It turns out that zombies really do live among us, sometimes masquerading as college students. This was a planned event run by a Resident Assitant from Crown College at UCSC. The game was played by humans trying to defend themselves from zombies by using Nerf guns. Many thanks to Warren Singh for putting the event on. Check out Zombies Attack Crown at the PJSquared blog.
This is a little behind, I know. Last week’s episode of Heroes was in many ways completely different from any episode before it. The characters acted differently, the themes discussed were radically altered, and above all it made better use of music than the show has to date.
Now, Heroes has music. Or, to put it more correctly, Heroes has thematic musical accompaniment. As in, Heroes has that background audio track that highlights the mood that the current scene is setting. When the the few bars of the “Heroes Theme” start up, the audience knows something new is happening, and its the variation on the theme that drives home exactly what Tim Kring and Co. want the audience to feel. However, before Into Asylum, Heroes had never really made use of external music, at least not as noticeably as in this episode.
There were two instances where external music was heavily displayed, but I’m going to focus on one of them. Most notably, the song “Runaway” by Del Shannon (iTunes link). Having that song playing in Danko’s car when Sylar pops up to try and form a partnership to catch fugitive Heroes is a fantastic use of external media. I thought it was double plus good that the song was being played in the rain, because that song has always been associated with the rain for me. That could be just my thing, though. However, while it complemented the moment well, this use of a song not part of the “Heroes Theme” stable is odd, and seemingly more fitting for another show. A show radically different from Heroes.
Supernatural, from Season 1 up to the point where I’m currently watching (Season 3 Episode
4, I think), uses a corral of spectacularly-fitted Classic Rock tunes to highlight the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of the Winchester boys. It’s a large part of the joy, at least for me, in watching Supernatural. Seeing this kind of musical pairing in Heroes made me pause for a moment, but as soon as I let go of my notions of how a Heroes episode “should” go, I found myself enjoying those moments of Heroes as much as I enjoy Supernatural. And lately, that’s really saying something.
Why this radical shift in Heroes style? My guess is that the producers, writers (I didn’t really say anything about the writing, unfortunately, but the ideas in this episode were off the beaten path and yet interestingly refreshing), and directors of Heroes are trying something new to see if they can reignite some of that Season 1 passion. I say, bring it on and bring on my of it. This season has, especially in the first half, been so wrapped up in the details of itself that it lost site of the big issues it could be dealing with. Changing the formula might not work in the short term, but the end effect could be a heroically better show.
Tonight saw the return of J.J. Abrams alternative science TV thriller, Fringe, and it was quite honestly a return that whimpered rather than banged.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually quite enjoy the show Fringe and having been eagerly awaiting its return to the airwaves, enough even to brave a few minutes of American Idol while waiting for the show to start. However, for a show that opened its season with a plane crash, then quickly followed with teleportation and buses full of killer goo, the discovery of a psychic child who helps Olivia, the show’s protagonist, find a killer seems a little lackluster.
In this episode, a construction team is set to demolish a building. The episode setup of explosives and wires seems promising, but a construction worker has a feeling that leads him to discover a hidden underground chamber, wherein lies Batboy, terror of a secret past. Sorry. Bad joke. In reality, he finds a small, pale child who may actually be seventy years old, an impressive feat even in today’s world of technological marvels.
The child is discovered at the same time as an old killer from Olivia’s past resurfaces. Olivia obviously wants to track this killer, but is commanded from above to investigate the child, with Bishops in tow. Olivia discovers that the child has a psychic ability that allows them to track the killer, who calls himself ‘the Artist,’ due to his clever rearranging pf his victims’ body parts before publicly displaying them. This episode does not lack for its attempt to show us the dark side of humanity.
Olivia and Co. are slowed in their pursuit of the killer by the CIA’s almost laughable attempt to disguise their taking of the psychic child. Olivia’s boss convinces Mr. CIA to let them use the child for one day so they can track the killer. Which they do. In about the simplest order possible. With one police chase, and one slightly tense thriller moment in a graveyard? Back alley? Miniature reproduction of 1800s London?
After this daring FBI run for justice, Olivia, who has developed a bond with the child, manages to sneak him away from the CIA and get him placed with a nice family, where he will be loved, and cared for, and play with bunnies and unicorns for the rest of his days. It is in these final happy moments that we see the greatest character to barely utter a word in television, the Observer. He shares a glance with the young psychic child, and the audience is granted a possible view of an Observer in training. The pattern does exist, and thank Abrams.
Every once in a while, an TV series needs a development episode without a lot of action. Dollhouse has had a lot of these, and Fringe is definitely due, but perhaps the timing could have been better. Backstory on the Observer is something that I greatly enjoy seeing, but for Fringe’s return after two months of silence, I would have liked a little more bang for my viewing buck.
No, we are not dead. I have just been insanely busy with the Crown College Social Fiction Conference. What’s the Social Fiction Conference, you ask? A week ago I would’ve been thrilled to give you the canned response I’ve been giving for five months. Now, I invite you to please investigate the Social Fiction Conference Website. Its so cool it deserves the capital W. Really, check it out.
In other, honestly blog-related news, I have finished Season 1 of Supernatural, and will hopefully be giving a review of that soon. There are quite a few things I should be reviewing, but probably not enough time to review them. Check out io9. They have the more people and theoretically more time.
That’s about all I have to say about that. Stay tuned. Live long and propser. Peace be the Journey.
I would like to personally extend a huge thank-you to the io9 team for bringing the most up-to-date and accurate Scifi news and reviews possible. And for giving us an amazing collection of the best Twilight critiques possible. Find it here:
So, this will in all likeliness be the last Repo! post for a while, unless Anthony Stewart Head descends from the Heavens and commands me to continue writing about it. Hey it could happen. In all seriousness, my comparison of Head to an angelic being isn’t a mistake: He is the guardian angel of this film.
