When I see movies based upon books, which is a lot since I love both, I almost always come away thinking that the book is way better than the movie. Since the Breaking Dawn book was my least favorite in the Twilight series I did not have very high hopes for the movie. All of the Twilight movies thus far have been fun and enjoyable but nothing that rocked my socks off. The underlying story made me a devoted watcher but I certainly noticed all the flaws and at times, the bad acting. Breaking Dawn though really did blow me away, with how GOOD it is.

Perhaps the difference is the director, Bill Condon, or the addition of special effects never seen before. Maybe it was the lighter, funnier tone, or the fact that this movie (compared to the first three) actually felt like a sci-fi thriller. I enjoyed this movie immensely though. I was either smiling like a goofball or crying my eyeballs out. It was funny, it was touching, and it was action packed.

The first 1/3 of the movie is the wedding. The setting was gorgeous, the dress was enchanting, and all the different characters really made you “feel” what they were feeling. Charlie is conflicted about losing his daughter, Edward is over the moon happy (something we rarely saw prior), Rosalie is coming to embrace her new sister, Jacob is still painfully in love and trying to do the right thing, Carlisle and Esme are giddy with love and adoration for their new daughter. The whole wedding sequence was long but it really needed to be, to show how each and every character was impacted by this event. At the reception we got to hear everyone make funny toasts which was a nice upbeat change. Jessica couldn’t help but make little digs at Bella for being the one to snag Edward and Charlie couldn’t resist making veiled threats to Edward. We also met new vampires, the Cullen’s extended family, and the foundation was laid for future “issues”.

The second 1/3 of the movie was the honeymoon. It too was long but fans have waited several years for Edward and Bella to finally have their happy ending so I think it was worth it. Of course happy ever after ends in only 2 weeks when Bella finds out she is pregnant. The maid who is so alarmed that one of Edward’s kind is romancing a human was actually kind of a scene stealer. Her disapproving looks were priceless and when she discovered that Bella was pregnant she very ominously declared that this was a death sentence for Bella. Edward, knowing that this older lady did in fact have some experience with vampires, knew she was right.

The last 1/3 of the movie follows the pregnancy, and shows how conflicted everyone is after Bella decides she must keep the child. Everyone (except Rosalie) tries to talk her out of it but she is firm. I really liked how she finally got some courage and stood up to an often times overbearing Edward. On the flip side I also understood Edward’s constant anger towards her. When he told her that she was making all the choices and leaving him powerless in his own life, that she was CHOOSING to leave him, and that he would never be okay with that, I was heartbroken right alongside him. He was put in the position of having to watch her die and being told he needed to be okay with it, when he knew he never could be.

Jacob wrestles with his own feelings but he is helped along by his pack when they decide that Bella and her child have to die. When Sam tells him he needs to submit, he kind of snaps. He breaks off from Sam and makes his own pack. He also decides he will protect Bella at all costs but in the back of his mind he is toying with killing her child if Bella does in fact die. And it isn’t looking good. Through CGI Bella is made to look terrible… like a walking skeleton.

Edward meanwhile finally hears his baby’s thoughts. That may have been the most touching scene of all. Bella is doing better physically after she starts drinking human blood and she and Edward finally decide to make peace with each other and then he hears his child. You can visually see the shift in him from concerned lover to proud father and husband… a man who WANTS a family.

When the big moment comes Jacob and Edward deliver Renesmee and that moment was sort of perfect. Edward takes the baby and holds her up for Bella to see. The pride in Edward is so profound and he can barely pass the baby off to Rosalie such is his newfound love. When Bella fades away and dies shortly after I was crying so hard. She looked like walking death and then she was death. Edward goes into fast action and his furor and emotion was hard to watch. As was Jacob when he went outside and collapsed on the ground for a good cry.

Edward is able to get Bella’s heart beating again but she is peculiarly still and silent.   He cannot think about that though because Sam’s wolf pack is coming to kill his child. Jacob gets the same idea in his head and he walks up behind Rosalie holding the infant. Before he can pounce he imprints on her. We hear his own words in a voice over describing what imprinting is. We see Renesmee through the years from baby, to child, to an absolutely gorgeous young woman and we a sense, through these flashes and Jacob’s thoughts that he loves her, this woman he has yet to meet. With new purpose he goes outside to a nasty fight outside that it looks like the Cullen’s will lose. When they discover he has imprinted on Renesmee they leave in defeat, not willing to break their most sacred pact to honor the life mate of their pack members.

