Guest post by Andi Fisher.  Andi blogs at Misadventures with Andi covering all things travel related with a large sprinkling of France and French culture. She is a huge movie buff and a voracious bookworm.

Eclipse is the third installment of the Twilight series books and movies. It continues the story where once again Bella is in mortal danger of Victoria’s revenge and Jacob and Edward have to form an alliance in addition to all the other Cullens and the wolf pack to save her. As this is going on Jacob continues to try to win Bella away from Edward. Bella loves Edward, but is drawn to Jacob as well and the movie portrays her struggle with loving two guys (I was going to say men, but is just doesn’t fit!).

When it comes to the Twilight book, Eclipse is my favorite. I love the intense love triangle that plays out between Edward, Jacob and Bella. I’d like it more if the characters were in their thirties or forties as opposed to their teens. I enjoyed the movie, but I found myself a little embarrassed from time to time with the amount of angst in people so young. Still, the film is well done.

Coming into it, I thought that the original low-budget Twilight film was better than the bigger production New Moon. I wanted to kill Kristen Stewart on several occasions during New Moon, something I did not feel as strongly as when I read the books. Eclipse was enjoyable and I was glad I saw it. The filming and acting were improved. I saw it in IMAX so the Pacific Northwest scenery was just gorgeous. Although I could have passed on seeing the bad wigs that all the Cullens (except for Edward) wore. The film did a good job of encapsulating the feeling of the book.

News in the past couple of weeks on Breaking Dawn suggest that it will be split into two movies (makes sense, it is really long and does have a natural break in it that would easily facilitate the making of two separate films) as well as possibly being filmed in 3D (why??). Until such time I recommend checking out Eclipse, but maybe not with your guy.

My husband watched Twilight on DVD with me and liked it, he enjoyed New Moon when we saw it at the theater, but I pushed my luck with this one. Eclipse is not very action oriented (to keep a man interested) and focuses more on the love triangle making it so much more a chick flick than the others. My suggestion is leave the husband/boyfriend at home and see it with your girlfriends!

Thanks to Andi and Karen for their guest posts about Eclipse.
I appreciate the opinions of real fans.

This is a guest post by  fellow, Filmgirl Force blogger, Karen who writes for ReelArtsy and equally enjoys French New Wave, rom-coms and action flicks.

I finally saw Twilight: Eclipse and I agree with New York Times columnist A.O. Scott that it’s “robustly entertaining film than either of its predecessors.” It’s the best movie of the saga because has more action, more romance, more angst and more abs (courtesy of Taylor Lautner). There’s something about the story, the characters, the folklore that connects with thousands of females, young and old. The tween girls love the handsome leads and perhaps it awakens something fierce in older women stirring memories of young love. Critics can tear apart the series for its lackluster moments, but all the Twilight bashing can’t stop fans from waiting in line for a midnight screening.

So what is it about the books, the movies, that make it box-office hit? The fact that it can cause an indie singer to shoot a music video for a song inspired by Bella and Edward’s story sums it up nicely.

When these type of cinematic wildfires come along you can analyze them all you want and people still won’t get it. All I know is that I like the Twilight Saga, and I’m okay with that.

Being a fan of Chick Flicks, perhaps you missed this nominee for Best Picture. District 9 was released in the summer of 2009. A time of year when many sci-fi and action movies are released. But District 9 is not your typical science fiction movie. Director Neill Blomkamp filmed this movie in a style that resembles a documentary. It became a big hit, even with the competition of other Summer blockbusters like Star Trek, Harry Potter and Transformers. What makes District 9 worthy of a Best Picture Oscar nomination?

The Story

The story of District 9 takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa, where 28 years ago  an alien starship  appears. But unlike other science fiction movies, this alien star ship is more of a life raft than a battle ship. The broken-down craft  carries an alien race that is stranded on Earth. After the initial excitement is over, the South African government finds themselves saddled with a growing alien population of refugees. This is where District 9 is different from your basic alien sci-fi movie. The aliens are the underdogs. South Africa contracts with a munitions  company to deal with their  undesirable refugee problem. The aliens are rounded up into a refugee camp,  a militarized ghetto called District 9.  In District 9 they live in horrible, filthy conditions. They   are  exploited and mistreated by criminals who want to get their hands on the aliens weaponry. The citizens don’t want them in their country and as is the case throughout history, bigotry and prejudice sets in.