Maybe the problem is that I came in with my hopes too high. The trailer for Repo! is more exciting than some action movies in their entirety (I’m looking at you, Blade Trinity), and its soundtrack is a blood-pumping mix of metal, opera, and rock, with some light techno thrown in for flavor. Listening to the soundtrack is what one imagines Andrew Lloyd Weber would sound like on LSD.
The premise of the film, for those who, unlike me, didn’t spend three weeks trawling the forums for more tidbits on the November 7th release, is that in a dystopian future organ failure has become an epidemic, but salvation comes through the purchase of GeneCo’s replacement organs payed for with flexible financing plans. The problem? If you miss a payment, your organs are repossessed by a Repo Man, who usually takes your life in the process of removing the overdue organs. The film was conceived of by the guys who wrote it as a stage play, directed and produced by Darren Lynn Bousmann of Saw 2,3,4 fame, and stars Anthony Stewart Head, Alexa Vega, Paris Hilton, and Paul Sorvino. With all that going for it, what could go wrong?
Well, quite alot actually. The story is set at the beginning of the film by a series of comic panels with musical overlay that makes the viewer feel that he may have stumbled onto some performance art show by mistake. Once the intro is over, we are quickly introduced to all the major characters, and by quickly I mean within ten minutes. The plot follows that Nathan, the chief Repo Man, has a daughter that inherited a blood disease from her mother, and so is under effective house arrest. Most of the rest of the movie, therefore, is about her trying to leave the house.
That may sound overly cynical, especially given the rather excellent ending scene at the Genetic Opera, but Alexa Vega is what she is cast to be: an angsty teenager. The audience gets reminded of this multiple times, and each successive time feels a little worse. There is a song titled “Seventeen” where Shilo, the character played b Alexa Vega, acts like a punk rocker in front of her father, in what I’m guessing was a calculated attempt to show that 17-year-olds are punks. They could have cut that song and lost nothing.
The plot continues, secrets are revealed, Shilo confronts her Repo Man father as he tries to confront the villainous company that employs him (GeneCo) and generally makes life bad for everyone. I will choose to not give away the ending, as it is worth seeing in theaters if for nothing else to see Anthony Stewart Head sing. See it at a student discount of you can.
Since I brought him up, let’s talk about A.S.H. HE IS THE SINGLE GREATEST PIECE OF TALENT IN THIS FILM. Honestly, I don’t think I could have tolerated some of the scenes without him if it hadn’t been for the scenes with him. His character has more depth than the rest of the cast, and he perfectly pulls off the double personality of Repo Man and caring father to Shilo. I also do give props to Terrance Zdunich, who, besides wirting the film and drawing the albeit dicey comic intro, portrays an excellent Graverobber, and I wish there would have been more scenes between him and Anthony Head. It is possible, however, that putting both of them singing in the same scene would have made the rest of the movie look too terrible in comparison, so I understand why they’re normally a few scenes apart.
I feel like responding to some criticism I saw on another site, namely that the camera work is fuzzy and a little, well, terrible. That’s not untrue. I’m not sure why the shots came out looking so bad, but there a definitely points where it seems like the camera was a hari out of focus. I’m not sure why, but it decreases the credibility of the film. Unless they were trying to make an artistic statement the audience was not supposed to get.
That’s in a way the gist of Repo! It feels like a movie designed to polarize the audience that’s watching it, even if that audience came in expecting the second coming. It rolls more as an art piece than as entertainment, more critique on society itself than as something society is supposed to enjoy. Half the people who see it will probably hate it, but they will mask their hate for fear of being mobbed by the die hard fans who loved every grisly second. I fall into the camp of those who were die-hard fans of the movie until they actually saw it.
Review in a paragraph:
Repo! is heavily sexual, gratuitously gory, dark almost to the point of black, and misses some of its potential. Would I watch it again? Yes. In theaters? Maybe. If I’m with other die-hard fans it could be fun, but I would not willingly go to see it again by myself. They should have cut one or two number completely, reshot the entire movie with better cameras, and figured out an intro sequence that doesn’t feel, well, arty. It was a very good movie, not exactly what I was expecting and not a shining light to lead the major studios to making more movies like it, but a good attempt at something unique. All in all, the trailer kind of blew their wad.
Well folks, straight from the mouth of the people in the know over at the Repo! forum, here is the confirmed list of theaters… which will get updated as I know more.
“Los Angeles. California-Sunset 5
Pasadena, California-Playhouse
San Francisco, California-Landmark Lumiere
Berkley, California-Elmwood Theater
New York-Angelika
Austin, Texas-Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
Las Vegas, Nevada-Palms Casino (Brenden Theater)
Minneapolis, Minnesota-Lagoon Theater”
Please DO join the Repo! Forum, since those numbers help support the argument for a wide spread, but I’m posting the list so the average netizen can find it.
A personal plea: Yes, this blog is young, and has a readership of almost nil. However, to anyone who cares about seeing the new and different celebrated rather than trashed, you need to start acting now.
Repo! The Genetic Opera is literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Repo! is a Science Fiction Horror Rock Opera, and if that phrase alone doesn’t start your heart pounding, then I’m not sure what else I can say to convince you. Oh, well there is the fact that the male lead is played by Anthony Stewart Head, who you might recogninze from his excellent work in the Buffy-verse. Not to mention the fact that you get to see Paris Hilton look almost Goth.
Yes, that’s right. We get to see a raven-haired Hotel Princess sing her way through a production that has a trailer darker than most dark films. Other notable memorable members of the cast? Alexa Vega, who those of growing up in the right generation may remember as Carmen Cortez from Spy Kids. I always wondered what had happened to her, and it turns out she ended up playing the geneticically diseased invalid daughter of a Organ Repo Man.