The movie closes with shots panning Bella’s body. It slowly heals and regenerates and she transforms into an ethereal beauty. Her heart stops and the whole household pauses and waits. Edward goes to her side and she opens her lovely eyes. We see a flash of those brilliant and slightly terrifying red eyes and then it goes dark.

Whew! What a fantastic ride! As I mentioned it was just the right mix of funny, touching, emotional, tense, and thrilling. It has some pretty amazing special effects to. We finally see and hear the wolf pack talking to each other using their hive mind. We see how they discover Bella’s pregnancy by reading Jacob’s thoughts with a series of picture images and memories. We go inside Bella’s body as the venom spreads and heals her body, cell by cell, and organ by organ. We also get to see how painful and terrifying the venom is, with a a series of scary flashes and terrified screams that are all in her head. She is writhing inside her own paralyzed body. This movie was able to go into greater detail than any of the others by using CGI to say what words cannot.

Of course the greatest testimony to how much I enjoyed it is the fact that I will be seeing it again. Maybe a few times. It was just that good.

Woot! The official trailer and boy is it ever exciting!! Fave line goes to Edward… “You are leaving me no choice!”

]]> http://www.fanpirediaries.com/official-breaking-dawn-part-1-trailer/feed/ 0 http://www.fanpirediaries.com/photo-johnny-depp-as-barnabas-collins/ http://www.fanpirediaries.com/photo-johnny-depp-as-barnabas-collins/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:05:53 +0000 admin http://www.fanpirediaries.com/?p=979

Screenrant recently posted some photos of Johnny Depp in character for his role as Barnabas Collins in the silver screen adaptation of Dark Shadows. The original show was a TV soap opera that had cult like popularity and apparently that fan base has LOTS of opinions about the film version. After seeing this first look I think those voices will get ever louder. With Johhny Depp and Tim Burton together I guess it makes sense that Barnabas looks less like the TV show version of the character and more like a cross between Edward Scissorhands and Willy Wonka. What do you think about the new look?

Source

All hell broke loose in the last episode. Marnie and the vamps went to war and she took Eric as a prisoner to do her bidding. In this episode we begin to see what her plan is… to use Eric and other vamps under her control to attack attendees to a tolerance rally designed to help vamps win public favor.

Sookie was shot and Alcide and Bill rush to save her. Bill gives her some of his blood and they play the wait and see game. When she wakes she is immediately concerned about Eric’s whereabouts and lights a fire under Bill to try and find him. Alcide is mad that Sookie has almost died again and yet is still wanting to be involved with vampires. He tells Sookie he is done with her and this situation and leaves.

Antonia (Marnie) is having trouble rallying her troops. Some of the witches are most displeased that Antonia incited them to war and they try to leave. Antonia does not let them walk away… they are in this whether they want to be or not and her plan is to attack the public with her pet vamp at her side.

Sam and Luna decide to go camping in case Luna’s crazy werewolf ex comes back and finds them together. By day they do all the family camping activities and by night Luna and Sam share a tent. Alcide is not so warmly welcomed back home though. Debbie smells Sookie on him and pretends to be asleep when he crawls into bed. Her eyes glow yellow in anger as he leans over and kisses her.

Bill and Nan battle over the mess that has been created by Antonia. Bill advises her to cancel the tolerance rally but she refuses. He knows it would be the best decision as King to cancel it but as the AVL’s puppet he cannot do so.

Hoyt wakes up and starts packing Jessica’s things. As he is doing that, Laffayette, who is possessed by the spirit of a woman named Mavis, walks into his house with baby Mikey and a gun. He chases Hoyt out of the house claiming it is his. Hoyt alerts the police but Laffy/Mavis chases Jason and Andy away as well and fires several shots at them. Arlene calls Jesus to help and he is able to go inside and make Mavis realize that she is dead and simply possessing Laffy’s body. He offers to help and he is able to help her remember what happened. Mavis gives baby Mikey up and the group helps dig up the bodies of Mavis and her infant son. When they are reunited she leaves Laffy’s body and all see her ghost as she moves on to her final resting place.

Sookie dreams of both Eric and Bill. She tells them she loves them both and wants to both of them to be her lover. The two vamps are opposed at first but quickly see that neither wants to live without her and they bite her neck in unison.

Marcus enlists Alcide’s help to intimidate Sam. Sam was never given the message that Marcus wanted to meet though and Tommy shows up, having shifted into his brother to take his place. Marcus and some other pack members beat Tommy badly when he mouths off and Alcide has to break it up and carry a badly wounded Tommy to his car.