As I said, District 9 is filmed as though it were a documentary. Through interviews and news stories, we see  the corporation, Multi-National United (MNU) go toDistrict 9 to forcibly evict the ‘the Prawns‘ (a racial slur).   Wikus van der Merwe is an administrative worker for MNU who is put in charge. But during the eviction of one of the aliens Wikus is exposed to some kind of an alien substance  that affects him physically. He must then depend  on one of the aliens for help, if he wants to live. I won’t spoil the movie for you, if you haven’t seen it. But District 9 does pose some interesting questions. Even if you are not a science fiction fan you might enjoy it.

The Stars

This is the first major film Neill Blomkamp has directed. Most of what gives District 9 its realism, (besides the often bloody and violent action scenes) is that there are no major stars.  Sharlto Copley who plays Wikus van der Merwe will star as ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock in the upcoming remake of The A Team.

The Awards

District 9 is nominated for 4 Academy Awards. Film editing, Best picture, Visual effects and Adapted screenplay.

Watch District 9 On Demand at Amazon.com

See what other movie bloggers are saying about District 9:

It’s Just Movies

Reel Talker

Film Gurl

Action Flick Chick

Update

Avatar is nominated for  nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for James Cameron. Other nominations: Art direction, Cinematography, Directing, Film editing, Original score, Best picture, Sound editing, Sound mixing and Visual effects. It has surpassed James Cameron’s other mega-blockbuster, Titanic at the box office. But will it win on Oscar Night?

I may have to find another movie theater. The brand new AMC at the mall is wonderful. Spacious seats, great sound system and its in the mall, so I can browse around in Sephora, the Apple Store or have a margarita while I wait for my movie to start. But lately, I have had to wait in line to see the movies of my choice. Or worse yet, pick something else, because the movie I want to see is sold out. I still haven’t seen The Blind Side and the only reason I saw Sherlock Holmes was because Avatar was sold out.

So when I went to the mall last week to see the 5:00 showing of Avatar, imagine my shock when he told me (like I was stupid or something) “that show has been sold  out for 2 hours!”  Hasn’t this movie been out for three weeks?  I am not going home with seeing a movie tonight! The Chipmunks Squeal? I don’t think so. So I waited 2 hours for Avatar to start. That’s OK. I’ll just run down to Sephora and look at eyeshadow or over to the Apple store and pretend I can afford a MacBook Pro. What?  A line is forming for the 7:30 show?  Fast forward to 2 hours of standing at the AMC theater…to sitting for almost 3 hours of Avatar. Put on your 3-D glass…We are going to Pandora!

The Beautiful World of Pandora

The story of Avatar begins in the 22nd century with a US Marine, Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington) who is wheelchair bound after an accident. But he is given a chance for adventure and to earn enough money for an operation that would allow him to walk again. He can replace his twin brother on a top-secret mission on a planet  more than four light years away called Pandora.

The mission: to get Pandora’s highly desired natural resource, a $20 million a kilo mineral called Unobtanium (for a multi-million dollar movie, you would think they would have come up with a better name), which the  Earth needs to ease its energy crisis. The problem is the largest concentration of Unobtanium is found directly under  ’Home Tree in the Na’vi village. (It actually is an enormous tree and they all live in it like the Keebler Elves) There is a VERY, and I mean VERY large military base on Pandora to ‘help’ the company secure the rights to the precious metal. The phrase “by any means necessary” comes to mind.

Unfortunately, the atmosphere on Pandora is poisonous to human. In order for the company to convince the native population to move and hand over their natural resources, the Avatar program was created.  The avatars are human/Na’vi hybrids that can travel freely on the planet.The program is run by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver). Poisonous gas atmosphere or not Pandora is a beautiful (although deadly) planet with a mix of strange-looking animals and plant life. So off Grace, Jake and the other scientists go…to explore Pandora and meet the Na’Vi.