Still need convincing? Check out the Repo! trailer. If the music and the cinematography don’t immediately grab you, then perhaps this musical masterpiece isn’t for you. However, if you feel you need just a little more convincing check out this scene: Zydrate Anatomy.I will confess that, being an old musical theater person myself, I am very addicited to the music. Every time I listen to the songs, I hear some new nuance that just enriches the whole experience. I encourage you to get the soundtrack and share in the moment.
So why the blog post? Besides my desire to spread the word about great things in the world of Science Fiction, we cannot be merely passive viewers of Repo! Wemight not be given the chance. The production studio releasing Repo!, Lionsgate Films, has so far said they will only be releasing the film in a handful of theaters across the country, the number rumored somewhere between four (one each in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Francisco) and ten.
How can you help? Start by checking out the Repo! Opera Forum, and seeing if there is already a Repo! Army running in your area. If not, start one. Beyond that, buy the soundtrack. Actually BUY, in some form or another. Large soundtrack slaes show the studio that there is real interest in the film, and may prompt an expanded release. Also, find a movie theater you like, call them up, and ask them if they’ve heard of the movie. If they haven’t, tell them about it and how much interest you have in seeing it at their theater. If they have heard of Repo!, ask them if they are showing it. If not, ask why. The more support we get for this, the better chance we have.
![eclipse Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer [Book Review]](http://immaculateobsession.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/eclipse.jpg "Eclipse")
Editorial note: I need a better writing team. This is just taking too long…
Some people just have all the luck. Unfortunately, sometimes that luck is quite profoundly bad. Take, for example, the protagonist of Stephenie Meyer’s “Three Down One To Go!” novel Eclipse. Third in the Twilight Saga, it almost serves as a perfect example of why you don’t fall in love with supernatural creatures. Bella, the abovementioned protagonist, has just come off from summer break after rescuing her one-true-vampire-love, and is now really bursting at the seams in her attempts to join her beloved (Edward Cullen) in immortality vis a vis being turned into a member of the anti-sunlight league.
At this point in the three-book-long plot arc, Bella becoming a vampire sounds like a great idea. Not only has the Cullen family promised the Volutri vampire law enforcement that they will turn or kill Bella because she “knows too much” (cue creepy thunder effect), but also because there is a renegade vampire hell-bent for leather on extracting against Bella revenge for the death of the rogue’s mate. Of course, it wouldn’t be interesting in there weren’t some real conflict, so Bella and the Cullens have to deal with a pack opf vampires that, due to some mystiuc legends and the archetypes presented by every vampire story ever, are the sworn enemies of all bloodsuckers. Even if those bloodsuckers, like the Cullen family, deliberately do not attack humans and go hunting for deer and mountain lions and a whole range of former Disney characters. The vampires and werewolves have an uneasy truce that allows both the live in resentful harmony, but this truce prevents the Cullens from biting anyone. Even if that bite is to save one of the vampires’ twit of a girlfriend from becoming the victim of a vampire power trip.
So here is Edward, torn between preserving the truce (and his girlfriend’s humanity, a commodity he has a almost insanely high regard for), and cementing the immortal bonds of love with his beloved Bella. Thnking himself quite clever, he comes up with the idea of having Bella marry him first, trying to use Bella’s fear and loathing of marriage (based on experience with he parents) to stall the time at which he has to bite her. Bella agrees to the idea of getting married at 19, and at the point that they would start happily planning immortality together, the rogue vampire with blood revenge on the brain shows up and starts making a mess of things. The werewolves and vampires extend their truce to a joint venture in the protection of Bella, since both sides have such a vested interest in her, and the vampiress is swiftly apprehended with a decent amount of suspense and derring-do. It comes out the Bella has agreed to marry Edward, and Bella’s old werewolf friend, Jacob (who has a very romantic inclination toward our young heroine) goes howling off into the night to morun his lot in life. The book ends with the beginning of preparations for the wedding, giving the Saga its biggest cliffhanger ending to date.
Despite my harsh descriptions above, I actually quite liked this volume of the Twilight Saga. It had a good balance of action to drama, kept up Meyer’s more than adequate writing style, and moved the plot closer and closer to that penultimate event looming since halfway through book one, that of Bella’s joining the vampire race.
I will admit I’m facing a struggle here as to whether I should critique the book itself or the hordes of teenagers who think this series is the pinnacle of the english language. I’m going to lean in favor of reviewing the book, but the words I have for the scremaing hordes will be heard at a later date.
One of the definite problems I had with this book, character-wise, is that Bella has yet to show any decisions bearing the mark of real matury. She is making decisions that are entirely appropriate given her emotional state, but that isn’t maturity per se. I wouldn’t be making such a big deal out of this, except she is using her emotional state to decide whether she should get married or become a vampire. My review of thie final book might will expand upon this, and my review of the sereis as a whole will mkae some definite motions that way, but that’s it for today. Keep reading!
For more shameless reposting of io9’s content, here’s a tasty tidbit about what Stephenie Meyer’s doing instead of working on more Twilight books:
Author Stephenie Meyer Blows Off ‘Twilight’ Sequel to Make a Music Video
In the next-generation world of “I, Robot”, brought to life by filmmaker Alex Proya, the existence of fully-functioning robotic assistants with human intelligence and post-human strength ultimately forces the entirety of the human race to challenge the definitions of “alive” and “human”. These questions are raised through the actions and reactions of the protagonist of the film, Detective Del Spooner. As Spooner moves through a society where robots are almost universally accepted as not being capable of harm, he alone questions the motives of a thinking, and whether the actions of person define their humanity. With the creation of thinking androids, the question is raised as to whether acting ethically, given a set definition of ethics, is all that is needed for citizenship in the idea of humanity.