Jason drops off a box of Jessica’s belongings at her house, at Hoyt’s request. They get to talking and eventually end up having sex in the back of Jason’t truck.

Debbie buys V from a dealer on the street. Then she goes to Sookie’s house with flowers. She tells Sookie she wants to help her with the witch situation and after reading her mind to determine she is sincere she and Debbie go off on a mission to find Eric. They find him but he is being controlled by Antonia and he tells her he is supposed to kill King Bill. Sookie makes a run for it and goes to the hotel where the tolerance rally is underway. Antonia, Eric, and some other mind controlled vamps attack.

]]> http://www.fanpirediaries.com/true-blood-409-recap-lets-get-out-of-here/feed/ 0 http://www.fanpirediaries.com/true-blood-408-recap-spellbound/ http://www.fanpirediaries.com/true-blood-408-recap-spellbound/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:00:32 +0000 admin http://www.fanpirediaries.com/?p=938

This episode begins with Jessica meeting the sun due to the witches curse. She is just about to become extra crispy when Jason tackles her and shuts the door. He proceeds to throw a blanket on top of her but Jessica overpowers him. She is ready to kill Jason when the curse lifts and she realizes what she was about to do and that he just saved her life. Instead of killing him she kisses him and he returns that kiss.

Jason carries her back into the cell and helps silver her again. Jason and Bill agree that no law enforcement need be informed about the man Jessica killed while she was under the spell OR the man Jason shot in the shoulder to get to her. Jessica dreams that she kills Jason and then has sex with Jason immediately after. She wakes up to human women offering herself as a blood donor so Jessica can heal.

Marcus, the pack master of the Shreveport werewolf pack, meets with his pack to tell them to stay out of the vampire witch business. Debbie uses this opportunity to tell Alcide how much this pack means to her and she makes Alcide promise to stay away from Sookie, who has vampires attached to her hip. He foolishly promises.

Meanwhile Eric and Sookie are at her house taking the silver off. Sookie offers to let him drink her blood to help him heal. He accepts and bites her. Then he bites himself and tells her he wants them to become one. She drinks from him as well. They both end up getting high on the other’s blood and they imagine themselves making love in a rustic bed in the middle of the woods during a heavy snow.

Bill is doing damage control with a local television station and he leads the public to believe that the one vampire to die after the curse was merely a vampire suicide. Later he calls Antonia and tries to make peace. He agrees to meet with her and discuss it.

Tommy shifts into Maxine and steals her money in a land deal. Sam goes to see Luna and ends up eating dinner there until her jealous ex breaks it up.

Jessica breaks up with Hoyt and he throws her out. She immediately goes to Jason for comfort but he takes Hoyt’s side and also throws her out.

Lafayette dreams of the spirit woman he has been seeing around Arlene’s baby. She was a mother herself and her baby was killed by the father, who didn’t want anyone to know he fathered a child out of wedlock and with a black woman. The woman possesses Lafayette’s body and goes to he Bellfleur house to see baby Mikey.

Sookie and Eric join Bill’s cause and offer to help him fight the witches. Bill tries to make peace but Antonia incites a war. Sookie ends up getting shot and is rescued by Alcide. Eric ends up falling under Antonia’s spell.

In planning a party, whether for a birthday celebration, for Halloween, or just a gathering for friends and family, a vampire theme party is one of the most popular choices among children, teens, and even adults. Dracula is one of the classic characters for any vampire theme party. And with the latest trends from best-selling novels, TV shows, and movies, vampire theme parties are now set on a different level as inspired by Twilight, Vampire Diaries, True Blood, and many other fictitious vampire characters.

Planning a Party

From invitations to the selection of food and beverages to be served, any kind of party requires efficient planning to ensure that you and your guests will enjoy this event. If you are planning a vampire theme party for kids this Halloween, the party will be more fun if you invite guests who are willing to dress up and play the part of a little vampire boy or girl. Getting your kids to participate in the planning and preparation will also make it more fun and special for them. Ask them for suggestions on the colors to be used, let them draw or sketch out pictures for the invitation, and let them help in decorating the place, and planning the games to be played. Children who will have a fun vampire theme party should incorporate happy or funny ideas for the vampire, rather than scary or gory images. Invitations, cupcakes, or cookies may be decorated with funny vampire faces so as not to scare other kids who will be invited. For teens or adults, the perfect vampire theme party can be based on popular TV shows and movies, and guests may be required to wear outfits or costumes based on the exact theme of the party, to make it more fun and realistic. Drinks that have the same color and consistency of blood may be served such as cranberry or raspberry juice, or incorporate alcoholic beverages and cocktail drinks to match the theme of the party.

