to the Avatar world that make the series very successful.

When a movie was announced, fans got antsy. They wanted this done, but they wanted it done right. M Knight Shamalan is the director and many people are still worried this movie will not give justice to the series. When actors were being chosen, fans were quite upset as many white actors were rumored to have been chosen when the Avatar world has characters who clearly are not white. Petitions exploded on the internet and so did communities against the moviemakers (such as aang_aint_white on Livejournal)

So, what do I think? I love Avatar...a lot. It is one of my favorite animated series ever. I was worried about the movie. Very worried. I still am quite worried that this will not live up to my expectations, but that is the problem with movie goers these days. They judge movies too harshly. From what I have seen in the trailer, the movie will be taking the entire season 1 (which takes place in the Water tribe area of the Avatar world) and it looks darn good. The bending looks fantastic and I can not help but love the cute kid who will be Aang.

I will be at this movie. I will even be wearing a costume. I'm excited.

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) - Nintendo Stole the Show

Every year, the gaming world turns to E3 to find out what the latest in gaming will be for the coming year. The only thing last year’s show did for me was say Final Fantasy 13 would be released on the Xbox 360 - a marvelous announcement indeed! This year, I was thrilled the entire show as my eyes stayed glued to G4’s coverage and my constantly updated twitter feed.

Jaden Smith Interview - The Karate Kid

In the recent issue of Ebony magazine, Adrienne Samuels Gibbs conducted an interview with 11 year old Jaden Smith, son of remarkable Will Smith and Jada Pinkett- Smith. Here is the interview:

Gibbs: Why did you take on the challenge of The Karate Kid?
Smith: Well, I’ve always really been interested in the martial arts. I started taking karate when I was 3. So when my dad mentioned the idea to remake the movie, theres no way I was going to pass that up! And the story is really great. Its inspired by the original film, but different. In this one, I play Dre Parker. He’s a cool kid, but he has to move from his home in Detroit when his mom gets a job in China.

Book Review: The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner

Stephanie Meyer got absolutely lucky to come up with Twilight. She wrote the first book quickly. It got published quickly. Such a success story that all authors dream of.

Recently she released a novella to accompany her third, and my favorite, book in the series. Eclipse. This short book took a very minor newborn vampire and formed a story around her.

That was Meyer's mistake.

Meyer may have cared about this story, but its quite impossible for anyone else to care. Bree lacks a certain charm that Bella does. Her male counterpart, Diego, does not offer dashing, romantic escapades like Edward. Of course the four characters could not be compared, but its difficult to not too.

The writing seems rather lazy, atleast lazier then the Twilight saga and Meyer's other novel, "The Host". The words are quite simple and there are not many, if any at all, elaborate sentence constructions that I like Meyer for.

The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner released in the same month as the new movie, Eclipse. That would have been a clever ploy if it had been done after the movie instead of before. Maybe then, someone would have actually cared about Bree Tanner enough to like this novella.

Movie Review - The Karate Kid

I've been around martial arts my entire life. My father is a karate instructor and so are his two brothers. I've taken karate before and it still runs in my family. I've been to tournaments my whole life and have seen some amazing competitors.

So it was only natural that we went to see The Karate Kid, remake of the 1984 original, as a family.

This movie was an excellent, solid remake. It was highly entertaining and the training montage would even give Rocky a run for his money. Jaden Smith certainly proved himself as an actor, something he has not had an oppurtunity to do in his past films. The movie ran the gauntlet of emotions - from fear to anger to sadness to joy - and Jaden did not miss a beat. When he needed to cry, he did. When he needed to crack some classic Smith wit, he did.

Jackie Chan was spectacular as well. But he's Jackie effin Chan...what else can be expected?

The story progressed very well, but the characters outside of Jaden/Dre's training bubble were not very well developed. I'm not sure if it really mattered, however.

Very good movie. Go see it.

Breaking Dawn. Two movies.

Breaking Dawn, the forth and final book in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga, will now be split into two films, the first being released in November of 2011.