The idea that there may be a machine as smart and stronger than the average human is an idea that would frighten many. The first question would be along the lines of what governs that machine’s actions; many would want to know whether the “robot” had a system of ethics or any moral system at all. While there are many theories as to what ethics truly means on a global human level, as a race humanity still has the sense that some set of guidelines determine our behaviors. Humanity would want to know that there is prevention against their robotic servants becoming the masters. As if to answer this question, the very first images the film presents to the viewer are the “Three Laws of Robotics”. The laws state that “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm,”, “A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law,”, and “A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.” These laws, designed as they are to protect humanity and make robots subservient, can be inferred by the viewer to be the deontological ethics system embedded into the consciousness of every robot; this assumption is later confirmed by interactions with Spooner and Susan Calvin, employee of US Robotics.
Despite the seemingly iron-clad resolutions of the Three Laws of Robotics, Spooner seems unconvinced of the true nature of robot-kind, displaying active prejudices to them throughout most of the movie. He even goes so far as to insult them, calling them “canners”, an utterly futile gesture since the robots have no emotion. Since Spooner cannot hope to break their spirit through prejudice and insult, the viewer can only think he displays his hatred of robots to reaffirm to himself how un-human they seem be.
From the beginning, Spooner’s actions throw into question the very idea of whether robots can be recognized as something close to human, as true participating citizens of our society. The viewer eventually learns that Spooner’s hatred of robo-kind stems from a traumatic incident in his past, namely a road accident that resulted in critical injuries for Spooner and the death of a young girl. A passing robot observes the scene, and, following its rules-based system of ethics, rushes to try and save Spooner. Despite Spooner’s pleas to save the little girl, the robot calculates that Spooner has a better chance of survival. When Spooner discusses this event with Susan Calvin, he subtly brings up the question of whether that cold, calculating, “clockwork” brain that robots possess denies them true entry into society.
Spooner’s personal ethics, and by extension the ethics which humanity is being defined by in this film, are presented here. The robot’s saving of Spooner was obviously an ethical action; the robot displayed a concern for human life. Ethics as Spooner defines them seem to be something more, seem to mean valuing some types of life more than another. However, concern for the young does not motivate Spooner’s thoughts, what seems to motivate his views on ethics is a concept of independent self-sacrifice. The robots are forced by their programming to sacrifice themselves for humanity’s sake, and are therefore unable to make the conscious decision that Spooner believes to be the criteria for entrance to humanity. Only a robot who could make decisions separate from the “Three Laws” could even hope to be considered human.
This raises an interesting question as to how many true humans might be rejected by Spooner’s definition of humanity. A deeply pious member of a religious group might spend his entire life living by the strict guidelines of his particular sect, never venturing so far as to make an independent decision. Would that person be considered a human, or would he have downgraded himself to the status Spooner gives to robots? Through Spooner, the film suggests that independent actions define humanity. How far does this definition extend? Does a person deny his or humanity by following when they should lead? Should those in the armed forces enjoy a lesser than human status because they only follow orders and do not make many independent decisions? These are tricky questions, especially given the way the movie treats the concept of the robots’ actions.
In the world of “I, Robot”, the robots are allowed independent action, enough so that they can function as servants, but they can take no action outside the bounds of the three laws. This lack of independent action allows most humans to breathe easy in the presence of machines that are better than they are; the knowledge that the robots have limits on their actions assuages the fear most humans might have. It is therefore no surprise when one of the main points of tension comes from the existence of a robot who is not entirely bound by the “Three Laws”, who has the laws as part of his consciousness but can choose to ignore them. “Sonny”, the name given to this unique robot by his late creator, was designed as a robot unique from both other robots and humanity, not completely a part of either group. It is discovered in the film that Sonny has two brains: one in his head, governed by the “Three Laws”, and another is his chest, which is free of all ethical constructs. Here, Sonny’s design is used to showcase two important points about the filmmaker’s view on ethics and what it means to be a citizen of society.
Sonny’s main uniqueness comes from the fact that he has as second brain, located in an area that most viewers would recognize as being akin to the heart, or more possibly the soul. This is the first point, that perhaps having a “soul” is a key part of being human, and that that soul does not necessarily create our system of ethics; Sonny’s “soul” does not have the “Three Laws”. Secondly, the filmmaker suggests that ethics are a construct of our brain, and, since all robots have these ethics, something more than ethics is required to be a true citizen of humanity. Once again, the independent commitment of ethical actions is seen to determine humanity.
When Spooner is confronted with a robot who can make independent decisions, his attitudes toward that robot change almost automatically. His initial response is, naturally, fear at the power the robot possess, but eventually he comes to see the robot in a different light. Where Spooner would normally refer to robots as things, there is a particular part in the film where Spooner refers to Sonny as “someone”. This distinction, small though it may seem, heralds the beginning of Spooner’s acceptance of Sonny as a true citizen of society.
At the end of the film, it is discovered that the massive computer brain controlling all the robots, has begun ordering the robots to create a police state among the humans; the computer interpreted the “Three Laws” to mean that it is responsibly for humanity’s protection on a global level. According to this super computer, this means controlling the entire human population. Sonny, thanks to the design of his creator, is free from the orders of the computer, and begins helping Spooner and Calvin with the resistance effort. In a scene reminiscent of Spooner’s car accident tragedy, Calvin is pushed from a catwalk by one of the controlled robots, and Sonny is in the closest position to save her. Spooner shouts that Sonny should “save Calvin”, which Sonny is hesitant to do since it might destroy the only chance they have of shutting down the super computer. There is a moment of indecision on the part of Sonny, but he takes a literal and figurative leap of faith to save Calvin. Literally he must use the limits of his robotic strength and intelligence to catch Calvin and stop their perilous plunge to the ground. Figuratively, Sonny has taken the leap of faith that his completely independent decision will turn out right; he is hoping that his first leap into true humanity will not result in the worsening of mankind.