Director James Cameron went through great pains to create a realistic world for this movie. He even hired  University of Southern California linguistics professor, Paul Frommer to  design an actual Na’Vi  language. Too bad for all the Trekkies who learned Vulcan and Klingon. Now the have another alien language to learn. So with  the 3-D glasses and state of the art CGI (computer generated images), you forget that most of this movie was made on a sound stage.

Dances With Na’Vi

The native population are called the Na’vi, and except for the fact that they are  9 foot tall,  with blue stripped skin and  a tail , they are very similar to Native Americans.  There were times during the almost 3 hour that I watched Avatar when I felt like I was watching Dances with Wolves. The culture, horses, bows and arrows,  the reverence for nature all reminded me of aspects of various Native American cultures. Even Netiri’s (played by Zoe Saldano)  father, Eytukan was played by Wes Studi, the  Native American actors who was so great in Dances with Wolves and as Magua in The Last of the Mohicans.

Sci-fi Chick Flick

Is Avatar a Chick Flick? I was asked that on Twitter recently. If you define chick flick by a movie with a love story as its main plot line, then NO Avatar is not a Chick Flick. Ok, there is a love story between the two lead characters, but that is not the focus of the story. But if you define chick flick by a movie with strong female characters, then yes; Avatar is an “action chick flick”.  Netiri Stands With Fists is a fearless warrior princess who saves Jake’s  life on his first night in the Pandoran forest. She  teaches him how to hunt, fly and live like the Na’Vi people  There is also Sigourney Weaver’s character Grace, who stands toe-to-toe with the military  and corporate bad guys who are  determined  to shut her project down. And we can’t forget Michelle Rodriguez, as the Marine pilot who is not afraid of a fight.

There are other themes in Avatar about colonization, racial intolerance, the ecology, the current energy crisis and many more. Maybe  this it not the blog for that discussion. I think each person takes what they want from a movie. Some people saw love story when what they wanted was big all out action packed sci-fi adventure. If you’ve ever watched any of  James Cameron’s films, you would know that there is always a love story at the center of all him action movies. Look at  The Terminator.  Titanic was a love story on a sinking ship. As for me, I just want to be entertained, eat my popcorn and enjoy the show.

On The Road To The Oscars

Avatar has made over $500 million! I can’t even comprehend how much money that is. That makes Avatar one of the top grossing movies of all time. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture-Drama, which makes it a contender for an Academy Award nomination. This year the Academy will nominate 10 films for Best Picture. It will be interesting to see which movies make the list. In the next few weeks, I will review movies that I predict (or hope)  will receive  an Oscar nomination on February 3rd.

Take a look at what other movie bloggers are saying about Avatar:

Action Flick Chick

FilmGurl

Kelley Monster

Reel Artsy

Reel Talker

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

This week the theaters will be packed with young (and some not so young) women anxiously awaiting the opening of  The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Author Stephenie Meyer’s series of books (Twilight , Eclipse , Breaking Dawn , New Moon)  about teenage vampires in love caused a stir in Young Adult fiction and is just one of the many vampire themed movies and TV shows thrilling women everywhere. New Moon stars  Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewert are everywhere…everyone’s talk show and every magazine cover.

The vampires I remember were pasty-faced old men who slept in coffins and wore capes. Remember Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Van Helsing? They actually hunted and killed vampires, but now  we have an emergence of romantic, sexy  neck biters. Vampires who are no longer confined to the darkness, much less sleeping in a coffin filled with soil from Transylvania. All the old vampire rules are broken.  What’s that about?

Gen-Y  Vampires

Ian Somerhalder, star of Vampire Diaries

When did vampires become the tragic romantic hero?  How did they become these undead hotties that are taking over Hollywood? We can probably blame Anne Rice and her book Interview with the Vampire.   I don’t get it. Aren’t vampires supposed to be scary, blood-sucking creatures of the night? Besides the Twilight movies, there are also at least three vampire themed TV shows, like Vampire Diaries,  True Blood and Being Human on BBC.