This whole scenario seems oddly familiar when the final book of Harry Potter had been split into two films. Is this a way to gain more money from the hordes of fans both franchises have or are they really just dedicated to giving the finale of each work as much dedication as needed?

Yes and no.

While the seventh Harry Potter book seems to need two films to cover the sheer amount of action, story, and character development that the book has, Breaking Dawn seems just the opposite. There does not seem to be any need for the two films as the book does not have much to offer. The basic story is simple and it may be a bit obvious as to where the split would occur, which may mean no Vampire Bella in the first film. Breaking Dawn was a very weak ending to the series, reading like a gigantic epiloque then an actual end. Its going to be very interesting to see what they can possible pack into two films with very little - it seems - to work with.

Twilight: Eclipse (the TRUE ending to the series) releases on June 30th. I'll be at a midnight showing after a release party with friends.

[Also, I'd like to note that Harry Potter and Twlight seem to trade off release months. Eclipse is June this year, HP is Nov this year. They seem to switch off next year. Maybe they do not want to step on each others toes. A pretty smart move]

This Weekend in Movies

I'll be seeing The A-Team tomorrow and The Karate Kid on Saturday.

Born in 1987, neither of these remakes' original sources are fresh in my mind which is - in my opinion - good because I can go in with no preconcieved notions. My boyfriend, a very big fan of A Team and Mr. T, will be unable to accompany me to the movie so I will try to read up a little on the A Team tonight, just to get a feel of what fans loved about the show.

My family will be accompaning me to see The Karate Kid or, as I affectionately call it, The Kung-Fu Kid. Our family business seems to be karate. My father and two uncles have been Karate instructors all my life. They even own a Dojo here in town. It's my dad's idea to go see this movie and I happily oblige. The trailer's look entertaining for this movie and Jaden Smith is adorable.

I also owe this blog a Prince of Persia review. I loved that movie so much.

Awards Show - MTV Movie Awards

This will quite possibly be my last year watching the MTV movie awards.

While I like to watch as many awards shows as I can possible stand - especially ones related to movies - the MTV awards show just does not seem to be to my liking. Typically, its the winners of awards that seems to make me roll my eyes. Even last year i made an entry about these dissapointing awards: http://jessichan99.livejournal.com/44139.html

Viewers can cast votes on MTV's site or through text message of who they want to win. Not just one vote...multiple votes. The awards should have a definent name change to something along the lines of a Viewers Choice awards. That would probably make me feel better since I do NOT think winners are chosen based on the content of their films or acting, but on how many fangirls can click a button.

That being said, here are the winners and my thoughts:

The Generation Award went to Sandra Bullock, which I thought was fitting and probably the most deserved award all night. Of course MTV had to do a girl-on-girl kiss between Sandra Bullock and Scarlett Johannsen. MTV just can not stay dignified for one second.

Biggest Badass Star went to Rain, who was also my pick for that category. I thought this award was deserved and Rain looked very happy to accept it. The other nominees which included Chris Pine and Angelina Jolie (for a movie that is not even out yet, may i add) with some other stars just did not compare to Rain's performace in Ninja Assassin. Incredibly badass. Congratulations Rain.

Best Scared as S--- award went to Amanda Seyfield for Jennifer's Body. I really thought Katie Featherson from Paranormal Activity would take this, but I should have known better that some cute, teenage-appealing star would. Don't get me wrong, Amanda Seyfield is great if you like that kind of stuff...

Best WTF Moment went to the Naked Trunk Surprise in The Hangover. I agreed that this was a huge WTF moment. The other nominees could not touch this.

Best Kiss went to New Moon. Second year in a row Twilight has taken this award. I also think that The Twilight Saga DOES have the Best Kisses and I actually did predict this win. Also MTV's Kiss Cam was very cute as Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens were put on and did a delightful little peck.

Best Villan went to Mr. Tom Felton a.k.a Draco Malfoy for his very villianous performance in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I thought Stephen Lang from Avatar would win this, but I'm glad Felton did. Half Blood Prince offered up a very dark - or should i say darker - change in his character and gave him a bit more screen time then the past Harry Potter movies. Considering he did his acceptance speech with Mark Walhberg and Will Ferall over his head, Felton is great guy.