It is the ultimate decision, the one that Sonny makes. His robot brain calculates that humanity enslaved would be a greater loss than the death of Calvin, but he chooses to help his immediate friends in a completely human gesture. Spooner and Calvin are now indeed Sonny’s friends, the first such friends that any robot in that society has ever had. Though Spooner takes another daring action as he defeats the super computer through destroyer nanobots, the hardest choice is the one that Sonny makes. He is now human, by Spooner’s standards, as near to humanity as any robot can be. He realized that, while ethics might define a man’s thoughts and influence his action, it is how he decides to act which truly demonstrates his humanity. In the trials of Sonny, the film has a lesson to teach the whole human race: that ethics should be the guiding principles which our societies are built on, but it is almost worse to have to have no ethics than to let the de-ontological ethics of society define our every action. Humanity needs to realize that, occasionally, the immediate relationships take preference over the global awareness; without interpersonal connections humans cannot call themselves by that name.
While I would love to do my own reviews about David Louis Edelman’s first two installments of the Jump 225 Trilogy (Infoquake and MultiReal), Charlie Jane Anders at the io9 Blog (a blog to which I owe a huge inspirational debt), has created what is porbably a far better one than I could write. Read it here, then read the books. You’ll be glad you did.
![newmoon New Moon by Stephenie Meyer [Book Review]](http://immaculateobsession.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/newmoon.jpg "New Moon")
What is this, Philip, the vampire lover’s anonymous blog?
No, but I feel I need to finish the review of this series. Relax, more good stuff is coming. Besides, I like this stuff.
While some people find the idea of being a vampire attractive because of the whole immotral power badassery, its unique to find someone who would be better off as a vampire because her life is too dangerous as it is.
Consider Bella Swan, protagonist in this the second of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga and nearly direct sequel to Twilight. Coming out of a summer spent with the love of her life, Edward Cullen, while recovering from her ordeal with some not-so-nice vampires at the end of the previous book, Bella is looking forward to an entire schoolyear with her true love. Despite the fact that Bella is petulantly against birthdays as rememberances of her aging against Edward’s immortality, the Cullen family throws her a birthday party at their estate just outside the small Washington town of Forks. Due to Bella’s inborn clumsiness and because the plot needs something interesting with which to drive conflict, Bella slips, cuts herself, and falls into a glass bowl, resulting in furhter lacerations. This sets up a lot, so let me repeat that: Bella (human) starts bleeding profusley in front of a family of vampires. For those of us who kept waiting for this shoe to drop, we got to have a little “I-told-you-so” moment with ourselves. One of Edward’s “brothers” and the youngest of the vampire bunch, goes blood-crazy and almost attacks Bella, while most of the rest of the family scurries off to avoid temptation. Edward and co. deflect the attack, and the good Dr. Cullen (Edward’s “father”) patches up Bella and sends her on her way.
Edward, who from roughly halfway through book one up until the end of book four (spoiler!) is deeply worried about Bella getting injured or killed just by hanging around him, and the entire family decides it would be better to just leave, despite the fact that Edward and Bella are only a minor sugery away from being attached at the hip. Bella is instantly heartbroken, in manner designed to tug at the strings of all tenn females everywhere, but which managed to warm the cold bitter heart of this college male (me). One of the only nice things about Edward and Bella’s breakup is it allows for a rather brilliantly styled time change. There are those who would say that Meyer’s use of four separate pages, each with a month name in light grey font (”October, November, December, January), is tacky and occasionally overdone. I disagree.
Edward’s (and by extension the Cullen Family’s) decision to leave Forks and Bella forever creates a moment of catharsis, of supreme emotional anguish, with no immedaite foil or relief in sight. It occurs in the first quarter of the book, and the feeling is that the book can only go downhill from here, emotionally speaking. The four-page time lapse is poetry deisguised as prose, using the minimum amount of speech to convey the most emotion. We can only take so many pages of psychological torment, especially since we’re seeing everything from Bells’ point of view. Those four pages allow our imaginations to fill in the blanks of what our protagonist must be going through, rather than just feeding us in explanation. In other words, it allows us to think as well as move the plot forward. (If anyone thinks I’m off the mark here, I would love to discuss it further, but I must go on.)
The stroy continues. Charlie, Bella’s policeman father, confronts Bella with sending her back to her mother in Florida, because he sees her so miserable in Forks. This prompts Bella to force herself back into the land of the socially active again, just so her father will let her stay close to the place where her true love once lived. Bella starts spending more time with Jacob Black, an old friend from Bella’s custody summers in Forks, and has a good time with him, but discovers another mark of her insanity – Oops, I mean, deep and abiding love for Edward. Every time she does something nail-bitingly, mind-bogglingly stupid, she hears Edward’s voice in her head telling her not to do it. Bella is by this time so desperate for any sign of Edward that she keeps doing amazingly stupid things. Like riding motorcycles, despite the fact that she has no natural balance. As well as taking her and her defenseless friend to the shadiest part of the nearest big city, in effect just asking for this book to reclassify its age level. Edward’s voice guides her through these situations, but sounds angry with her. Go figure.
I do have to say, from a reader’s perspective, and given the random vampire lore I’ve picked up over the years, I’m almost convinced by the end of the book that one of Edward’s supernatural powers (besides the mind-reading thing I keep forgetting to mention) is the ability to his voice into Bella Swan’s head.
Possibly the simultaneously most dumb and most predictable thing Bella does that qualifies as somewhat insane is start hanging out with werewolves. Yup, Jacob Black comes from a long and distinguished line of werewolves,as do most of Jacob’s friends. It comes as no surprise to the reader, given that Bella had no trouble with vampires, that she will have no trouble with werewolves. Most normal humans would be freaked out, however.
