Sunday, May 10, 2015

Screenwriters' workshop i dissed unpublished

Shot 1
We the no-ah-came-rallied ledge-is-later are suddenly born with a cyclopean or, rather, rectangular eye so lividly sweaty that tears have been accumulating (asymmetrically) in both lower ends sooner than our executive lid can tighten us square to squelch its share…an action immediately followed by a few eyelashes lolling down to deposit themselves on our square-jawed gaze while some among them break free into this spiel and the rest ‘recoil’ arboreal leaving spiel astir…only for us spielers getting our rectangular ‘nightie’ – complete with arboreal hem – canted back on rather than away (just as fully nether-dimmed now as outwardly speckled before) even if we’re not thus perceiving lateral subsidence alongside ocular squat. Adequately decanted, all us well-heeled squatters soon find our imperative lid sag wide open like a protuberant chin’s metallurgic twin, which tails south-most of our promptly apparent ground-ward fall until impacting hay consequently tossed up on our seconds ago unlashed grope…an oracular masochism disrupted once those hay-strands initiate scars-letting-humor-loose [proportionately big & small gray pin-prints expanding from their respective ‘touchdowns’ whence these start resembling dermal circumferences of already desiccated graze-worthy ‘op-err-ants’: each hay-strand contorting as if being pinched inwards precisely correspondent to proffered funnels beyond every ‘touchdown’; those hay-strands hence fragmenting courtesy heretofore acupuncture-anointed funnels smattered beneath our executively fluttering drapes yet across surface area remaining bare till imperatively paralytic shovel].

Shot 2
But since we can’t perceive the humorous inner linings of even this now virtually lidless eye, its palpably haywire receptors begin stimulating an ungrammatical hallucination, involving our self in meaningfully overlapping enunciations.  
        “Cantão cantã livre ‘=’ καντόνι τραγουδά δωρεάν.” 
[DgUURvqu~ DgUUN+~vu~ Y+bhfObZ \\// DgkUnks¡fu+ =kXkkswn~+t+k                                                       n+~t+kW,Zvku~+ADqvk³~p+ksw
                       eqDr xkrhA 
We start listening to “Can” vocally breathing throughout our rectilinear jigging back and forth its thus encapsulated coordinates.

Shot 3
Q+hUvqVSi~ [“the set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment”]

                    
                                 DABBLER IN SILENCE

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Talkie's pow-jag legalese around omissions since pre-production

5th March 2014
Tom Bombadil is Old Man Willow's syllabic vane.

10th March 2014
Pestered-regal-grin, as gossiped about by Minas Tirith's residents & defendants, once 'pipes a pin' back at one cocky human boy.

months afterwards
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice & Fire novels via the HBO-distributed Game of Thrones, despite British inspirations professed by the novelist (plus Afro-Eurasian philology briefly mapped by Dutch actress Carice van Houten), can be cataloged under American History 'Rewritten'...with the scholastic blurb: "North of the Wall" are fatally irradiated Arctic 'Soviets' of "Wights aka White Walkers" and recently deadened humans; on the marginally warmer side "of the Wall" are more categorically anti-slavery northern Americans e.g. the more optimistically polytheistic "Northern Lord" enacted by English actor Sean Bean chasing away a subordinate knight for selling 'enslaved' humans (native to continent "Westeros"? migrating from continents "Essos" \"Pentos"\"Bravos"?); south-most off "the Wall" are more categorically pro-slavery southern Americans e.g. the 'less faithfully paradisaical' warm weather across "King's Landing"; and finally we have a dragon-blooded "Breaker of Chains" declaring that the slave-masters of eastern continent "Essos" et cetera "can either learn to live in this New World of mine or die in that Old World of theirs".

