Twilight

Yep, I did it. I watched the first three Twilight movies? Why? because I thought I was going to be seeing the fourth movie over the weekend. The weather stopped that from happening. I've been to sequels without seeing the one before and you do often feel a little lost. Spiderman 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 are two that I went with friends before seeing #2. This time I decided to prepare. I have not read the books. I am not into vampires. I am not into teen fiction. And I am definitely not into Twilight.

That being said, they weren't terrible. I read a review on them afterwards and one of the things someone ranted about was, well, crazy. This man was ranting about the waiting to have sex until marriage (twilight was written by a Mormon Not a very strict Mormon apparently because unless it isn't in the book there was an awful lot of booze drinking then again maybe just the vampires were Mormons...). The idea that you only need to have sex with one person actually bothered him. He was worried about young girls being influenced by this. Seriously? In this day in age where promiscuity is rampant he is concerned that teenage girls are going to not just sleep with any dude? Kind of a creepo if you ask me.

But back to the actually review, not a review of another review. It wasn't too terrible. I have watched worse movies. And I may be one of the few people that actually watched Robert Pattinson in another movie first. I must say the acting did improve over the movies. I honestly thought Bella's twitching was a little overboard. Or a lot. The only thing that saved her from totally annoying me is I actually have known someone in real life who fluttered and twitched as much as her in real life. And it was a nice person I liked so I just dealt with the annoying eye batting in real life. A little harder on the scene.

The first movie got me interested. It did its job. I did find Bella's obsession really, really annoying. And not really a good example to teenage girl's who always think they are in love when they really have no idea what love is. I do not like Horror movies. I think they are awful and really don't need to be watched, by anyone. But somehow, even thought there were "horror like aspects" of this movie I wasn't really ever scared. I did not find myself on the edge of my seat or clinging to my husband in fear. If they were going for terrifying it didn't work on me. Which is saying something as I don't watch scary movies as I said and therefore am not immune to them.

I did not enjoy the second one and actually had to force myself to watch the third. It dragged on, had no flow, and Bella's obsession was over the top, reach into the screen and smack her upside the head. Plus the CG wolves were awful. You would think a movie that made so much money could put a little better effort in. As I have not read the books I do not know if they ruined the plotline or were staying true to the book but I do know my imagination could have made a better wold than they did. And of course there was Jacob. A nuisance side story to me creating a love triangle that I found just frustrating. I am sure there are those who loved it. To each there own. The end was really dramatic and picked the speed and the direction of the movie up very well. So that did help the whole movie. But seriously, just bite her after all. We all want to know her special powers and why make Edward do it. Seriously. But I suppose you must have some story left to continue on.

The third one I enjoyed better the second. I found the storyline easier to follow and not just Bella pining for Edward. This is also where we find out that Edward doesn't want to have sex with her not just because he may kill her but also because he is old fashioned (like honestly, he is really from another time). Obviously this is where the man from the other review was so disturbed with the "Mormon undertones". Finishing the third one actually made me want to watch the fourth one... after both parts are out and we can steal them from the internet. Not illegal in Canada. Don't usually do it except with movies I actually have no desire to spend good money on. The CG was still terrible but somehow it isn't as terrible when you are actually enjoying the movie instead of waiting for it to end. I liked that some unexpected things happened so it wasn't quite so predictable anymore. And Dakota Fanning is still creepy. Plus I really  noticed less twitching and fluttering from Bella. I looked for it to make sure.

Would I recommend these movies? Only if you actually want to see them. Otherwise you aren't missing anything groundbreaking. Do I think Edward is good looking? When he smiled and wasn't looking like a vampire. Would I let my child watch them? No. Way to0 violent and over the top obsessive behavior.

Puss in Boots

Ah hah, I finally watched another movie. And felt good enough to write about it.

Saturday, my husband and I took our 21 month old daughter to her first movie. She loved it and was excellent. But cats are her number one recognizable animal and movie theater pop corn was a hit.

First off, it is not just another Shrek movie. In fact, if you are expecting Shrek like you will be disappointed. There still is fairy tale creatures in it but the setting is more southwestern (Zorroesque of course) than fairytale land and there are a lot of non-fairy tale characters.

Because I was more interested in my daughter's reaction I would have to say I need to watch it again to see if I liked it. I didn't hate it. I enjoyed the story and of course Puss is my favourite Shrek character so a movie dedicated to him is always fun. But being side tracked took away from the show and also made me anticipate the end. (anyone who has taken a young child to a theatre will know you are waiting the whole time for them to be done with it and make a scene)

The show did have a moral message and also was not over the top pop culture like Shrek. It also was very mild on the crude humour at least in my opinion.

So that is my rather vague take on the movie. I promise if I think of something else when I watch it on dvd I will give a more in depth review of it.