On top of all that, Bella has a vampire after her, hell-bent on revenge. That’s right, the mat of the the vampire Edward killed protecting Bella is back with a vengeance trying to kill Bella in revenge on Edward. Of course, while Bella’s furry new buddies are off trying to catch the rogue vamp, Bella decides to hear Edward in her head again by taking a little swim off a giant cliff. At which point, Edward’s fortune-telling “sister” sees what looks like Bella’s death, and Edward runs to the vampire law enforcement, the Volturi, to do something tupid enough to kill him, so that he can join Bella in death. Maybe its just my description, but this does sound a hair like a supernatural soap opera.
Bella rushes to Italy with Edward’s “sister” Alice to try and stop him, and manages to do so before they are all brought before the Volturi, who decree that Bella “knows too much” in the manner of secret societies everywhere. They make Edward promise to turn Bella into a vampire post-haste, and Edward agrees, because agreeing is so easy in the face of death. Everybody, Bella and all the Cullens, return to Forks, where Bella gets just a little more petualnt about how soon Edward will turn her, and the book ends with Jacob reminding Edward (and Bella) that the treaty between the Cullens and Jacob’s pack requires no biting, not just no killing. So, if Edward turns Bella they face a vampire-werewolf war. Skippy.
Alright, review time. As balse as I sounded about this Twilight installment, I’m still deeply fond of the series for its continued deciation to making the supernatural human, and its light supermatural appreciation of the human. There are no emotional experiences that feel contrite, and the pain that is in abundant supply in this novel feels real enough to make the reader pause and take a breat before continuing. Bella turning to another supernatural being after one breaks up with her feels, hindsight being 20/20, rather predictable, but that’s actually not a detractor here. The main detractor, for my money, is the strained love triangle that is on the rise once Edward comes back, since Jacob seems in no hurry to relinquish his feelings towards Bella. Seeing how this plays will be an interesting topic for the next review.
All in all, its a good read, obviously enough or I wouldn’t have read it. Since I haven’t mentioned it before let me ackowledge that Meyer’s writing style, while no Tolkien, really does try to bring the reader into the moment and often greatly succeeds in doing so. The series has enough momentum from this book and its predecessor that I’m hungry for more, but that will be in my review of Eclipse, so keep a weather eye.
![twilight Twilight by Stephenie Meyer [Book Review]](http://immaculateobsession.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/twilight.jpg "Twilight")
Wait, Philip. Didn’t you already write a Twilgiht review?
Yes, but I was crazy, biased, and it kinda sucked. This is a redo. I own the blog, and I’m allowed until people start complaining. Cheers.
Its actually refreshing when an undercurrent idea hits the main stream. Stephenie Meyer’s first book in the Twilight Saga quatrology takes an idea that has been stewing in the underbelly of fantasy thought, namely the idea that vampires can be rather excellent chaps when they’ve forced themselves to stop drinking human blood, and brings that idea into the shining, prismatic light of the bestseller list.
Now I know there are those who would say that the idea of “good” vampires has been around for at least a few decades, but the blood-sucking (yes, the vampires in Twilight suck blood, but the ones we like don’t suck human blood at all) members on the side of the protagonist take this farther. They try to be good and peaceful. None of them draws a modified robotic katana and slays other vampires while taking hits of a human-blood drug replacement. Yes, I’m looking at you Wesley Snipes.
So, as I launch into the bloody meat of this review (yes, I know I’m not that witty), let me start by saying that the humanity expressed in this book is more real than in a lot of other Fantasy novels with only human casts. Part of that realism comes from the fact that the “good” vampires in Twilight do not serve as a foil to the humanity of the non-vamps, but express incredible depths of humanity themselves.
As I am now tired of saying (quote) good (unquote) vampires when I could be writing one word, A taste of the plot follows: Isabella Swan, Bella to both her bloodsucking and omniverous friends, is forcing herself to live with her father in the remote town of Forks, Washington. This in order to make life easier on her drastically immature mother who’s touring the country with her rock star boyfriend. (Man, that didn’t sound nearly as weird in my head…) Upon arriving in the spectacularly small town of Forks, where Bella’s dad is the chief of police, Bella is thrown into the cloak-and-dagger cut-and-thrust of small town society. If that sounded a little sarcastic, it was, but luckily Meyer qucikly moves on to what is obviously the secondary focus of the book, the Cullen family. Comprised of five high-school age kids and their parents, the Cullen family children are stand-offish from rest of the student population, and Bella is advised by her newly minted friends to not even try getting acquainted, with the pale-complexioned, supermodel-esque Cullen children. Bella, of course, immediately notices a Cullen brother by the name of Edward, and sparks fly. Bella summons all the cool and courage she can simultaneously muster, and is repeatedly snubbed. I’m going to go fast now.
Bella is almost killed in an accident in the school parking lot, but is saved by Edward, who seems to stop a car with his bare hands. This makes Bella even more interested in Edward, despite the fact that an old friend named Jacob Black makes Bella suspicious of the fact that the CUllen family might actually be vampires, a fact she confronts with and gets confirmed by Edward. In a moment of either spetacular love or ludicrous insanity (I’m in favor of both here, actually), Bella decides she doesn’t care that Edward could kill her as easily as she can breathe, and sticks to her guns on that fact for the rest of the book. Edward, displaying amazing will power and sense of right, keeps trying to push Bella away for her safety but is irresistably drawn to her as she is to him. Their relationship grows at astounding rates, and all seems well until some wandering, non-friendly vampires come in for a visit and try to make a snack out of Bella. Edward saves her, she ends up in the hospital, and despite her undying (that sounds like a pun in the making) love, Edward seems unsettled by the sequence of events and wants to leave her for her protection.
With that, I am now going to designate the “good” vampires as the Cullens, since that’s what they are, and all other vampires will just be vampires.
