Box Office

This animated movie knocked the vampires and the werewolves off of the top spot...

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7019252947

Watching Movies

This time, it's two movies filled with fantasy and myth. Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief was the first movie. The second is The Wolfman.

Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief was at the top of my list after I saw the trailer. Looks cool. I did a little digging around and found out a lot of info. It turns out Percy Jackson is a book. A series of books to be exact.

So this would be another entry in the world of fantasy movies that are aimed at the younger crowds such as Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, Spiderwick, The Golden Compass and Twilight.

The difference between Percy Jackson and the rest of the movies is that Percy Jackson is more about the Greek Gods and myths. This already piqued my interest, mostly because I play Magic: The Gathering, or used to anyway and there were plenty of fantasy Greek creatures in play. Plus, I am a sucker for the fantasy stuff anyway.

So there story goes like this... Percy Jackson, a Demi-God (offspring of a God and mortal human), has been accused of stealing Zeus' lightning bolt. Percy has no idea of this and of his heritage. He was not aware of his mother's sacrifices to keep him safe and that his best friend is actually his protector.

It was until a Fury attacked him that all was revealed to him. Oh, wait, all was revealed to him after the minotaur attack.

See, Percy is the son of Poseidon, the God of the Sea, and Zeus' and Hades' brother. However, the power struggle in Olympia is quite bad that the Gods are almost always at each other's throats. Zeus declares Percy as the thief and will war with his brothers unless the bolt's returned to him.

Hades kidnaps Percy's mother in a bid to take the bolt for himself. So Percy, along with Grover, his satyr/protector and Annabeth, Demi-God daughter of Athena, travels across the country in search of the pearls that would allow them safe passage out of the underworld, along the way, encountering fascinating creatures such as Medusa (Uma Thurman, channeling Poison Ivy) and Hydras.

Percy has a tall order. He has to save the world from ending via the War of the Gods. He has to save his mother from the clutches of Hades in the Underworld. He also has to prove his innocence and return the bolt.

This movie has the right amount of action, drama, comedy, suspense and thrill to make it one smooth movie-going experience. Especially for me. Every time a creature comes up on the screen, I'd say its name first, then Annabeth would say it. :)

Guess Part II isn't far away eh? This is a cool poster! :)

Next is The Wolfman... I must admit I did not really wanna catch this movie at first. But then again, Emily Blunt's in it. I loved her in The Devil Wears Prada. :)

This movie started out slow, despite the opening scene... or maybe I was just too tired from the week's activities... but it slowly starts to pick up the pace and before you know it, you're feeling the suspense, the thrill and the scare...

The story goes like this... Benicio Del Toro's brother got killed in the opening scene and Emily Blunt wrote to him to give him the news. He returns to the home town to investigate but got attacked by the creature. Soon after, he himself started to transform into the werewolf.

I'm gonna say this... Hollywood casting sometimes give away the plot... case in point: Hancock. The leading actor was Will Smith, supporting was Jason Bateman. But why is Jason Bateman's wife played by Charlize Theron. Her star power was bigger than Bateman. Half way through the movie, you get to know the reason why. Her small part is actually bigger. If they had cast an unknown actress or some other lesser actress, then we, or rather I, would probably be surprised by the twist or red herring.

In this case, it was Sir Anthony Hopkins. His clout is bigger than all of the actors combined. Enough said.

All in all, an enjoyable entry in the fantasy genre and a good werewolf movie to boot.

New Moon

Finally saw New Moon yesterday! It was released last Thursday but that was the day before Raya Haji and I was leaving town that night. Did not get a chance to watch it in Kuantan...

Anyway, my colleague asked me to go and watch it with her so we went.

For those who haven't seen Twilight, here's a brief recap of the movie (courtesy of Wikipedia):

Bella Swan moves from Phoenix, Arizona to live with her father in Forks, Washington to allow her mother to travel with her new husband, a minor league baseball player. After moving to Forks, Bella finds herself involuntarily drawn to a mysterious, handsome boy, Edward Cullen. She eventually learns that he is a member of a vampire family who drinks animal blood rather than human. Edward and Bella fall in love, but James, a sadistic vampire from another coven, is drawn to hunt down Bella. Edward and the other Cullens defend Bella. She escapes to Phoenix, Arizona, where she is tricked into confronting James, who tries to kill her. She is seriously wounded, but Edward rescues her and they return to Forks, having killed James.

So now, in New Moon, the story continues as Bella is dating Edward... but during her birthday celebration, she got a cut and the scent of her blood caused one of the members of the Cullens family to attack her. However, she was saved... but Edward now thinks being in her life is/will cause Bella harm so he packs up his family and left. Bella, in all kinds of hurt, turn to Jacob Black, for comfort.

Jacob Black

In the mean time, the surviving vampires from James' coven, Victoria and Laurent is back and trying to take revenge on Edward and Bella.

Lucky for Bella, Jacob also happened to be a werewolf, or in this case, a shapeshifter that turns into a wolf. The wolves in Forks have been guarding the land from invading vampires.

Also, with her recklessness, Bella sees Edward's spectre so she decides to do all sorts of dangerous stuff just to see him again. This leads to a misunderstanding with Alice, Edward's vampire sister who gets premonitions. Alice thought Bella had committed suicide and so did Edward. Edward decided to die because Bella's dead.

Enter the Volturi, like vampire royalty or vampire police. Apparently, there are rules to vampiredom. The number one rule - vampire's existence must be kept a secret. Edward has broken the rules and Bella was ordered to be killed or turned into a vampire. A fight ensued for Bella's life but Alice settled it by having a vision that Bella would be a vampire in the future.

Also, here is where Bella's powers are further explored. She has the ability to resist most vampiric mental powers, which makes turning her into a vampire all the more attractive to the Volturi.

That's basically the movie. Phew!

So, here's the breakdown... New Moon is slightly superior to Twilight. Yes, not a lot of sequels are superior to the original movie (which should be a post on its own)...

Twilight did not have much to offer, except to introduce us to the characters and the courtship of Bella and Edward. It was a good movie, but the lack of vampiric action was its ultimate downfall. Plus, The Twilight Saga actually deviated from the popular vampiric lore AKA cross, stakes, garlic, holy water, sunlight... Twilight vamps do not burn in the sun, they just glow... which turned off a lot of people... :P

Anyway, New Moon has shapeshifters and the shifters brought in the action. Edward was missing for much of the film but it did not make a difference. Guess the movie is really about Bella... and although some say the scenes between Jacob and Bella's too long-winded, I enjoyed watching the two of them... which makes me officially Team Jacob... hehehe...

So, the bad... some of the acting could have been better... Taylor Lautner is definitely the breakout star of New Moon and his body is near perfect but his acting is sometimes off and it's not good when the wolf's emoting better than the actor... same goes for Robert Pattinson... Kristen Stewart's acting was not bad... but some of her dialogues are very corny...

The Volturi's Jane as played by Dakota Fanning had a very interesting power... but watching her in this movie made me realize something about Dakota Fanning... don't get me wrong... I am a huge fan of hers, ever since her I Am Sam days... she was excellent in that movie but in all her other movies, she's basically portraying the same person but with a different name... that's not exactly acting... hmmm... maybe it's just me...

Anyway, I am super excited for Eclipse, part 3 in the Twilight saga... which would be released June next year...

Which are you? Team Edward...

or Team Jacob...

The full scoop on Twilight at Wikipedia