Twilight

Last night was the premiere of Twilight, directed by Catherine Hardwicke. The crowd was thick with giggling 17 year old girls dressed in "Team Edward" or "Team Jacob" t-shirts. I've never read the books so I'm proud to say that I came to the viewing completely neutral on the warring factions and on the film itself. The movie turned out to be, as my friend put it, "porn for teenagers."

The premise of the story is pretty simple. Bella is the new girl at school, pale despite her Phoenix origins, who easily falls in with the right crowd. She attracts the attention of every guy in school, most notably Edward Cullen, one of the "weird" kids. And of course, it turns out that he's a vampire, and despite all that he goes through to keep himself away, he and Bella end up in this lustful romance. It takes Bella on a whirlwind trip away from normalcy and straight into a supernatural adventure with strong sexual themes.

Bella comes face-to-face with with several sexual dynamics. The first is Jacob, the "boy next door" whose skin is oddly tanned for a guy from Washington State. He's from a local Indian tribe and teaches Bella some of the local lore. Then there's Mike and Eric, her two high school friends that ask her out between fits of giggling. There's Edward, of course. And then finally there's James, another vampire, whose sexual prowess so far more mature and frightening than anything little Bella has had to face before.

One thing the movie develops very well is its high school characters. Hardwicke is very careful to takes the movie's high school characters seriously rather than letting them become caricatures. Even though the reason for Bella's integration into a school group feels forced and is explained with a quick "You're like a shiny new toy," it feels more like her making friends was to move the plot along and get the the good part more than anything else. For a movie that attempts to flow naturally and build organic relationships, this was the most awkward part.

The actors playing the high schoolers were spot-on. They weren't given very many lines or very many scenes but had to communicate their characters and relationships with a few subtle looks and a lot of body language. They did an excellent job, particularly Jessica Stanley (Anna Kendrick). It is the fault of far too many high school movies that they let the immaturity of youth become a joke and devalue the story that is being told. Hardwicke made sure that the kids felt like they were part of the joke and that we were laughing at the characters rather than their situation. Mike and Eric's attempts at asking out Bella were just awkward enough to be real and slightly nostalgic.

But of course the real meat of the story is Edward and Bella's relationship. The driving force of the obsession with Twilight is of course Edward's reaction to Bella, which Robert Pattinson pulls off perfectly. If Pattinson had taken the role any less seriously, it would've been campy, but he keeps the role genuine. Kristin Stewart, on the other had, was flat. Hardwicke was apparently going for a neutral take on the character but Stewart just couldn't pull off the role. Any emoting that the character did felt like Hardwicke was posing her rather than feeling as if she had any genuine conviction, and because of Stewart's lack of presence on screen the scenes between Edward and Bella were not magical. Each scene felt as if they should be sexually charged and make all the girls in the audience melt. Pattinson tried to force sexual energy into each scene, each gaze, and each adoring line, but Stewart's constant blank face took away from any chemistry. She's the human and he's the undead- why is she the one that is so cold then?

But that's not to say that she ruined the movie. Stephanie Meyer's book had one more plot twist- the introduction of another clan of vampires, named Victoria, James and Laurent. James is a tracker vampire who now intends to hunt Bella both for the pleasure of the hunt and Edward's rage. His performance creates a sexual force that is more mature and terrifying. Whereas with Edward and Bella's relationship there is a fear of the unknown and a sense of Bella's naivety, James' pure pleasure in the hunt is dripping with overtones of rape and fear.

The entire movie works to be a combination of a forbidden love story and a terrifying initiation into adulthood. Hardwicke shot the movie only when it was foggy outside, both for story reasons and to set the tone of the story. Each scene was tightly packed, and with the exception of a meadow scene, each scene developed the story's plot. Unfortunately, unless you have read the novels, what was going on on-screen sometimes didn't make sense. Hardwicke's insistence on using a hand-held camera for many shots often took away from the scene. The story is so beautifully and artfully developed that the grittiness and reality of using a hand-held took away from that and lowered it. We're not supposed to be in reality.

Overall, the story was interesting. When the DVD comes out I hope that they have an optional "screaming fangirls" over the movie so that non-fans know which parts are important and which aren't. The only people who are really going to be interested in the film are the ones who are already fans of the series. Everyone else is going to be left scratching their heads.

Sam and Fuzzy

Today's webcomic is Sam Logan's Sam and Fuzzy, a webcomic revolving around the adventures of mild-mannered taxi-driver-turned-ninja-emperor Sam and his best friend/worst nightmare Fuzzy, a living teddy bear. Clever name.  It's one of the most popular webcomics around, and with good reason- the characters are charming, the stories are interesting and the artist himself comes off as a nice guy.

