
I have a confession to make. I've never read anything by Stephenie Meyer. Not one word. I've never seen Twilight, other than commercials and trailers for it in other movies. Yep, apparently I'm the last holdout on this planet. I haven't actually set out to avoid the Twilight phenomenon, it just didn't interest me. So, I wasn't going to see this movie BECAUSE of the Twilight connection. I was going to see it because of the Jake Abel connection. Maymay LOVES Percy Jackson books and adored the movie. When she saw "Luke" was going to be in this movie, well, we HAD to go see it. BONUS: after the screening there was going to be a Q&A session with Jake Abel, Max Irons, and Stephenie Meyer. Let's just say Maymay was excited.
I was warned to get to the screening extremely early because of the Twihard fans. I didn't know this was a thing. Anyway, we got there two hours early and the line wasn't bad. I prepared well to keep Maymay as warm as possible, but it was cold! I struck up a conversation with a wonderful young lady behind us who was convinced the line would get huge the closer we got to the screening time. She was right. I found out later that over 50 people didn't get in. They finally let us about thirty five minutes before it was to begin. Just in time too, I was frozen!
I don't think I've ever shared this, but Maymay is very particular about where she sits in a movie. She likes the back of the theater, and preferably an aisle seat, so no one except me sits next to her. We go into the theater and got extremely lucky to get seats at almost the rear of the theater. The last two rows were filled with VIP and press. I thought I overheard the ladies behind me discussing Star Wars, I'm a HUGE fan, but I misheard. They were discussing Star Trek. Oops. I wound up having the best conversation with them about everything from Star Trek to Twilight to comic-con. They let me know they were there as guests because they were Twihards. I'm very glad I met these extremely friendly people, it made the screening so much more enjoyable.
I guess I should actually talk about the movie. It was better than I expected. The story line was as far-fetched as humanly possible, and I'm not talking about it being a sci-fi movie. The second I stopped trying to understand what the heck was supposed to be the story line and just watch it like any other brain candy, I liked it much better. The main character, Wanda, was a likable alien that goes against her kind to befriend the human in the body she had invaded. Awww. There was an odd and extremely uncomfortable love quadrangle. The kill 'em with kindness theory was taken a wee bit too far, and I kept picturing the alien invaders as a bunch of hippies from a 1960 commune in space. (Hmmm.....that would be a movie I'd like to see.) I liked the odd light contacts used for distinguishing who was human and who was alien. I kinda want a pair. Overall, the movie was ok. I'm glad I saw it because of William Hurt. I like him normally, but in this movie he was amazing. He stole each and every scene he was in, and in this mixed up ridiculousness of a movie, he made sense. I cared about his character, Jeb, and believed in him. I'm not sure if his acting was simply THAT good, or the rest of the movie wasn't. Either way, he made the movie. The end was sappy and expected, but then again, it was written for teenage girls.
The Q&A was pretty good. They asked you to write questions ahead of time and Maymay's question was read, answered and then led to a bit of playful bantering between the stars and writer. She left the screening upset she couldn't get an autograph from Jake Abel, but thrilled he laughed and answered her question.
Final opinion, don't go seeing this expecting anything more than what it is. If you want decent brain candy, grab some popcorn and let your brain feast on the junk food that is this movie. I'm glad I did.
I was warned to get to the screening extremely early because of the Twihard fans. I didn't know this was a thing. Anyway, we got there two hours early and the line wasn't bad. I prepared well to keep Maymay as warm as possible, but it was cold! I struck up a conversation with a wonderful young lady behind us who was convinced the line would get huge the closer we got to the screening time. She was right. I found out later that over 50 people didn't get in. They finally let us about thirty five minutes before it was to begin. Just in time too, I was frozen!
I don't think I've ever shared this, but Maymay is very particular about where she sits in a movie. She likes the back of the theater, and preferably an aisle seat, so no one except me sits next to her. We go into the theater and got extremely lucky to get seats at almost the rear of the theater. The last two rows were filled with VIP and press. I thought I overheard the ladies behind me discussing Star Wars, I'm a HUGE fan, but I misheard. They were discussing Star Trek. Oops. I wound up having the best conversation with them about everything from Star Trek to Twilight to comic-con. They let me know they were there as guests because they were Twihards. I'm very glad I met these extremely friendly people, it made the screening so much more enjoyable.
I guess I should actually talk about the movie. It was better than I expected. The story line was as far-fetched as humanly possible, and I'm not talking about it being a sci-fi movie. The second I stopped trying to understand what the heck was supposed to be the story line and just watch it like any other brain candy, I liked it much better. The main character, Wanda, was a likable alien that goes against her kind to befriend the human in the body she had invaded. Awww. There was an odd and extremely uncomfortable love quadrangle. The kill 'em with kindness theory was taken a wee bit too far, and I kept picturing the alien invaders as a bunch of hippies from a 1960 commune in space. (Hmmm.....that would be a movie I'd like to see.) I liked the odd light contacts used for distinguishing who was human and who was alien. I kinda want a pair. Overall, the movie was ok. I'm glad I saw it because of William Hurt. I like him normally, but in this movie he was amazing. He stole each and every scene he was in, and in this mixed up ridiculousness of a movie, he made sense. I cared about his character, Jeb, and believed in him. I'm not sure if his acting was simply THAT good, or the rest of the movie wasn't. Either way, he made the movie. The end was sappy and expected, but then again, it was written for teenage girls.
The Q&A was pretty good. They asked you to write questions ahead of time and Maymay's question was read, answered and then led to a bit of playful bantering between the stars and writer. She left the screening upset she couldn't get an autograph from Jake Abel, but thrilled he laughed and answered her question.
Final opinion, don't go seeing this expecting anything more than what it is. If you want decent brain candy, grab some popcorn and let your brain feast on the junk food that is this movie. I'm glad I did.