I am not ashamed to admit that I am very easily frightened and gladly leave the horror movies to my  blogging buddies. So I asked them: What’s the big deal with vampires and are you going to see New Moon?

Andi Fisher-Misadventures With Andi

Katrina Hill-Action Flick Chick

“I’m tired of seeing male vampires rescuing helpless females. I want to see the role reversed and see an empowered female vampire kicking ass and helping poor defenseless guys…but not sleeping with them unless they are worthy.”

Read the Action Flick Chick’s review of New Moon (spoiler alert)
Twilight Paradies

Zen Bitch warns you that she is in  a sparkle-free vampire zone!

I’m an old school lover of vamps and the abominations that Stephanie Meyer has Jonas-ed into our popular culture are NOT vampires! Bloody hell, her Cullen vamps are basically pale superheroes on a restrictive diet!! The only consequence of being a vampire in her world is that they must be emo, whiny-er than Louis, supernatural creatures that hate themselves enough to enroll back into high school.

Read Zen Bitch’s boycott of Twilight: New Moon

What do you think of this vampire obsession? Are you a Twilight fan?

I have already admitted to being a fan of Star Trek. And like every other Star Trek fan,  I was curious to see what J.J. Abrams would do to reboot the Star Trek franchise. Well in a word he did GREAT!   Even if you never saw an episode of any of the many series or movies, you will enjoy this action packed movie based the 1960’s TV show. Like Batman and even the recent X-Men Origins: Wolverine movies, Star Trek is  a prequel, going back to the childhood of the main characters James T. Kirk and the Vulcan, Spock.

The movie starts out with the birth of James Tiberius Kirk while his father’s Federation ship is being attacked by a renegade Romulan played by Eric Bana. We also see a young Spock growing up on Vulcan and being bullied for being bi-racial (his mother is human). How these two come together and how the rest of the crew of the Starship Enterprise end up serving together involves time travel, warp drive, beaming and  other things only a real Trekkie could explain. But, believe me this is a really good movie! Star Trek stars Zachary Quinto (Sylar in Heroes) as Spock and Chris Pine as James T. Kirk. Zoe Saldano plays Lt Uhura and New Zealander Karl Urban plays the irascible Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy.

With a hit in Star Trek and Heroes in his pocket, I predict that Zachery Quinto is going to be a big star. One of the most controversial things in Star Trek for die-hard Trekkies/Trekkers is the more emotional and passionate Spock. One movie blogger calls it  the sexulization of  Spock. It is strange to see the usually cold and dispassionate Mr. Spock  sharing kisses with Lt. Uhura in the Turbo-lift. I always knew there was something between those two. But it  goes along with my childhood crush on Mr. Spock, so I am OK with it.

What did you think of the movie?  Are you a Star Trek Fan?

Related Posts

Star Trek  ( A Fist Full of Phaser) by Action Flick Chick New Star Trek is a Worthy Enterprise by She Likes to Watch

I spent most of the week trying to score an invitation to a pre-screening of the hotly (is that a word?) awaited X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie. As you have  noticed, the Chick Flicks girl loves her Hugh! I don’t know anything about the Marvel Comics, the other X-Men or what their mutant powers may be. All I know is Hugh Jackman is gorgeous!

What Are Your Mutant Powers?

Finally! After standing in line for over an hour with a lot of other people who I thought we there, like me just to see Hugh, I got into the theater. How wrong I was. These people were actually there to see mutants. I know because the people behind me were talking about the various mutants, their respective powers and comparing them to other superheros like they had gone to high school with them. I got a brief education on mutants, Spiderman and someone called ‘Deadpool‘.

Hugh Jackman=HOT!