The webcomic started off in 2003 as being rather typical.  Each update was originally a gag revolving around Sam's mild-manneredness and Fuzzy's violent tendencies.  As Logan's skills developed his plots developed with him, growing into longer, more complicated story arcs.  A few years into his webcomic Logan took a big leap and started one of the longest, most convoluted story lines that's just now reaching its climax.  I'm being purposefully vague here, as I don't want to give away any surprises, but I will tell you that ninjas, flying buildings, clones and Elvis Presley are involved.  Each individual comic does still end with a joke, but now it works to build the plot rather than being the exclusive part of the comic.  Each twist is based on something that was hinted at earlier in the comic rather than being a deus ex machina; this sophisticated story telling ability is one of Logan's and the comic's greatest qualities.

One thing that hasn't changed a lot is Logan's art.  He has stuck to the same stark black-and-white art that he's had since 2003.  He's cleaned it up a lot, expanding from the small four-panel format and worked to make his art a lot more clear, but it's still not as easy on the eyes as other comics.

Logan himself is charming.  Each comic is accompanied with a newspost/blog where Logan chats about video games, music, his business and community, and life outside of the Internet. He comes off as likeable and easy-going with an excellent taste in music.  Why are all the charming people in Canada?

Although Sam and Fuzzy is not my favorite webcomic, it is one of the best ones out there and I highly recommend it. 

Quantum of Solace

SPOILERS.

James Bond's latest film Quantum of Solace has arrived in theaters.  Except for a few trailers that were released I hadn't heard much buzz about the film.  Whether this was a good sign or a bad one I don't know.  When Casino Royale opened everyone was talking about it, about how it was revolutionizing the Bond films (again) and putting a new, completely different take on the character.  That theme of revolutionizing the Bond series was continued through Quantum, although not to the effect some people were looking for.

One of the main things that they were looking to change was to make the character far more brooding.  By introducing his love Vesper Lynd (a phonetic take of West Berlin, a city with dual personalities and interests) the filmmakers hoped to create more of a backstory on Bond and give his character more depth.  Unfortunately, except for his skills at poker and preference of alcohol, we know little else of our beloved James Bond.  The filmmakers then are left to focus solely on this development of his character if they want to go for very much emotional depth.  It's not much to work with and as a result Quantum suffers for it.

Bond, then, spends the film attempting to replace the intimacy and trust that he lost when he lost Lynd.  The film revolves around his relationships with three women, particularly two of them- Strawberry Fields (in the dialogue in the film she refers to herself only as Fields), M and Camille.  M is assigned to be his mother figure (even Bond calls her that at one point) and Camille is supposed to be his replacement for Vesper.  Fields fills in as the typical Bond girl, although in this modern age she's also given the chance to kick some butt of her own.  The most important thing about her death: it pays an homage to an earlier Bond film at the same time that it develops Bond's continuing conflict of intimacy and the consequences of his actions.  M spends the movie trying to decide if Bond is loyal to M6 or not, supporting or blocking his actions as the plot calls for it.  Her wardrobe is matronly rather than clean-cut and professional as the rest of her crew is, although her demeanor and black-and-white palette is meant to give an icy feel to her scenes.  Although she is meant to serve as Bond's conscience she serves more to make up excuses for Bond's behavior.

Camille is the character that has the most interaction with Bond throughout the film.  She, like Vesper Lynd, is a strong woman that is "damaged goods."  Although there is very little chemistry between the two, I suppose there is a "bond" there.  Just like Bond rescues Vesper Lynd during her emotional crisis after killing a man, Bond rescues Camille, only Bond washed Lynd of her sins while he pulls Camille from a fire.  She serves as a mirror for Bond- she, too, uses sex to get what she wants, worked for a larger government organization to get where she needed to go and seeks revenge.  It works to help absolve Bond of his sins.  Her story feels almost forced and more time is spent learning her plotline than any time on Bond's.  

All in all, the story felt very short.  Because of Bond's emotional vacancy there wasn't much room for much plot development, which made it difficult to build up tension.  The fight scenes didn't help at all.  The opening scene was juxtaposed with a horse race.  There were no contextual clues given to connect the horse race to the interrogation scene, and it wasn't until later on in the scene that we realize the two are even close to each other.  There is no reason for a horse race to happen, as it doesn't develop the plot any except to give the film the kind of exotic taste required of any Bond movie.  Many plot elements happen the same way- the horse race, M blocking Bond's cards and passports, etc.  They are all there to take up time and move the plot.  It would be nice if the directors could decide if this was a plot driven story (and drop the Vesper Lynd subplot) or an emotional and character driven story (and stop that Bolivia nonsense.)  

I would recommend this film to any Bond or action movie fan.  However, if it wasn't a Bond movie, I doubt this movie would be well received or get any kind of box office.  It seems the producers are trying to hard to make a Bond movie and not make a solid movie.  Let's hope they get it the next time.