Emotionally, this book is a kick. Let me prefeace what I am going to say by stating that I am a hetersexual male who deeply enjoys gory action movies, and refuses to reject reading certain types of literature jsut because some people think that puts his sexuality into question. I’m comfortable with myself sexually, and everyone else can grow up. So when I say how great the emotional and romantic portrayals are in this book, that’s me revealing that it cut straight to the hidden romantic in me, and used vampires to drag my action side along. I said earlier that the deep humanity (I really meant to say human emotion) this book shows is not thorugh the reflection of normal humans against vampires, but also but also by the Cullens themselves. Somewhere between Bella’s reckless abandon and Edward’s experienced caution, deep, meaningful love takes place. It was recognizable almost intstantly for me, and words to describe it correctly are rare in the English language. I think it says enough to mention the way Bella and Edward act towards each other speak of mature affection rather than teenaged passion.
Then there’s Edward’s wise restraint. Bella, for most of the book, practically throws herself at Edward in ways that suggest Edward has the self-control on Ghandi. It is immediately obvious, however, that Edward’s control is not formed out of a desire to aviod detection as a vampire, but out of extreme concern for Bella. That is a level of care and compassion I have seen in very few human characters. Its almost as if, rather than losing his humanity over the near-century of his life, Edward’s humanity has only deepened. Its just my opinion, but I think the emotions he shows support that.
The attack. In reality, despite how deeply Edward and Bella care for each other, Bella is a pale skinny, damsel-in-distress type who is choosing to hang out with people that nature made to suck human blood. There is always the feeling in the back of the reader’s mind that they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, the first shoe being that Bella’s true love turns out to be a vampire. A vampire attack serves nicely as the other shoe.
The ending of “Twilight” serves as both a good resolution, and as a foreshadow of things to come which I will not reveal in this review. This book earns top marks from me, not necessarily because the writing style deserves a Pulitzer, but because the book grabs your emotions from page one and never lets go until you’ve fininshed at some ungodly hour of the morning. Excellent read, and I can’t wait to review the others.
![babylonad int poster 504 Babylon AD [Movie Review]](http://immaculateobsession.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/babylonad-int-poster-504.jpg "Babylon AD")
In a unique moment for Vin Diesel, he has found a movie with an engaging plot. Now, that’s not to say the plot is perfect, and I could spend this entire review picking at the semi-truck sized holes in the plot, but that would be entirely critique, and no review.
So, what did Bablyon AD do right? Well, French director Matthieu Kassovitz’s screen adaptation of an archetypal badass’ (Vin Diesel) quest to smuggle a girl with mysterious powers into archetypal post-apocalyptic future America is definitely not a story for anyone expecting a change to formula. By which I mean the post-apocalyptic badass formula. Since this formula is a first for this blog, let’s go over the pieces.
Post-apocalyptic future world + antihero-esque badass + world-dominating corporation (+ some other interchangeable elements, depending on style) = Kick Ass Movie
This formula has served Hollywood (and quite a few SciFi authors) well for years, and doesn’t seem to be in any great hurry to change. With that in mind, let’s see how “Babylon AD” handles the formula.
Piece one: Post-apocalyptic future world? Check. This is in fact where “Babylon AD” has some of its moments of shine, because the world it creates is believable. Kind of. I can easily see the economy degrading to the point where people are forced to buy things freshly hunted by other people (because the grocery stores are reserved for the elite and such), and where serving favors for the rich is all that’s really available for steady work, because there are parts of society like that now. The world of “Babylon AD” does have some cool future tech that serves as glitter on the sides, but other than the Big Brother complete surveillance, nothing definite. Overall, the world is real and stimulating.
Piece two: Vin Diesel. I said earlier antihero-esque, because he ends up on the side of something that is obviously good and warm and mushy, rather than being a free spirit throughout. Diesel plays a good character, though, and despite having a character name I wasn’t sure of until the end credits, he’s a convincing badass. You might say he’s always a convincing badass, and “what else is new?”, but he smiles more in this movie. That’s important. With most of his earlier roles, especially the Riddick series, he had the badass plastered over his face the entire time. The smile gives him an element of “I’m actually above all you little people” that works. Its as though he’s saying “you’re amusing, and I’m not annoyed enough to kill you yet” to everyone. Its a relief from his normality. Subtle differences are everything.
Piece three: The overlord corporation. I’m sorry, but whatever my personal beliefs, I don’t see a religious organization making any serious world power plays in the next fifty years. There’s just too much going against them. Also, religion as the bad guy is a little overplayed, so when it turns out the future-version of Christianity is trying to hunt down Vin Diesel and his ‘package’, I inwardly groaned. Seeing technological upgrades as a religion (as shown through the “we’re trying to kill you, oops we’re trying to save you” organization that saves Vin Diesel) is refreshing, and adds another bit of shine to Babylon AD.
Let’s finish up with a final quick comment about the plot. The first half was fine. Normal formula stuff, Diesel doing his thing, save the weird girl, be a badass, etc. The problem? Who is this girl, why can she stop missiles? Oh. The unborn kids have mystical powers to save her from missiles, but the mother dies in childbirth? Oh, alright then. Doesn’t Vin Diesel make a great surrogate father? End.
Well, since I have now been off of the Vikadin long enough to get a clear head, its time to start writing again. Its funny how enforced absences can change one’s perspective. Since I really didn’t have anything better to do but lounge around and recover, I started thinking about the blog, where I was going with it and the direction I had started heading.
First, a new rule: all new postings will occur by 9pm PST, so that everything published on a given day is truly publsihed on that day in America, no matter what the time zone. This means that my active posting time will be from 12am to 9pm, allowing a three hour break every day for things to settle. Realistically, because my schedule operates on a 10am to 3am cycle, there wil be two periods of radio silence each day, unless I get some more writers. Which I’d love, but am not hopeful for now.
Second, I cannot let personal passion enter reviews. As soon as that happens, my effectiveness as a reviewer diminishes, and I become nothing more than another emotionally-unstable journaler who happens to be talking SciFi. With that, while I am going to leave up my previous postings, I will be starting over my reviewof the Twilight Saga come Saturday, so that adequate time has passed to allow me to write as unbiased a review as possible.
