not sucking in a vampiric sense [review]

The last week of the autumn semester at University is dawning. There is light on the horizon. Finally! 

In honour of this occasion - namely the end of the semester - I wanted to share with you one of my works I had to do for one of my courses at the English Seminar this semester. It's a review, something which I haven't done (professionally) before. A review about the new Twilight movie: Breaking Dawn - Part1.

via here 

(Be warned: In case you are a true Twilight fan, you'd better not read this or you'd probably like to tear me apart just like Jacob does with his wedding invitation. Also, if you haven't seen the movie "Breaking Dawn - Part 1" yet and intend to do so you shouldn't read it as well. There will be spoilers!)

So here we go:

        It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you are going to have a caesarean, it is not a good idea to have vampires in the room. Breaking Dawn, Part 1 does it nonetheless. The fourth movie of the Twilight saga is just like every other Twilight movie, only a few things change: glitter-vampire Edward Cullen still looks like a marble statue covered in talc, only now he wears shorts. The werewolves now argue telepathically with each other in English, which is just silly. And the great, melancholic soundtrack from Muse has been exchanged by dull and annoying pop songs that underscore every moment.
         The audience, mostly 16-year-old teenage girls, seems to enjoy it and the Twi-hards certainly will not be disappointed. Breaking Dawn, Part 1 picks up where Eclipse left off; feisty yet droopy 18-year-old Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and her stone cold hottie, the vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), aged 108, are about to get married. The wedding is so kitsch that anyone not obsessed with hair and make-up may find it a seemingly endless half-hour of near-death experience.
          Bella and Edward then fly to Brazil to a luxurious honeymoon hideaway on an island, where the morning after her wedding-night Bella wakes black and blue with bruises and all the furniture is broken. But apart from a passionless foreplay accompanied by the world’s worst pop music, the movie does not show us what happened. The most eagerly awaited deflowering in recent movie history takes place completely off-screen. From there it is on to the speediest pregnancy in history, and an alarmingly gruesome and bloody childbirth.
          Teenage girls will probably be less interested in the story bordering on an abortion-debate than in the earliest point where the werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner), Edward's rival for Bella's affection, rips off his shirt, which is within the first seconds of the movie. Jacob's muscles have been one of the most special of the movies' effects and that seems reason enough to get the character's shirt off as often as possible. These filmmakers certainly know their audience.
         The Hollywood machinery has a firm grip on the Twilight saga. One may wonder about the creative benefits of following the Harry Potter model and dividing the final Twilight book into two movies. In terms of economics, however, the decision is certainly a winner. The previous Twilight movies Eclipse and New Moon pale in comparison with Breaking Dawn in terms of revenues and number of visitors. But whereas the Potter series gained from that decision, the Twilight Saga loses almost all its momentum.
         The general difficulty of bringing page to screen is inherent already in the Twilight cast. Kirsten Steward manages to play exactly one face throughout all the four movies, stealing her heroine Bella Swan all depth of character. However, giving credit where it is due, Bella Swan's pregnancy is brilliant on paper. On celluloid, it is simply a joke. What Stephanie Meyer did so brilliantly in her book is lost in the movie.
          Maybe the studios have begun to believe that they, like the classy Cullen clan, are immortal and that almost nothing can kill them. They better hope that it is true, because Breaking Dawn, Part 1 sucks - in the metaphoric rather than the vampiric sense. The film does not have the bite that a vampire romance should have. It is as if all the life has drained away. A great number of its 117 minutes feel like hours, and whenever certain actors take the lead, time seems to crawl backward and Breaking Dawn begins to feel like yesterday's breaking dawn or Thursday’s.

I'm open to any kind of criticism, but bear in mind that one cannot argue about taste. I'm sure some people (in fact quite many) liked the movie... and I'm not attacking them. I'm just communicating my own opinion.

  

xo xo linskaya

piles of books

Piles of books...

I'm surrounded by them...

No room in our apartment without one...

Do I care?

No. Not really.

To say it differently: I love it! I simply love to be surrounded by books. Every time I look at the books I feel a tiny but pleasant twinge of anticipation. Sooner or later I will have to time to read all those books and that's what I'm looking forward to. Event now when simply talking about it I am excited.