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Ecological Wastefulness of the Supernatural: mostly a review of "Breaking Dawn - part 1"

The century-old-vampire hero and still-human heroine of this film franchise are accused of being badly enacted. Robert Pattinson’s Edward and Kristen Stewart’s Bella are said to have very tiny spectrums of body language. Actually, what they mostly have are micro expressions. They also manage the occasional trembling of voice and shouting, leaking of tears and shrieking. But their uniqueness as a couple, meant particularly for fans of the source novels, lies in boring subtleties of thoughts expressed. These enactments are spot on even during altered and added dialogue, but the personalities involved and magic possible [vampiric; superhuman] are not re-established as cinematically unique by each sequel. Non-fans do need a reminder that the hero can read all minds and the heroine can defy all vampiric mental powers i.e. he can’t sense her unexpressed, purely inner thought processes. Consistently demonstrating each special ability would’ve made impossible his losing a fight against brawnier vampire Felix in 2nd film New Moon and struggling through his fight against two other vampires in 3rd film Eclipse. Come to think of it, even the only fight during 1st film Twilight would have ended before it could begin, thus replicating what its novel implied/s.

The Twilight Saga could’ve been great cinema if the characters and plot were added to, remixed and subtracted from until they became unrecognizable as adaptations. The cast could then be possessing habits, smothering impulses, effecting resolutions and experiencing circumstances completely unlike those in the adapted series. They could be old beverages as new mocktails, served in mosaic pitchers. The overall stories could also be re-titled. Didn’t happen, so we have now got 4th film Breaking Dawn Part I on our DVD trays.

Well, it is as much a cinematically musical patchwork as each previous installment. I mean some songs selected and cues composed for this movie support their respective sequences very well. The resolve to alternate between lyric-containers and wordless performances has been evident since this film franchise started, seemingly ensured by their novelist taking inspiration from rock and other music. After all, their novelist’s favourite band Muse contributed a song each to the 3 preceding movies. It’s a different matter that only the first song made its sequence unique: the coolness of vampire baseball can be conveyed by just such a collaboration of instrumentals and vocals. As for Breaking Dawn Part I, this first part of the finale starts with ‘song’ Love Death Birth, a fresh orchestral start by score composer Carter Burwell. Makes a little use of his two signature tunes for franchise-initiator Twilight, substantiating finale director Bill Condon’s saying “there are stylistic nods to that film”, yet its three stretches enhance their respective sequences in different ways: A grabs attention; B descends into silliness; C –the longest– sweeps through majestically. The middle stretch, B, does redeem itself as cue Cold Feet by concluding scarily. This scariness transcends the apparent homage to classic horror film Bride Of Frankenstein, thus additionally seeming a jibe at that old-style Hollywood movie: some typical 1935 American audience getting shocked by a motionless screamer is an outdated phenomenon for us today.

This scariness is then taken up by cue What You See In The Mirror. But more negatively energizing is Breaking Dawn Part 1’s other signature tune, available as cues Pregnant and Don’t Choose That, facilitating our masochist-sadist enjoyment of the relevant sequences: many fan girls enjoy being scared by vampire hero Edward “ghosting” around and are entertained by supernaturally pregnant, still-human heroine Bella quietly bearing pain. More memorably scary is Aqualung and Lucy Schwartz’s Cold. Its lyrics, symbolizing one plot strand, are sung gloomily with only a gloomily played piano for company…during a horror montage of internet information about “immortal children” and vampire-human hybrids, as Bella sleeps uncomfortably, and then when Bella discovers before a bath exactly how much she has wasted away. The web-stored illustrations discovered by Edward also acknowledge Twilight’s sequence of Bella searching for facts about vampires, despite zero overlap. That earlier sequence had left me with one image [drops of blood suspended above goblets], which got modified in my memory from containers bound by rounded edges to precisely triangular representations of inverted cones. Hearing the cue set to that sequence again might spoil the beans for me, if like any signature tune present in the latest-released-sequel.

Another cue –A Nova Vida– begins when Edward drives Bella away from the Cullen house near Forks, after their wedding. Having read the novels, I was expecting a heartbroken wolf howl any moment. But a solo, wordless vocal begins (instead) after the midpoint. This is then intersected by a wolf cry, thus thrilling me. Guillermo Navarro’s cinematography of the howl-containing shot –which concludes this first Forks act– boringly jumped out at me: camera beneath the whizzing gallery reflection of trees on Bella’s window. The wordless singing and instrumentals continue, smoothly supporting the geographically emotional transition from Forks to Rio. Unfortunately, this romanticizes Rio as a tourist spot. Why the hell do we need to be shown Rio’s Jesus Christ statue? Because he, like good vampires, is stone offering everyone an embrace?

