Always trying to be on top of pop culture, THE FUTURIST! decided to watch TWILIGHT last SHOCKtober to see what all the hullabaloo was about. SHOCKtober is the month he mainly concentrates on watching films of a sinister or supernatural nature and a film about a girl falling in love with a boy vampire seemed appropriate. TWILIGHT proved to be both a mess and surprisingly interesting to THE FUTURIST!. It was purely a badly written piece of teenage drivel designed for young girls who swoon at the idea of eternal love that never gets to the point of sexual consummation. The main characters are madly in love with each other, but any hanky panky is fraught with danger ... it will start with necking and end with, well ... NECKING. The contained hilarious dialogue, insipid plot points, vampires playing baseball in a thunderstorm set to rock music and ridiculous manipulations of the bloodsucker rules and regulations forever recounted in books and old films altered to suit the idiot plot of the story. On the other hand, THE FUTURIST! found it to be a beautiful film to look at ... the cinematography, set design and costuming of the characters, in earth tones and grays and browns, was subtle but obviously well thought out. The acting on the part of Kristin Stewart and Robert Pattinson was strangely dull, yet the passion the characters felt for each other was palpable on the screen. When the film enters its third act of violence and impending peril to the main characters, THE FUTURIST! felt a twinge of excitement. The director, Catherine Hardwicke, made great choices and set a melancholy tone to the proceedings. That tone was further enhanced by Carter Burwell's score. Mr. Burwell is the usual composer of The Coen Brothers' films. He has a minimalistic style that is repetitive, but never boring.
This past Friday evening, THE FUTURIST! was invited to watch the sequel in the TWILIGHT saga entitled NEW MOON. It was absolutely terrible ... bad acting, an even more insane idiot plot, awful dialogue and it had the pace of a elderly person with a supermarket basket in front of you as you try to progress down a crowded frozen food aisle. It went from this brooding tale set in the cloudy misty reaches of Washington State to Italy and a secret society of evil vampires in medieval robes. Ms. Stewart's acting this time was so ridiculous ... laconic, mopey, hysterical fits in her sleep and just so full of nervous tics. When you look at this girl, you wonder why any male would be interested. She acts like she swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills and had to be slapped between scene takes to be revived. Robert Pattinson was obviously repeatedly hit on the head with a canoe oar before reading his lines. And what can one say about Taylor Lautner, the wolf boy, except that he was absolutely ... well, just use the first syllable of that adverb. That's all he was on the screen. The direction was totally different from the first film. Director Chris Weitz made no impression on THE FUTURIST!. This was a TV Movie with CGI effects; bad CGI effects ... really bad.
And this time the music by Alexandre Desplat was dull, but had the requisite cliche explosive moments and still a big YAWN. It had no character and created no mood.
Carter Burwell's music created a mood ... it enhanced the film. It was like a good cheese on a ham sandwich. It was a delight.
Listen:
I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE composed by Carter Burwell from the film TWILIGHT (2008)
TF! read so much criticism of the 1st entry. IT was well directed. He loved the closing credits as they rolled over a shot of the reflection of bare trees in a still like.
2 comments:
Very interesting overview of the Twilight films. Still haven't seen any. Meant to watch the first one, as it's directed by Catherine Hardwicke.
TF! read so much criticism of the 1st entry. IT was well directed. He loved the closing credits as they rolled over a shot of the reflection of bare trees in a still like.
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