I know that my love for books is a tiny bit crazy... but that's actually my smallest problem ;) 
So just that you know how crazy, here comes a list with some facts about me and books:

1. I decided to have a book with me wherever I go thanks to Rory Gilmore (I'm serious here). I even carry one with me when I'm hanging with friends. just in case!

2. I love the feeling of being completely taken in by a book. When the tears of joy and sorrow wet your cheeks. When you laugh out loud in the middle of a crowd. And when you shout at the pages in anger. That's the spirit!

3. I'm jealous of Belle from Beauty and the Beast because she can read while walking. I certainly haven't mastered that skill yet.

4. I don't like to borrow other people's books the same way I don't like other people borrowing mine.

5. I can't reread a book because if I spend time reading books I've already read I will never be able to read all the things I want to read before I die.

6. Whenever I go to a giant bookstore I feel like a five-year old on christmas.

7. Nothing smells better than the unopened pages of a new book.

8. I always judge a book by its cover. And I don't understand how there can be so many books around with ugly covers.

9. I was the kind of kid that got in trouble for reading past my bedtime. Always under the blanket and with a pocket lamp.

10. And one more: The fact that there are still great books out there gives me hope for the human race!

That's the pile of books right next to my bed. The bottom one, Paul Hoffman's "The Left Hand of God", I've already finished. The title and the blurb (and the cover of course) took my in right away... the story however didn't. I wouldn't exactly recommend it. 

The two books by Glenda Larke are part of the "Stormlord"-trilogy. Reading the first one was really a pleasure. Only problem with these two following ones: the setting is almost always a desert. Seriously, I can't read that when it only 5°C outside. They will have to wait till summer.

I won't say a word about Twilight... haha, I might lose some friends if I do! So let's rather talk about George R. R. Martin's  "A Game of Thrones". That book is my read at the time and although I'm only about 100 pages into the book I've already grown seriously attached to the characters. I started watching the series on television  as well(which by the way is great), but holding that thick and heavy book in my hands simply makes happy.

A second pile of books stacks some more books I wanna read. Three of them are historical fiction about the Roman Empire... I will surely enjoy them. And as soon as it starts to snow (hey, snow, where are you?!) I will start reading the two crime stories by Jo Nesbo.

And last but not least: my University books. Not that I don't like them, but they're just not that much fun as the "leisure time"-books. However, I have to admit that I enjoyed reading James Hogg's "Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner". As strange as it might be, it's a fantastic read! Just like Scott... a classic! 

And should you be a student of English literature just like me (haha, I'm sure there aren't that many around), you'll know how helpful the Norton Anthologies can be. And so is this one on theory and criticism. 

So get your noses back into your books and enjoy the ink-written words!

xoxo your book-lover linskaya

the dark days are over...

I haven't told you yet that I am a bookworm, book expert (yeah)  and especially a book lover.
  
My favourite stories are either fantasy/sci-fi stories or crime stories. From time to time I also like historical novels, but I just can't stand stories that are inspired by real incidents... inspired by someone's real life. Life and the horrible things that happen all over the world are bad enough and it's absolutely sufficient to read about these things in the newspaper. Maybe that's naive but it's what I think!


Books and reading books is a way of escaping reality... and a great way too! The last books I read were part of a fantasy/sci-fi trilogy: the hunger games by suzanne collins

A friend of mine told me about the hunger games and said she loved it. I wasn't expecting much - as I normally never like the books someone else likes - but I was seriously impressed with the whole story and the emotional ups and downs it contained.

The story is actually very dystopian and very dark. Characters you care about die, often horribly. There are many great visual moments that linger in your thoughts long after you've left the passage. I enjoyed every single moment of reading these books. Books are only good when they completely unsettle you and these books certainly do. 

Her main character, Katniss Everdeen, and her companion Peeta go through some horribly bad times, action scene after action scene and every time you think it can't get worse... it will. But I don't want to spoil the fun of reading it that's why I won't tell you more than what it says on the book's cover:
   

Winning will make you famous - losing means certain death. In a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying tv show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called The Hunger Games. There is only one rule: kill or be killed. But sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.

   

And one more thing: what a great read! all of them!

xoxo linskaya
 

Mood: still emotionally shaken

Listening: -

Reading: -

Watching: Primeval

Playing: -

Eating: watermelon

Drinking: water