Yet it is worth noting that Breaking Dawn Part I has this franchise’s only inter-credits sequence, which The Belle Brigade’s I Didn’t Mean It assists as cool rock. Labeled so to argue for the view that some Volturi human mistakenly spelt a name wrong, it builds up during the first credit round and continues throughout two sets which may really be temporarily renovated locations. These interior scenes are huge and empty, emphasizing contrast between the majestically regal Volturi leaders and noisy rockers. The leaders are typically maintaining their authority even in the token sense by sitting while all other Volturi vampires stand, though neither get tired of any posture or activity. Then the foremost leader contends that “Carlisle” is Kaar-lyl misspelled, whereas I used to read it out Kaar-li-sal. Aforementioned human, the Volturi’s receptionist, is promptly dragged out of the wider interior to be killed for noting down the fax wrong. Is this in good self-referential taste or a joke trapped in morbidity to exemplify how evil most Volturi vampires are? The waste of architectural spaciousness suggests otherwise.   

Set design for The Twilight Saga has most uniquely been showcased during the starting shot of Breaking Dawn Part I: dried cowpats pinning down a tarpaulin onto a sloping roof. Using cattle dung for this rather than sustaining fires might have occurred to a native North American without assistance from white modernists. Faced with the prospect of leaky modern European roofs, he or (less possibly) she might have devised the rainfall-defying combo that is a roof-covering tarp held steady by crap-discs. The cozy feeling conveyed by these and other miscellaneous details constituting the aforementioned sloping roof is obvious because we see them after an equally cozy title presentation, the Sun piercing through red clouds while “breaking dawn –part 1–“ appears and embarrassingly labeled cue The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies begins blissfully. This cue is, not to mention, stretch A of more intelligently labeled ‘song’ Love Death Birth.

Another set dressing added to The Twilight Saga, i.e. absent from the novels, is the panel of “graduation caps” in Edward’s current foster home. His only relatives now are his foster family, most having graduated many times because they can then seem teenage humans. Hence they carry their collection of graduation caps to wherever they’re settling down. Unfortunately, this is explained only once. Could’ve been impressed on our minds by a completely reworked plot, via witty cinematic events present in the screenplays but not novels. Instead, fans are reminded of it as a tasteful inside joke through statements uttered by Bella’s biological parents. Roger Ebert is not a fan and hasn’t even read the novels, so he didn’t mention it as funny. It does happen to be another substantiation of Breaking Dawn Part I as a “companion piece” to Twilight, though.
Taylor Lautner’s Jacob has been emoted best until now in this film being reviewed. Early on, he quietly enunciates disgust in two slightly different ways: “That’s a sick joke” comes out from an emotionally hardened face; and “You’re joking” begins his aggressive plea. His usual varieties of well-meaning harshness follow. But he also manages to shake out (tearless) sobs.

I, having read the novels, also appreciate instances of enunciation showcased by other actors and actresses in this film. Kristen Stewart’s Bella sheepishly pushes out the words “…sacrifice and love”, then manages one sheepish pose while declaiming “I’ll be the one in white”. Embarrasses me as much as herself. Julia Jones’s Leah goofily prolonging all (invariably nasal) utterances, just like reel brother Booboo Stewart’s Seth, is a nice acting symmetry courtesy not being hyped during the movie. Robert Pattinson’s Edward making his voice shiver at a fiercely low amplitude as he exclaims “That’s what you’re worried about? That I didn’t enjoy myself?” Stands out from among all his, mostly repetitive, expressions of tortured heroism.

The Twilight Saga is failed cinema stories because of literal concepts at most times and boring symbolism at many other times. New Moon’s title presentation showcases restrained eeriness in its synchronized visual and music, but the symbolic full moon getting wiped out within this static shot is an unimaginatively literal conceptualization of its source title. Eclipse avoids this fate in another context: instead of spelling apart Quileute and Cullen land as two odourscapes, which could be presented by Quileute wolves inhaling then coughing out pink air, a bad vamp fleeing from both groups is shown repeatedly jumping across the deep and wide ravine indicating their border. So they continue running after her on their respective cliffways, but her strategy enables eventual escape.

