Unfinished Projects

Well, I’m not going to use it to rant. That’s what Livejournal is for however, and I’ll leave the rage over there.

What I -will- talk about here though is my seeming obsession with movies and books. And not just any old movies and books, but those that fall within my realm of intrest that were books turned “Hollywood” or vice versa.

All the rage right now is Vampires. Among the most forward Fan raised is The  Twilight Series. The 4 book series was written in 2005 – 2008. That’s a book per year. I’m not a fan of Ms.Meyer’s adaptation of Vampires, specifically the ‘Sparkle’ as I don’t see that being real to any level of Vampire folk lore. A friend on Facebook said that the only time Vampires should sparkle is when they step into the sun and explode. That’s as close as it should be. I’m not far off from agreeing with them.

However, aside from my utter distaste of that portion, I read the first book, then watched the 2008 Movie to compare. In my experiance a lot of book to movie sujects always loose something in the media translation. This is no less true for Twilight.

Book 1 : Twilight

The story over all is good, and I think it’s a decent read for someone in their early teens. I enjoyed it over all but I feel like it lacked something important. I don’t know what it was. I don’t have a major in English, I don’t study writing or how everyone says it should be done, but what I do have is an insatiable love of books. Mostly of the Sci-fi/Fiction/Fantasy genre, and my collection of books only serves to grow larger.

The characters are full through with simple desires and the courage to struggle through what is Teen Angst. While S.M. did a wonderful job of capturing the fight of what one should do and what one wants to do in that age group, it felt too constructed. You might say that because it’s a book, I’d get that feeling anyway. That’s  not true. David Eddings for example draws me in so deeply into his Belgariad and Mallorean series that I am left straining to know what they are doing and thinking, and how they are feeling. Meyer doesn’t get far enough into her charecters to make me feel like they are seperate from their writer.

Final thought: It’s a decent book, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it good. Perhaps the next 3 books will give me something more then what this one did.

The Movie: Twilight

Very well done I think, as far as filming goes. The characters however fail to impress upon me what Ms. Meyer wrote about them. In the book, she describes one of the Main Characters, Edward, as a very fluid emotional guy. She explained what he was doing that instantly portrays to my mind what she wanted him to do. The movie lacks that quality, although I’m not blaming the actor, perhaps only the Director.

They way they handled the action though was nice and felt as realistic as a story about these kinds of Vampires can feel. It seemed like a major part of the book was left out of the movie, although it was almost word for word from said book.

The girl who played Bella did very well; I really could understand the charecter from even just how she turned her head and looked at Edward in a few scenes. The only thing I failed to enjoy was the lack of Happiness emotion. Sure there was plenty of fear and nervousness, and a hint of “You kinda overpower me with your awesome sexiness,” but there wasn’t a part that I can remember where she really looked pleased with anything. Maybe it’s just me.

The guy who played Edward was visually appealing to the part, and pulled off a lot of the angst, but felt much less defined then he was in the book. This character defiantly lost something of his charm in translation. He wasn’t nearly as intruding as before, and I found myself quite a bit less attached to Edward.

Oh, the Cullen Family did marvelous, portraying exactly as they read. Alice specifically caught my attention as did Carlisle. I couldn’t really feel anything off with them.

Final Thought: A good movie, though not something I would strive to put on my Movie Rack.