But my main focus was on the Wolverine. For those of you who missed the first 3 X-Men movies, the Wolverine’s mutant power is that he has instant healing abilities and he has claws. Oh yeah and his skeleton is coated with adamantium. Anywho…None of that is important for a true Chick Flicks Girl. All you need to know is Hugh Jackman is HOT. And when I say HOT, I mean surface of the sun HOT…I am talking core of the earth HOT…McDonald’s coffee HOT!.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine starts with James Logan (The Wolverine) and his brother Victor Creed/Sabertooth played by Liev Schreiber as children in Canada. They both have animalistic mutant powers. After fighting in several wars they become mercenary soldiers with  a team of other mutants for William Stryker, who uses them to do his evil bidding. Included in this band of mutant mercenaries is a really buffed up Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson / Deadpool. (Ok…so this is the Deadpool the nerds fans were talking about). Look for Ryan in a real chick flick this summer in The Proposal with Sandra Bullock.

But Logan/Wolverine has a good heart and quits the Mutant X  Program, leaving his brother Victor/Sabertooth behind and not in a good mood. Logan/Wolverine goes back to Canada where he falls in love with a school teachers. (See, it is a chick flicks, because  there is a bit of a love story in here too) But his brother is still mad and comes after my man, seeking revenge and killing Logan’s girlfriend.

On his search for his hard-hearted brother Wolverine goes to New Orleans and teams up with another mutant named Gambit/Remy LaBeau, played by Friday Night Lights’ Taylor Kitsch. (that makes 3 Hunks) For the next hour, there are lots of fight scenes, death, destruction and oh yeah…Hugh gets NAKED!…ok….I’m back now….fight scenes, death, destruction and …I’m sorry what was I saying. It’s not important as I said NAKED! But it is shot with a very wide-angle, so you really can’t see  anything. This movie is full of shots of Hugh’s very fit physique.

Did I like X-Men Origins: Wolverine? Excuse me, didn’t I say that Hugh Jackman gets naked. ‘But what about the story line, the plot, the performances?’ What is it about Hugh Jackman naked that you don’t understand? Sci-Fi movies, mutants, comic books or superheros may not be your thing, after all this is called Just Chick Flicks, the one thing we all enjoy is a Sci-Fi action movie with 3 handsome leading men who just happen to have mutant powers.

See what my fellow movie blogger Action Flick Chick has to say about the Wolverine movie.

This is the 1st in a series: The Chick Flicks Guide to Summer Action Flicks

Image via Wikipedia

Shsss….Don’t Tell Anyone, But I Like Star Trek

NO, I don’t wear the pointy ears, have a USS Enterprise uniform nor can I do that “Live Long & Prosper” Vulcan thing with my fingers. But I do like Star Trek.  Back in the 60’s when the world was a crazy place, with segregated schools, civil rights marches and the Vietnam War, Gene Roddenberry wrote a script about a time when such things were unheard of. And in the midst of all that craziness, there she was,  Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) sitting confidently and beautifully on the bridge of a Star Ship in the 23rd century.

So maybe Star Trek can be a Chick Flick after all. Lt. Uhura was not the only female icon on Star Trek.  In the season 1 episode “The Cage” where Captain Pike and his crew are lured to Talos IV, Majel Barrett was Number One. (I hope this little bit of trivia doesn’t label me a hopeless trekkie).

I don’t want to get all philosophical on you, but the original series had several episodes with thinly veiled anti-war messages. That being said, I like Star Trek for other reasons. OK…I AM the Chick Flicks girl, but I LOVE special effects! It looks hokey now, but in 1970, that Transporter effect was incredible. When you compare that to some of the other “paper mache“, high school musical quality special effects you saw on TV in those days, you would know what I am talking about.

Since then,  there have 4  TV series and at least 7 movies based on Gene Roddenberry’s original Star Trek series.  So admit it you like Star Trek too.

The J. J. Abrams’ version of story of Captain James T. Kirk, Spock and the crew of the USS Enterprise, before they had boldly gone where no man had gone before will be in theaters May 9th. I will be there. I will be the one WITHOUT the pointed ears.

Are you a closet Star Trek lover too? What is your favorite thing about the show?