On the one hand, Breaking Dawn Part I imposes its message that Bella as a vampire just must have a big bust and her lips will obviously part sexily as vampirification concludes. 

On the other hand, Breaking Dawn Part I manages to intertwine literalism with a dichotomous symbol: Edward plays chess with blood red pieces against his wife Bella’s marble white pieces, and they may be switching in later matches. He can enjoy possessing so much of his favourite substance’s representation while she can gleefully salivate at proprietorship over so much of her favourite cold hard body’s representation. Worth noting as an aside that a Cold Feet-cued shot [wind stirred by Edward’s entry ruffling Bella’s hair] is staying lodged in my memory as indicative of Edward’s supernaturally low body temperature. Bella also gets the opportunity to flaunt blood red chess pieces in matches against his marble white representatives, and vice versa. All this is the first witty adaptation of nearly abstract cover art in my experience. For this film’s novel has a blood red pawn morphing into a marble white queen on its cover.        

The caesarian delivery scene climaxing this film could have been censored by an even ghastlier interruption: horses flailing mid-air while their riders fumble to catch huge egg Humpty Dumpty, who consequently fractures mid-fall and spews blood over them. This could be positioned as a filmic image occurring to Jacob. After all, he did narrate in the final novel “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men…We couldn’t put Bella back together again.” All that need be shown then would be horrified faces and frantically pumping hands, vampire-human baby Renesmee being carried away in the background. I mean to say Breaking Dawn Part I suggests birthing details too much and whatever it does depict is too mundane. Edward trying to resuscitate Bella packs a better punch: as his viscous venom is squeezed from a syringe into her torso, that fluid stacks up as ‘floors’ that are immediately descending one after the other through this injector; the gory sounds indicating whenever she is, subsequently, bitten by him are almost as good.

Merely eerie, on the other hand, is the interrupted and then concluded shot of a rubbish bin filled with empty blood sachets. This bin’s lid jerks open during the first stretch to reveal nothing but these inwardly bloody packets, and then shuts slowly during the second stretch. Thus maximal eeriness is milked out, if I may be allowed to muddle contexts.

Rewinding till moments before Bella is wedded to Edward, two facets are worth noting. Sleeping At Last’s purely instrumental Turning Page hint at lyrics that shall be sung while the couple make love for the first time, and Billy Burke’s Charlie holding back tears on being about to reach the aisle seems a struggle to maintain dignity. The instrumentals before he gets weepy support some consumerist romanticism: beautifully littered grassiness evoking paradise in its barbless and shardless glory; followed by our closest glance at the intricately skimpy back of Bella’s wedding dress. Anyways, Charlie’s tremulous face is eminently likeable because his daughter is about to be married in front of a huge crowd. And after he has handed her over to Edward at their altar, the editing cut as soon as he begins removing his hand from Bella’s lower arm emphasizes the potent acting.

Four songs are played during Edward and Bella’s honeymoon. The above nuptials paragraph alludes to the third –Sleeping At Last’s Turning Page, which conveys this couple’s mutual bliss (and is continued when the wife remembers their caresses). The second song serves as a good jumping point for it by failing to stand out.  The first and fourth are humorous, but only the latter accompanies sensible turmoil: Noisettes’s Sister Rosetta (2011 Version) maintains pacing of a sequence with the message that even so unconventional heroine Bella should resolve to shave her legs; whereas The Features’s From Now On is punctuated by the husband rebuffing under-confident seduction. This entire honeymoon, noteworthily, happens on a spectacular island off the Brazilian coast and privately owned by the wife’s mother-in-law. Many non-fans will probably think this location-devising authorial tactic is selling the notion of wealthy vampirism channelized into drinking only animal blood.