Vampire Theme Decors and Party Favors

Since vampires are known to lurk in the dark, a brilliant idea for lighting the area for your party is by using red light bulbs. Black velvet cloths and white paper lace will work great for tables and couches. Rubber bats and artificial webs are also excellent decoration for the creepy atmosphere. For teens and adults, the perfect background music would be from the soundtrack of their favorite vampire TV show or movie to match the characters that they are portraying in their costumes. Vampire bite tattoos are also a hit at parties like these. Red colored candies, red chocolate coated treats, black and red licorice, and gummy fangs will also work great as party favors for both children and teens. For children, hiring an artist will also make the party more fun as guests can have their faces decorated with face paint to make them look like blood-thirsty, funny, or whacky vampires. Gift prizes or loot bags can also be given to the most creative, funniest, or scariest looking vampire in the party. No matter how scary or funny your vampire theme party may be, nothing can be more fun and exciting than planning and preparing for the party itself.

This episode begins with Jason tied to a bed after some Hot Shot kids hit him over the head and knocked him out. He wakes and tries to get the kids to untie him but Filton bursts in and runs them off. He later finds out that Felton and Crystal have been trying to conceive but with no success. They decide to turn Jason into a were panther like themselves so that Jason and Crystal can propagate the bloodline.

Sookie has just found out that Eric now owns her house. He tries to get Sookie to agree to be his so that he can claim her and protect her. Sookie wants nothing to with him but she does seem unsure when he mentions that she could be in danger due to her fairy lineage.

At the Compton house Bill is being appraised of what happened at the Moon Goddess Emporium. The fact that the witches brought a dead bird back to life worries him. After the report he has sex with his assistant and drinks from her. Sookie arrives shortly after and is first held off by Bill’s snipers but Bill senses her and commands them to let her in. They both seem unbothered by the fact that Sookie has caught them together. Instead Sookie pleas with Bill to help her get her house back. After she leaves Bill recalls how it was he met Nan and came to be a spy for the AVL seeking to plant seeds of discord in the vampire monarchies. They met in London in the 80s when she watched him feed off of humans and let them live. Synthetic blood was in testing stages but Nan wanted Bill’s help to further the vampire revelation agenda.

Hoyt and Jessica run into Fellowship of the Sun protesters outside of Fangtasia. Hoyt gets beat up by some of them while Pam holds Jessica off since the crowd has video cameras. The next evening they fight when Jessica offers him some of her blood so that he can heal. She takes off in anger and ends up driving to Fangtasia and feeding on a fangbanger.

Sookie goes grocery shopping the next day and comes home to find Tara, which makes her happy. She is quickly deflated though when she finds that Eric has left blood in her fridge and built a cubby for his own sleepover use. Sookie leaves and goes to Fangtasia to appeal to Pam but Pam tries to convince her to accept Eric in her life. Tara ends up going to a witches coven meeting with Laffy and Jesus.

Eric is summoned by Bill who tries to get Eric to sell Sookie’s house. He refuses. Bill gives him an assignment to take care of the necromancer witches and then has another flashback that shows how he used snipers with wooden bullets to kill Sophie Anne. After the Queen was dead Nan swore Bill in as King of Mississippi. Nana was suspicious of the reason why Sophie Anne was interested in Sookie but Bill lied to protect her. Nan warned Bill that lying about this would be VERY bad for him.

Eric interrupts circle time among the coven and when Marnie refuses to halt their activities, Eric attacks her. The other coven members join hands and with Laffy’s power they are able to summon a spirit who inhabits Marnie. Marnie casts a banishing spell of some sort and Eric, looking scared and confused, runs away. He is found by Sookie wandering down the street alone and when she calls out to him he fails to recognize her… saying that he does not know who she is. The episode ends with Eric remarking on how “good” she smells…perhaps a little something like dinner?

In other storylines… Sam makes a date with Luna, Arlene becomes even more convinced that her baby is evil, and Felton and Crystal bite Jason in panther form.

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This episode and season are based on Book 4 in the Sookie Stackhouse series:

Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 4) Average Rating: 321 total customer reviews...

This is a recap of episode 37 (4×01) of season four of True Blood.