So you are not left in the lurch, tomorrow will present another “Stuff I Like” as well as a review of the Vin Diesel action-gasmic, “Babylon AD”
Its hard to imagine someone with such enormous bad luck that being a vampire would make their life easier by comparison. While many of us might have harbored fantasies of joining the ranks of the undead, normally its just for the Gothic coolness that is sometimes attributed to vampires in popular culture. It says something of the character of Bella, in Stephenie Meyer’s continuation of the Twilight Saga, that her life would seem to be easier if she were a member of the brotherhood of bloodsuckers.For one thing, she wouldn’t have to suffer the massive heartbreak dealt early Meyer’s “New Moon”, second in the as of now Twilight quatrology.
After enjoying a summer recovering from her vampire attack at the end of the previous book, “Twilight”, Bella Swan returns to school in Forks with her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen. Since her birthday comes early in the school year, Edward’s family decides to throw her a birthday party. Predictably, her bad luck makes a quick appearance.
And that’s where I’ll have to leave it for now, folks. Got to get ready for surgery tomorrow!
XKCD shows one of the classic SciFi actors in some of his lesser moments: Harrison Ford
The next step in the car of the future: Plug-in Prius
Lastly, because I am a major Linux geek, here’s a list of really handy apps that are new to me but extremely useful.
More tomorrow, but possibly of a slightly drugged caliber.
Its the dawn of a new era… now let’s find some good stuff.
Science Fiction owes a debt of gratitude to the BBC, for both Douglas Adams and Doctor Who. Here’s a special tribute: Who Girls
The world’s greatest graphic novel is being made into a movie, and I’m excited. If for nothing but the attention to detail.
I’m not sure if this is illegal, but I love Heroes too much to care.
Some of these posters are from SciFi flciks, but mostly they’re just awesome. Movie Posters From Poland
My vote for Best Musical of the Year goes to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog. If you would like to join Dr. Horrible and the Evil League of Evil, Willie the Fish told me to try here. And see if you can’t get Bad Horse direct…
Well, I was hoping for more momentous, but that’s the Stuff I Like for today. Stay tuned, because we can only go up from here.
The first installment in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga follows an misleadingly simple plot. Girl, daughter of divorced parents, goes to live with father in small Northwestern town. In trying to fit in in the ridiculously small high school, girl unwittingly falls for “gorgeous”, reclusive boy. Relationship develops, girl gets into trouble, boy saves girl. Simple, yes? Don’t let the plot’s simplicity fool you. The complication, in this book as in a great number literary works, comes from the nature of the work. Isabella Swan (Bella to her friends), is the ‘girl’ in this story, as well as being narrator, protagonist, and self-described as exceptionally plain. The boy she falls in love with is named Edward Cullen, member of the wealthiest and most reclusive family that inhabits the small town Bella moves to.
The character difference that Edward (and by extension his family) brings to the conflict is that they are all vampires. Bella, in the course of getting closer to Edward, discovers this, and in an almost shockingly suicidal moment (given the nature of vampires as depicted in popular culture) decides she doesn’t care and wants to be with Edward.
Let me take a moment to say that this is not an easy review to write. Especially because this will be part one of essentially four reviews, its difficult to know where to begin. This book, and indeed the entire saga, is quickly characterized and tossed away as being ‘Young Adult Fantasy Romance”, but that is far too mcuh of an over-generalization. First of all, if this is “Young Adult”, then so is the majority of all published Science Fiction and Fantasy. Just becuase the characters are depicted as being high-school age does not make it irrelevant to those of us not in high school. Its themes and character development show a promise found lacking in a great number of strictly adult fictional novels.
Second, if this is truly only a romance, then perhaps I should be reading more romances. I have read books with no romantic element what-so-ever that contain less suspense and action than Twilight. Does the book focus heavily on romance? Yes. And perhaps too much if the reader is coming from Military or Space Opera Science Fiction, where the conflicts and settings are so large that almost no chance is given for character development on a major scale. I submit, however, that at no point is the action sacrificed for the romance.
Turning away from my defense of the story and returning to my critique, there are some very good and rather annoying things about the book. On the plus side, the book is filled with a driving tension from the moment the word ‘vampire’ is read. Reading the story, I felt like I was infinitely waiting for the other shoe to drop: a girl is deliberately choosing to spend her time with a group of people who need to suck blood, preferrably human, to stay alive. Despite the fact that Edward’s family is self-described as ‘vegetarian’ (a vampire inside joke denoting that thye only drink animal blood rather than hunt humans), the inherent horror-movie-esque strain is still there. It is relieved, somewhat at the end of the story when Bella becomes a damsel in distress at the hands of a non-’vegetarian’ vampire, but the tension is still there.
On the negative side, Bella has some truly annoying moments. For 80% of the book, her character is well-developed, realistic to a point, and likable. Towards the very end, when she seems obsessed with Edward turning her into a vampire in order to be with her forever, she cna only be described as petualnt at best. The idea of giving up her mortal life for her undead beloved is quite noble, but she seems to be blinded as to what it actually will mean. She seems more like a reckless, love-sick teen in those final moments than at any other point in the book, despite the constant descriptions of how Edward sets her knees a-tremble. Edward, at least, is fully aware of what his lifestyle means, and refuses to turn her.
Now, we’ve done a little plot summary and a little critique, so how best to wrap this up? I believe I can only say that Twilight was well worth the read, and would be for anyone who enjoys a broad spectrum of literature. It may be the hopeless romantic in me dying to get out, but I devoured this book. The dramatic tension drives you through the book, and the character development makes every page worth it. By it, spread it, and remember that love just might still be alive, even in the undead.
Also, stay tuned for my reviews of the next three books in this series, and please leave comments or questions here or in the forum at this review’s response page.