Shape-shifters in wolf form, similarly, can consume raw meat (since they manage to kill most big land animals with one snap of the jaw). So shape-shifters and good vampires should be depicted in fifth aka last film adaptation Breaking Dawn Part II as dealing with the problem that is decreasing wild animal populations. As many satisfactorily large-bodied blood sources are becoming extinct and endangered, Cullens might have to break their treaty with shape-shifting aka superhuman Quileutes (who can live without eating sparse wild animals). Seems an amoral thing to do for these supernatural non-humans, until natural non-humans fill the Earth once more. After all, human populations are constantly increasing. Could still mean a lethal battle with superhuman Quileutes “phased” into wolves.

But this fictional world has also encouraged a truly real addiction. Fashion. What we prefer to wear, live in and drive must be fashionable. We must strive to acquire these possessions and then use them as exuberantly as possible. How ironic that all the extraordinary sensory abilities and intellectual caliber of vampires haven’t led them to infer ways of saving any ecologies. The Twilight Saga, hence, is flawed escapism.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Heart warming/Enjoyable music

The fiction series Scrubs, seen+heard by me on Star World India, plays a piece of music during the introductionary sequence and sometimes at the start of a break and sometimes at the end of a break. That piece of music is heart warming. Or it is enjoyable. Or I have danced to it and thus expressed my enjoyment as well as showcased my dancing skills. Do you know the piece of music I am talking about? During the introductionary sequence, it is played between the first and second utterance of the lyric "I'm no superman". And when the start or end of a break is being announced, it is played before the only utterance of "I'm no superman".

Monday, June 14, 2010

Mike Leigh's cinema

Happy-Go-Lucky is a British fiction film with atleast two great Bringlish performances, one being the main character and another being her driving instructor (with whom she is acquainted since much before her first cum last lesson with him). The last shot of the film is nice and long, and must have been executed after very good preparation. The motion of the frame during it is started by a rightward track, followed by a leftward pan in combination with the rightward track, followed by a continuation of the leftward pan, followed by a upward track in combination with a slight downward pan to keep the subjects in focus.

