More Twilight Related Drivel

So I was sitting at my third viewing (that's right, lets just establish I'm a dork/freak and be done with it, shall we?) of New Moon on Tuesday and couldn't help but notice the kinship I felt with Robert Pattinson. I think it was specifically apparent this time because of my viewing companions. They were heavy with the appreciation on Jacob Black/Taylor Lautner. Not that I didn't appreciate him, and I will say I sympathized with his character in this movie more than I ever did while reading the book where I was all blah, blah, blah, you're nice or whatever but where's Edward? Honestly though, I found his body kind of distracting in a freakish kind of way. His abs looked like six grapes bunched together under his skin and his traps were like, up to his earlobes! I kept whispering to Peter "Dude! His traps are CRAZY!!" which I hope he didn't misconstrue as "which is hot!" because is was more like "He looks like some sort of mutant." Many people have been confessing their guilty (due to his age) love of him and while I think he is adorable if I have to choose a wolf I firmly choose Paul/Alex Meraz (on the far right).

ANYWAY, It really struck me during the Edward reveal part (which after seeing on the big screen I am forced to admit that perhaps his "abs" were enhanced in some way as they were rumored to have been, even so, I don't care!) when my friend muttered "His body just doesn't look as good as Jacob/Taylor's does." to which I replied very defensively - "He's genetically incapable of achieving that physique, and he more than makes up for it with his brilliance in all other areas!" Sensitive? Yes, I do believe I am. On his behalf and mine.

It's pretty obvious that Robert (and his trainer) put a lot of hard work and time into making him look that great and as he adorably told Ellen DeGeneres it's the best his body has ever looked and he was proud of himself. He'll never achieve the results Taylor has no matter how hard he tries and shouldn't be held up to that standard anyway. I personally feel his pain since my own hard work gives me subtle visible results and I must settle for the knowledge that my heart and lungs are strong even if my body doesn't appear to be 'fit' when compared with the general standard of what that looks like according to society/the media.

In a nutshell, Robert and I are kindred spirits in that we are expected to look different than we were ever designed to and if we held ourselves up to those standards we could never hope to succeed. Also, we are both awesome.

And This is My Review

The first thing I feel I need to say is that Chris Weitz is a genius. Seriously, I feel like tracking him down and embracing him like a long lost loved one. I feel that strongly about him. When I heard that he was going to be directing New Moon I had high hopes because of his film adaptation of this book to this movie which I felt was nothing short of brilliant. (I chose to ignore some of the lower points in his career.) He not only lived up to my hopes but surpassed them infinitely.

It had everything that was lacking in the first installment. It stayed true to the book, rather than feeling like someone picked what they deemed were the best and most interesting parts of the story. It contained mostly dialogue directly from the book but also interspersed new dialogue that was current and sometimes comical.

The attention to detail was impressive except for the odd decision to have Edward driving a black Volvo something or other (looked more like an SUV than a car to me) instead of silver. Peter and I had a lovely moment during the scene when Bella goes to Emily and Sam's place and Emily puts the platter of HUGE muffins on the table. We looked at each other and said "Muffins!", thrilled to see something we'd imagined from the page translate so perfectly to the film.

The special effects were so close to perfect that it's almost not worth mentioning it's tiny short comings. The wolves, all things considered, were pretty awesome. Sam-Wolf in particular looked odd to me at times, I'm not exactly sure why, but the phasing and movement in general was spectacular.

Despite the (expected) lack of Edward in this movie it contained an eternity's worth of beautiful moments between he and Bella which didn't feel rushed at all. This was a huge source of comfort to me as I was nearly devastated by the fact that during Twilight every time it even came close to touching the intensity and passion of their relationship BAM! new scene, moving on to more important things. Um, excuse me, there is no more important thing than that. It's kind of the entire point dudes.

As Bon mentioned in her comment on my previous post, watching it on opening night in a packed theater full of crazed fans is an experience in itself. I refused to be annoyed by any of them, knowing that I'll be seeing it numerous times I couldn't possibly be concerned about missing anything. Peter and I both found it incredibly amusing to hear the whoops and hollers during various parts most of which included any male without their shirt on. (which incidentally is A LOT!) It was a total blast to be in a theater buzzing with so much excitement and energy.

In the risk of building it up too much I venture to say it is about a billion times better than the first and I do believe it is going to break even more records in the money making department. And where Twilight made it's money from the sheer joy fans had seeing their beloved book come to the screen rather than the fact that it deserved to do so well, this movie will deserve every single penny it makes due to its extreme excellence.

The Only 33 Year Old Sobbing in the Theater

In approximately six and a half hours I should be watching the opening credits to New Moon. In all of my excitement leading up to it's release I think I failed to consider one thing. That thing is the emotional devastation I am likely to experience during the film. Somehow the hype had totally distracted me from the memory of first reading the book and how I spent a good 100 pages of it in a weeping, blubbering, sobbing state. I'm not exaggerating. It wasn't until today when I thought about the fact that seeing this all come to life on film may in fact be worse than reading it was. (I do doubt this, but you never know) I am comforted by the fact that I'll likely be surrounded by over one hundred emotionally fragile teenagers who will likely be hysterical. My sobs will almost certainly go unnoticed, except by my husband who will quietly squeeze my hand and wonder to himself how he ended up being dragged into this whole phenomenon. My answer to him would be "Because you are a better man than most." While some people are annoyed by the crowds and the fact that the majority are so young, I find it entertaining. I giggle when I hear the cheers and gasps as the male leads appear on screen. I enjoy the whole experience. I can't wait.

I'm polling my two readers. Shall I write a review? Yes? No? I mean, we all know what happens right so what could I possibly spoil?

October Stuff in November

Here are some of the photos I never got around to posting in October.

These were taken at a local pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun riding on the little 'pumpkin train' (incidentally the seats in said train were NOT designed for adult bottoms!) and walking through the corn maze and the spook house.(Miss A insisted we go through like, five times. One of the times as we were about to go through again a boy who looked to be about 8 came out crying. I couldn't help but wonder why it didn't bother A.) A tried out the miniature zip-line, which of course, she loved... adrenaline junkie.







Pumpkin cleaning. Mostly she just spread the "guts" on the outside of it, giving the pumpkin a "bath". A's red eye is often so nuts that I can't get rid of it.



These are pictures I took the day of A's Halloween party at preschool.







This is a picture taken at work on Halloween. It is the reason I left my camera there and didn't get any of my kids on Halloween night. Boo me. Oh well. My friend took a couple when we were at her house trick or treating. I was a 'Mod' girl, in case you were wondering. I was asked several times that day "Who's Maude?"

I'm Still Me

I am planning on posting cute pictures of the girls from Halloween but due to the fact that I am a dumb@ss I left my camera at work on Saturday. You know, because it's more important to take pictures of my coworkers in their costumes than my children. Mama fail.

Anyway, I just watched this video and I realized that by this time when Twilight was SEVENTEEN DAYS away from opening I would have posted tons of fan related stuff. So, for those of you who dig this, enjoy.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon Volturi Featurette

Trailer Park | MySpace Video

AND for those of you who are crazy, like myself, I realize that the content of this video confirms a change to how the whole Volturi thing actually goes down. For now, I am filing this under "liberties taken which I can live with". I can justify it currently by stating that it will certainly make things more exciting. And also Robert doesn't have his shirt on, so how bad could it be?