Best Comedic Performance went to Zach Galifianakis from The Hangover. Very well deserved. There's really nothing else to say since I predicted his win and thought he was amazing in that movie. Very funny.

Best Breakout Star went to Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air. While I want to say that this award came about because she was wonderful in Up in the Air, I have a sneaking supicion that Twilight fangirls were amping up the votes for her, since she does appear in that franchise as well. I'm glad Kendrick is not letting that be the only thing she is known for - Twilight that is - and can not wait to see her in Scott Pilgrim later this summer.

Best Male and Best Female went to the leading stars of New Moon - Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Robert also recieved the Global Superstar award in which THREE Twilight stars were up for (also Johnny Depp and Daniel Radcliff)

Best Movie. New Moon. Even with Avatar up for the award.

While I hate to cry FOUL again. Twilight was awarded so many huge awards during the show that it, again, should be called MTV's Twilight Awards. For the next two years, no one else should even be happy to be nominated for this awards show because they won't win if they go against Twilight.

I love Twilight. I've read all the books. More then once. I've brought merchandise. I'm excited for Eclipse and will be blogging about it in the coming weeks. I'm going to the midnight showing of the movie IN a self-made tshirt with my sister in a matching tshirt for Christ's Sake. I'm by no means one of those Twi-haters. HOWEVER, I am a movie fan and do not think the series deserves its praise movie wise. I do not think Kristen Stewart is a very incredible actress. I do think Robert and Taylor Lautner are good actors, but just not as good as someone like Johnny Depp or even Daniel Radcliff. Do i enjoy the films? Yes, because i love the franchise. Do i think the film is better then something like Avatar? No. Has anyone SEEN Avatar's numbers?! I do not even think the film is as great as a lot of films that have been released in the last couple of films. So, yes, I'm ranting about them winning so many awards two years in a row. Honestly, MTV, come up with a new voting system. Twilight is monopolizing your little, low-brow awards show.

Movies That Excite Me: Tron Legacy

To say that i'm a Disney fangirl is an understatement. Since i was a young child, my head has been filled with Disney via my parents. Trips to the theme parks. VHS tapes of all the movies (and now DVDs that i'm older). Mountains of merchandise. My whole family has always been enchanted by Disney. Love it or hate it, Disney is one of those companies that will just keep rolling no matter what.

When i first viewed the Tron Legacy trailer, it was attached to Prince of Perisa: Sands of Time. I'm not behind in my movie news because I knew the movie was going to be coming soon, but the trailer just seemingly blew my mind. It did not seem to take much to draw me into the world of Tron and want to know more.

At 22 years of age, I barely remember the original Tron movie. It released about five years before I was born and i will honestly say i have only seen bits and pieces of it. Having played Kingdom Hearts 2 multiple times, I am at least familiar wit Tron. Now, i want to watch the movie in its entirety thanks to this new trailer.

The characters, even those that do not offer one line of dialogue in the Tron Legacy trailer, captivate me and I want to know more about them. I have even screencapped the females - for future, cosplay purposes.

This movie definitely excites me. 12/17/2010 can not get here soon enough. Check out the trailer at the youtube link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9szn1QQfas

Movie Reaction: Splice

I hestitate to call this a review, so I won't. Instead, this will be my reaction to the movie Splice, which I saw this afternoon. There is just no way I could write a decent enough review to something that left me going "WHAT THE H###!?" afterward.

When I first saw the Splice trailer months ago, it seemed like a new scientific/sci-fi take on cloning. I expected a lot of messages about playing God (and not to do it) and I think that this message was set up early on with dialogue from a minor character.

I also thought the movie would be more a thriller then it was, but I think the climatic, thrilling scene was enough after all the WTF-moments the movie has delievered...and it still kept punching the audience in the face till the very end.

Rape. Incest. Beastility. Playing creator. Messing with science. This movie should, as my boyfriend put it, be shown as a warning to all scientists/bio-chemists so they will not attempt splicing or cloning. The movie was pretty disturbing, but I think the creators had to know that because they continuously pushed the envelope...continuously...When viewers thought it could not get any worse, it did. The shocking ending just left a bad taste in my mouth and made me dislike the Elsa character even more.