The Twilight Saga novels and films

#Edward is brave in the films, almost getting killed due to his bravery in the second film. But his bravery was emphasised by presenting his mind reading ability as temporarily not working. The novels emphasise his disgust of vampirism and consequent love of/for Bella while never bringing him near his death, though he is definitely not afraid to fight in the novels. Jacob and the other shapeshifters are brave in the novels as well as films, thought it can be said all of them are simply not afraid to fight vampires but prefer to avoid fighting each other and harming those on whom members of their pack have imprinted.
#The fourth novel presents the smell of Bella's human-vampire daughter as being a combination of "the most beautiful perfume and the most delicious food" but does not compare its beautiful aspect to the smell emanated by any other vampire. Nor does the fourth novel rank its beautiful aspect among all the vampire smells in the world. However, that is rationally acceptable because some vampires are in love with each other and thus may not be thinking even twice about the smell of any vampire they do not love...unless it is a matter of survival or victory.
#The last sentence of the fourth novel is perfectly what was required as the conclusion of the novel series.
#Alice and Edward do not get into a fight with any member of the Volturi in the novels, whereas the second film shows them both subdued by members of the Volturi -Alice easily and Edward after a short struggle. As I pinpointed earlier in Edward's case, I now pinpoint that this presents Alice's future predicting ability as temporarily not working.
#I was thinking earlier that Bella's delivery of her human-vampire baby would be a unique scene in The Twilight Saga film series because Kristen Stewart would be screaming at some point(s) in it, but I recently saw+heard her scream in the films Twilight and New Moon. So nothing new to be expected in the cinematic version of Breaking Dawn on that front. Yet I am still interested in watching+hearing it because Kristen Stewart may portray vampire wrath in it very effectively.
#Each shot in the film series is either a lone sentence or part of a sequence which is a sentence or both loner and part. This is a prediction about the upcoming film Eclipse and the two films to be made out of the fourth novel Breaking Dawn, based on my experience of the first and second films.
#One advertisement of the film Eclipse made me realise that, though not absolutely clarified in the novels, vampires can jump further than shapeshifters.
#I had cast Chris Bauer in my imagination as the actor to play the role of the main character's father Charlie, but Billy Burke was cast instead in the actual films Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse.
#Showing the cast members of the film Twilight along with their names in the end credits was a decision which had an anti-climactic impact on me. But it did seem a nice gesture. And having to hear various sets of lyrics being sung while shots of vibrating water faded into one another behind the rolling of the crew credits was boring. The end credits of the film New Moon were more conventional, though I did not get see all of them and hear all the music tracks synchronised with them.
#Vampires are supposed to always seem attractive to humans in the novels. But most vampires are described as white (i.e. light skinned) in the novels. The films, on the other hand, failed to make me consider even one vampire attractive. So the films are less racist or colour biased than the novels. By the way, Emmett is presented as strong-looking rather than attractive in the novels as well as films.
#Vampire smells are considered "sickly sweet" by shapeshifters in the novels but the smell of Bella's human-vampire daughter is liked by at least Jacob because it is beautiful and delicious in equal measure for vampires and thus not disgusting for any shapeshifter.
#In the film Twilight, Alice seems to twist and break James's neck but is not revealed as having been sought by James for her blood when she was human. So the films avoid ranking the deliciousness of Alice's blood above that of Bella's blood. And blood does not seem to run within vampire bodies in the novels but is definitely absent from the insides of a vampire who wants to die and is killed by the Volturi in the second film.
#Edward is a mind reader as well as the fastest member of the Cullen family in the novels, which made me rank him alongside James. Emmett is the strongest member of the Cullen family in the novels, but he is never put into a fight with any member of the Volturi by the novels.
#Vampire snarls and roars are absent from at least the first and second films, though Edward does snarl or roar a bit with his mouth shut in the first film. And shapeshifters are able to neither snarl nor roar when human in the novels as well as films.
#James, Victoria and Laurent are barefeet in the first novel. Bella is barefeet according to one future vision in the second film of her as a vampire. This lack of the need for footwear is explained in the novels a consequence of vampires being rock hard. Shapeshifters are almost as hard, as established in the novels when Bella breaks her hand on punching Jacob and when Jacob breaks a branch off a tree on hitting it with his bare hand and when Edward breaks Jacob's hand on shoving it out of his way.
#Many of the music tracks used by the first film became a hit before the film's release, which is why many people became fans of the film and some of these fans became fans of the entire film series even before its subsequent installments were released. I detest this method of garnering attention, even if it was unintended by the director Catherine Hardwicke.
#The rules formulated by Stephenie Meyer regarding Bella's shielding ability are flawed. Edward can't read Bella's mind, Jane can't create an illusion of pain in Bella and Alec can't deprive Bella of her senses. But Jasper can create positive emotional changes in Bella. If my memory is serving me correctly, Stephenie Meyer categorized Jasper's emotional manipulation with Alice's future prediction. So perhaps I am wrong in calling the rules flawed.
#Stephenie Meyer has employed many cliches to keep readers engaged in The Twilight Saga novels. Her plotting has also avoided making many possibilities occur. Edward and Jacob want to kill each other many times, but a full fledged fight never breaks out between them. A fight between those arguing in favor of letting Renesmee live and the Volturi is also avoided. It is clear that if Caius had been killed in the fight that he almost lost to a true werewolf, he would probably never have featured in the plot and a distinction between humans able to transform into impossibly big wolves at will and "Children of the Moon" may not have been made. Jacob breaking away from Sam's pack and some members of it joining him to form his own pack prevented an attack on the Cullens by Sam's pack. Jacob's heart is broken by Bella but is eventually made anew when he imprints on her vampire-human daughter. Edward has sex with a human Bella while avoiding killing her, and the plot eventually rewards him for this by making a vampire Bella have sex with him. Jacob administers a cut on an angry Paul's skin in the novel New Moon and thus ends his fight with him but dissolves Paul's anger in the novel Eclipse simply by giving him the last hot dog. The shapeshifters are eager to protect humans from vampires but also want to avoid getting members of their pack killed or even hurt, so the two packs formed in the novel Breaking Dawn remain poised to fight the Volturi but seem relieved when the latter leave Forks.
#Light skinned/White vampires are presented in the novels and films as paler than light skinned/white humans. But the novels don't present dark skinned/black vampires as paler than dark skinned/black humans. And the films don't try to deal with this anomaly.
#Some shapeshifters at some points in the novels project aggressiveness towards some vampires but don't have a strategy in mind to successfully prove the menace of their threatening growls and snarls. Leah in wolf form snarled at vampire Bella when the latter was verbally expressing her anger towards Jacob but did not try biting and pushing back the latter when she lunged for Jacob's throat.
#At least 1 visual in either the first or the second Breaking Dawn film will become iconic. That visual will be a baby sucking the nipple of a baby feeding bottle that is filled with a red rather than white liquid. In other words, the visual will be a baby drinking blood rather than milk.
#One visual in the film New Moon scared me, partly due to the music in synchrony with it. The visual is a orange haired figure rapidly nearing our and a drowning human Bella's sight. In other words, Victoria had sensed Bella and was thus swimming towards her. This incident has now made me wonder whether vampires are able to perceive smells of creatures in water when the vampires themselves are under water...according to The Twilight Saga, of course.
#The most prominent aspect of The Twilight Saga is the romance. Edward and Bella fall in love, then Jacob and Bella fall in love though Bella loves Edward more than she loves Jacob, then Jacob's love for Bella ends, then Jacob and Renesmee become soul mates, then Bella's love for Jacob ends. So I consider my father's description of the The Twilight Saga novels appropriate for the films as well. He called The Twilight Saga novels "a love story in a strange setting".
#Jacob never dwells on the fact that it would be impossible for him or any other shapeshifter to kill Edward alone. Jacob believes killing Edward despite the latter's mind reading ability is possible even without a coordinated group effort. This is perhaps because most shapeshifters are hot blooded in most violent situations and most situations with violent potential.
#Vampires easily kill mountain lions and bears. Shapeshifters are not as strong, though Bella's humanly erratic/inconsistent narrative avoids stating this.
#Shapeshifters have a high threshold of pain because they cringe from neither getting hurt nor the process of healing once hurt. But once some bits of a vampire have been ripped away from his or her body, he or she may not be able to muster the will to continue fighting. Come to think of it, neither would a shapeshifter. And vampires join their bits back to their body, whereas shapeshifters probably can't. The novels and films have simply avoided mentioning these things. So I take back my argument that shapeshifters have a higher threshold of pain than vampires.
#Edward being stopped short by the illusion of pain created in him by Jane is a great visual presented by the film New Moon. I call it a great visual because Edward literally vibrates rooted to one spot. And the visual seems to have been crafted by either the actor Robert Pattinson alone or Pattinson in combination with special effects.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty available July 27 onwards!

