I noticed the considerable significance of this major festive day by the twitter trending topics such as #imthankfulfor and #iamthankfulfor. I thought it was a monthly topic kind of thing which would have made people by the likes of Paulo Coelho and Jason Mraz very happy before I realized all the Americans were twitting about how they were each going to spend their Thanksgiving. lol!
Anywaaay, for myself, while we're on the thread of gratitude, I'm thankful yesterday for being able to catch a new movie at the theatre after a drought of like, three months? To be more specific, the drought started after having come back from the US, I believe. Wow, that long. I actually did manage to catch a couple of movies while in the US- they were, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and The Time Traveler's Wife, which I shall comment on soon in a while.
When I made my way to the local box office yesterday, I could not believe the freakin long queue literally snaking on and on in front of it. I don't know if this only happens on public holidays or when hot movies are being previewed every Thursdays, hot movies like Ninja Assassin (for the parents) and...New Moon (for the kids)! Yes, New Moon was actually screening though I heard it's supposed to only open nationwide next week?? I had initially planned to catch 2012 with my brother but the only timing left was sold out (apparently this movie is doing immensely well worldwide, despite being shown here for quite some time already?).
Anyway, luckily daddy was around to let me peruse his platinum credit card so I was able to get onto the priority queue where only 2 people were in front of me. muahaha. We got our tix for:
and
[Here's food for thought: why are Hollywood films with an Oriental slant ALWAYS about the Japanese? Seriously, the Americans are freakin narrow-minded people. They think everyone either comes only from China or Japan. Maybe they even think China IS Japan. or vice versa.
Does anyone remember that announcer at the Oscar's who introduced the then nominated film The Departed as 'America's remake of the Japanese film Infernal Affairs' -_-ii Of course, when you're in America, 9.8 out of 10 people think you're a zhong guo ren simply because you're from Singapore. I've asked some American people a couple of times before where did they ever get that idea that Singapore=China from and they're stumped. My answer? HOLLYWOOD FILMS.]
Then we made our way to Fish & Co for dinner. Let me tell you, that outlet was horrible, I was so not grateful for dining there. The waiter in charge of our table, was doubling up as a seating host as well. And he looked to be the youngest there. He took way too long to serve us water, we had to request for it. Furthermore, the place didn't allow refills, saying they charged $2 for it. Their beer was out already, at like, 7pm in the evening so we couldn't order any. We had only ordered two items. The seafood platter for 2 people and the NY fish and chips which I ordered like, 10 minutes after ordering the first item. The fish & chips took 15 mins or more to arrive while the platter took ages. For that item, the prawns tasted horrible. I suspect it wasn't fresh or prepared properly, while the cuttlefish choked me every single time I ate a piece. I don't know why i was more sensitive to it among my family, but I just couldn't seem to swallow that tough piece of lining in the pieces every time and it ended up just choking me till I had to force-swallow it down. Fish & Co's food turns out nasty when they have simply too many customers. I can draw this conclusion from the last two times I ate with that brand. Fish these folks man!
Anyway, on to much more happier things, to my thoughts on New Moon! Woohoo! You ready? I was uber excited when the movie started. We waited too long for this, you know? I fully-expected the crowd to be twittering restlessly and whoop when it started or at parts of the film (like when Robert makes his appearance, hello? he was swaggering in slow-mo with his outer shirt blowing out and all for goodness sake) But nooo, typical Singaporeans are subdued and hushed down when the lights dimmed. Maybe it was reverent silence? The audience was so different from the US ones man. Don't people go to theatres to enjoy movies collectively and react, laugh, cry, sigh at appropriate moments? That's what happened when I caught Transformers in a full-housed theatre in the US, at Salt Lake City, no less. The people were whooping, whistling and cheering all in jolly good fun- at the start of the movie, when Megan Fox first appears, etc.
Back to New Moon, the presentation of the title in the beginning is quite creative and builds the suspense for fan-viewers. hehehe. However, other than that, the relevance of the title New Moon to the movie is quite null. If it were up to me, I would simply change the name of the film to "New ensemble line-up, new Jacob Black."
I want to give Taylor Lautner (the guy who plays Jacob) two thumbs up man!! He portrays the character perfectly. He made Jacob that reliable friend to Bella without being annoying and overbearing, and man, he worked real hard on his teenaged body! When I was reading the twilight book, I was Team Edward all the way because I felt Jacob came off as pushy, angsty and irritating. I couldn't ever understand those people who were on Team Jacob. Let's just say now I do. :)
I feel this movie is more for the fans. You have to understand the full story to really appreciate the characters and the movie overall. The movie tried to fit as much of the plot in and didn't have too much reinterpretation by the director, which was good enough for me. Furthermore, the dialogue lines were less emo and cheesy this time round. I want to give Kristen Stewart two thumbs up too. She plays up the tortured and emotionally-inflicted Bella very well. People may say she was too broody in the first film but here, it legitimately suits her fittingly. Me thinks she has the potential to be a great actress. Lastly, the people who played the Volturi(the ruling vampires) were almost exactly how I pictured them to be. Brilliant casting I say. Meanwhile, I felt the director should have played up the story of the werewolves more, because that is where the title came from. The pack came off looking like twins and had brief and forgettable appearances. Anyway, enjoy the pics:
^Oww! Mamma mia...
Go catch New Moon if you like the Twilight books, or simply, for the hot shirtless guys ;)
PS: I've always had a thing for male bad-ass characters with long straight flowing locks. Like that vampire guy in Hellboy 2 and Malfoy's dad in Harry Potter. Who wouldn't?