Many of us saw the first minutes of this episode thanks to HBO releasing them early. It shows us where Sookie went when she left this plane of existence with Claudine… her fairy Godmother. She was transported to fairyland where she met up with Barry and her grandfather Earl. Her grandaddy it seems felt as though he had only been gone for a few hours when in actuality he had been in fairyland for 20 years! Sookie filled him in on the state of her life and their loved ones. All the fairies, including Barry and her grandfather seemed to enjoy munching on some glowing fruit that was being served but Sookie has some suspicions after seeing how eagerly they were being devoured. She uses her telepathy to speak to her grandfather and tells him it is a trap and that they need to escape. This is apparently the wrong place to assume that telepathy is unique to her family because all the fairies heard.

Queen Mab makes an entrance and she is none to happy. She explains that all fae need to stay in fairyland for their safety since a vampire breached their world after drinking Sookie’s blood. They are harvesting all of their kind to detain them. They try to force Sookie to eat the fruit but she refuses and uses her glo-hands to zap Queen mab which causes the fairy world’s false image to collapse and she sees it for what it really is… which is less Ferngully and more Labyrinth with hideous looking fairies and a barren landscape. Sookie and her grandfather try to escape and Claudine’s brother announces himself to them and helps them. He leads Sookie to a chasm that he claims is the portal and tells Sookie she must jump if she is to go home. Only those who have not eaten the fruit can go. Sookie is unsure whether to trust this fairy and take the leap of faith but then her grandfather leaps in and pushes her with him.

When Earl and Sookie get back to Bon Temps Earl dies and Sookie is devastated. Things get worse as she goes home and finds contractors working on it. They call the police and her brother Jason shows up. He explains that Sookie has been gone for a year and that he sold the house to an investment company. Sookie in turn explains where she has been.

As the sun goes down Bill and Eric arrive. Bill commands Eric to go away which he does… after he tells Sookie he was the only one who never gave up on her. Bill provides Sookie with an explanation for where she has been in the year that has passed so that she has something plausible to tell people… she was on vampire business. During this scene we see that Jason is now a full fledged cop and Andy is hooked on V.

Lafayette and Jesus are still together and they go to a metaphysical store where Jesus wants Laffy to join his coven. Laffy is not into it since he had bad visions for months after the V trip from season three. We meet Marnie (Fiona Shaw) the head witch and when she sees Laffy she channels the spirit of Eddy, a vampire Laffy used to trade sex with in exchange for blood. Laffy is understandably freaked out and leaves.

Meanwhile Arlene returns to her home and find her young baby, Mikey, in the bedroom decapitating Barbie dolls. She freaks out that he is doing evil things and Terry insists its just boy stuff, not evil stuff. It is insanely adorable when she picks up the little guy and lectures him about how killing is wrong.

We find Tara in New Orleans in cage fighting match going by the name of Toni. We also see that she has switched sides and is now dating a woman and fellow fighter.

Jessica and Hoyt have moved into their little dream home but all is not rosy. Hoyt works hard and wants a wife so they fight over the fact that she doesn’t cook. Later when they go out for a date night Jessica is drawn to a male fangbanger and she feels guilty.

In Fangtasia Pam is attempting to do a PSA but she is terrible at playing the public. Eric steps up and does his own PSA and knocks it out of the park. This scene was probably the best of the episode! Mixed in with that we see Bill Compton playing the part of kiss-butt politician doing a ribbon cutting ceremony for an old folks home.

The next day Sookie returns to Merlotte’s where she has lots of explaining to do and she gets part time work at the bar. While there we see that Sam did in fact shoot his brother Tommy, who is now getting physical therapy on Sam’s dime for a leg wound and Sam is taking anger management classes. Sookie meets Portia there as well about getting her house back and she hears a tidbit from Portia’s mind that may indicate she knows Bill intimately.

Jason is taking care of the people from Hotshot and he brings them groceries this night only to have them hit him over the head and lock him in a freezer. What the hell?

Night two of the meeting of the coven and this time Laffy joins in and the coven has the power to temporarily bring Marnie’s dead pet bird back to life. One of the participants looks frazzled by this development and we see her leave the coven and go directly to Bill Compton who  is now the King of Mississippi. That development is more than slightly ridiculous. He looked so sleazy on his throne.

Sookie is at home for the evening and Eric appears as she is dressing. He informs her that he bought her house and that she now belongs to him.

The end.

Woot! What an epsisode!

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This episode and season are based on Book 4 in the Sookie Stackhouse series:

Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 4) Average Rating: 321 total customer reviews...