An advertisement of the video game Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty has been telecast recently in USA. It is constituted mainly by bits of pre-rendered cinematics, making it very attractive. Furthermore, one of the bits is in slow motion. But that is all by the way. What I want to describe is the background music of the advertisement, which is absolutely devoid of ambient sound. Two long swipes are made as successful attempts at generating awe but unsuccessful attempts at generating dread. The first swipe's conclusion is in synchrony with a visual as well as auditory/aural boom. After the second swipe begins a different but again unsuccessful attempt at generating dread, synchronised at one point of its duration with an extremely brief visual cum aural slice/slash and at another point of its duration with a slightly less brief visual cum aural clicking shut. A visual cum aural storm then becomes the dominator. A short time later, a visual cum aural smash replaces the storm. Many brief aural smashes are then delivered at a high frequency, and an aurally-storm-like but unsuccessful attempt at generating dread happens in synchrony with them. The advertisement's display of the video game's title before its release date concludes with three brief aural booms. By the way, the description of the Zerg recently added to the Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty page on wikipedia is more accurate than the description created by the game's developers: "the Zerg, a race of insectoid genetic assimilators" in stead of "the voracious Zerg". I too once wrote an accurate description of the Zerg: I do not consider the Zerg atrocity committers or evil because "they have been governed for almost the entire duration of their existence by a single consciousness that constantly wants to assimilate previously unassimilated genetic material". But I also called them a collection of many distinct species rather than a race, while calling the Protoss and the Terran two distinct species. I mean I did not call any of the three groupings a race. And the description of the Terran added at probably the same time to the Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty page on wikipedia also is accurate: "human exiles from Earth". I add now that the Terran are humans living in a "planetary sector" different from the one in which Earth exists.