Actually, there did not seem to be a likeable character in the entire movie. I thought they were all crazy and, excuse my language, fucked up.

Even with all the WTF-moments, disturbing scenes, and the questioning of what was just seen, kudos to everyone involved with the movie and taking it to the extreme. Its certainly one of those movies you should see ONCE. If you see it more then that then you should question yourself.

Movies That Excite Me: Prince of Persia

The movie released a couple days ago and reviews have been mixed. I'll be seeing the movie this weekend and here's how i feel about it before i go in:

I have not played the Prince of Persia games, unfortunately. Not that they haven't interested me, but i just have not played them. [note, however, that the newest game paired with the movie looks really really really bad] So, i am going into this movie as a Disney and Pirates of the Caribbean fan moreso then a person that has played the games. Even so, video game movies have been disapointing in the past. Video games offer up a new type of interaction that movies can not do. No matter how great a movie is - and i've seen some great ones - i still am very much aware of my surroundings, whether it be the crying baby a few rows up or the guy munching a bit to hard on his popcorn behind me. Video games allow me to immerse myself into a world and control a character to an extent. I do not understand how movies will be able to convey this, in my opinion, and even 3D movies can only do it to a certain point.

Even still, i have hopes that Prince of Persia will be an entertaining movie. A movie does not have to be earth shattering and move mountains in terms of new expressionalism or new cinema techniques to be entertaining. I personally feel that people have judged the movie too harshly [although, i am saying this WITHOUT having seen it yet. The trailers still look highly enjoyable]

Its from the same studios and people that did one of my favorite movie series, Pirates of the Caribbean, but i thought the concept behing Pirates is far better then Prince, and also allowed for more creativity. Taking a theme park ride allows for nearly an entire world to be created and a story to be formed. Taking a video game means there is already a world that needs to be inhabited and fans that want to be pleased.

So, I am expecting this movie to be entertaining none-the-less. A few reviewers and commentors around the web have called it a bit boring and dry at points. I certainly hope this is not the case as it looks so wonderful in the trailers. and, as a cosplayer, i think the COSTUMES look great in the movie! They also look accurate to what i've seen of the games

Frank Miller's Xerxes

Frank Miller is at it again.

His latest endevor is a prequel to his comic, 300, and it will focus around that Persian ruler, Xerxes. Dark Horse will be releasing the comic the beginning of next year and Miller says it will be more complex then his other hit, moreso because it covers 10 full years before the storyline of 300.

Zack Snyder, director of the movie 300, says that he is waiting to read Xerxes and that he can not wait to adapt it to the big screen.

Personally, I loved 300. I went into the movie with high expectations and was not dissapointed. It was like a thrill ride, twisting and turning me with excitement and joy. I'm glad to see that there will be a prequel comic and perhaps a movie! Even thought i think prequel, sequels, and remakes are dominating Hollywood at the moment, its always exciting to see more of the world of really good movies.

Epilogue pictures from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

*HP spoilers in this posta

Its been a few years since the wizarding crew of the Harry Potter world defeated Voldemort (in a lackluster final battle) and moved on to get married and have some wizarding kids of their own. Although the book was a satisfying end to the Harry Potter series, the most dissapointing of all seven books was J.K. Rowling's attempt at an epiloque to tie up the series with a nice little bow.

I was never a fan of the epiloque. I read and reread it, but it still seemed unneccessary and read like something a fangirl would write - especially with the cliche marriages and children names. With the upcoming movies for Deathly Hallows, the epiloque will be in place. Recent pictures were released for the epiloque scenes and they are as dissapointing as the book.

Although the epiloque takes place 19 years after the final battles, the epiloque pictures showcase some badly aged characters. They look significantly older then they actually should be. In the pictures we have Harry, Ron, Draco + son, and a girl that maybe the daughter of Harry and Hermione.

I'm just very dissapointed in the photos. I'll always be a Harry Potter fan (and I'm very excited about the opening of Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando), but the movies have been losing steam just like the books did.