Eclipse

My countdown to The Twilight Saga Eclipse:

1/7 - read leaked draft of script [Oh, Jackson. Tsk tsk.]

6/12 - read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

6/21 - 6/25 - Listen to Eclipse audiobook (via YouTube) while at work. Yes, I was too lazy to re-read the book.

6/26 - Partial Lunar Eclipse! It peaked around 3:40am. Lucky me, the moon was visible from my front door. So, I didn't have to go outside in the cold to witness this event.

6/27 - Bella's truck photo op at Universal Studios Hollywood Citywalk. I expected a lot of people lining up for this. There wasn't, just a lot of people in and out.

6/28 - Buy movie tickets. Yes, I seriously lagged it. They said it was sold out. They think they're funny. Ha. My movie theatre used thermal receipt paper instead of real ticket paper.

6/29 - reread script

6/30 - 12:01am showing, baby!

I soon find out the number of Team Edward fans in my auditorium is very small. Team Jacob was everywhere, and they were loud.

I have to admit, there weren't any surprises for me. I only have myself to blame, having read the book and the script. New Moon surprised me because the book is my least favorite, and I had low expectations.. especially after the first film. Eclipse is my second favorite book in the series, and after watching New Moon, I had expecations for this film.

Eclipse wasn't as true to the book as New Moon, which is understandable. The action sequences were really good. They sped up the plot, minimizing the involvement and significance of Bella's HUMAN world.

The training sequence is the baseball game of the third film. You have to love the Cullens!

How cute are Alice and Jasper? How HOT is my husband, Jackson Rathbone?! ^_^ When he says "Ma,am," my heart just melts! I'm really glad Major Jasper Whitlock's history made it into the film. He played a bigger role in the film than I expected. His posture was so good! Jasper- the Southern Gentleman trained for combat.

Xaiver Samuel is HOT. Yay for aussies! Bryce was good as Victoria. I really didn't mind. She's just not as fierce looking as Rachelle was.

The engagement scene was really cute! I got really excited heaing "Bella's Lullaby" in the background. Just say yes, Bella! The screaming from the audience took away from the intimacy, lol.

After the tent scene with Jacob and Edward, how can you not be Team Edward!? He's so awesome. Jacob's an immature brat. I think the films and Taylor Lautner portray Jacob Black to be better than he really is. I could rant more about Jake, but why waste my time? Team Edward. Period.

Overall, I think Eclipse is better than Twilight and New Moon (films). And if they wanted to not make Breaking Dawn, that would have been OK. You get a sense of happy ever after with Bella and Edward at the end of this movie. I don't care about Jake, though I expected a tag after the credits of him running away like in the book. No go.

They made $30 million in midnight showings, beating the record set by New Moon in November AND it's a holiday weekend. Oh my!

I Got Five on It

I noticed the meter while driving home on the 101 north/west. The sun kept giving a glare. Granted, my clock is always faster than the real time, but this is still flipping awesome (except the fact that I drive so much kind of sucks).

PLL

I read all eight books in the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard because of the new ABC Family show. It's about five girls with different personalities, who used to be best friends. I can DEFINITELY relate, minus the murders.

The TV show has a lot of elements from the book, but it is still taking on a life of its own. I think the casting is perfect. Mr. Fitz is really cute! The girl who plays Ali is only 14, while all of the other girls are in their 20s? What the heck?

Fine, Fresh, FIERCE!

California Gurls by Katy Perry is this year's summer anthem! When I first heard it, I only caught the end, and I heard Snoop say, "I wish they all could be California Girls." So, at first, I thought it might have sampled the Beach Boys. Then, I wondered if Katy Perry was allowed to sing this song. She grew up in Santa Barbara, so she's a legit California girl. Too bad she can't spell "girl" correctly?

Anyway, it rocks. Her performance at the MTV Movie Awards was everything I thought it would be. It definitely captured the song. Not to mention, the choreography taught me what some of the lyrics meant ;P

Now the video, WHOA. Candyland. I love the rude gummy bear. That was so funny! The video doesn't really remind me of California. The girls are like in bathing suits, and there's sort of a beach, but that's it. This video will definitely have people talking!

Chuck E. Cheese

Chuck E. Cheese is a place where a kid can be a kid. Well, I spent 4 hours there today.

-I love that everything is only one token.

-We played Jurrassic Park, and conquered it. Sure, we spent like $4 worth of tokens, but it was totally worth it. It was weird, a bunch of tokens splurtted out of the machine at one point -- free play!

-There are 3 different photo opps.

-I'm still not pro at Skee Ball.

-Deal or No Deal is so lame! If you choose "No Deal," you have to enter more tokens. If you don't, you take the deal.

-My favorite game was some ball game in the kiddy section. You throw balls (like from the ball pit, but smaller) on the screen to kill the bugs or whatever. The animation is so cute and the game is super fun! But it only lets you play two areas per play.

-They played Justin Bieber and All Star Weekend on the TV screens in the Birthday room. Where were the Jonas Brothers and other young hollywood stars? Too hollywood, I guess.

-After all that, we had about 200 tickets. We got glow in the dark fangs and this thing that pops out at people.

You know what I miss? Hungry Hungry Hippos, the Ninja Turtle game, and the Barbie and Ken jet ski race.

Short Second Life

I am a bit peeved that Stephenie Meyer wrote and published this novella before finishing Midnight Sun. I really want her to finish that! After reading The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, I know the wait for Midnight Sun will definitely be worth it!

I, of course, have read Eclipse. I knew Bree's ultimate fate.

I liked Bree. After reading her story, I was really hoping the ending I knew would change, for Bree's sake. I wanted it to be different, or perhaps, I wanted there to be more than what I saw in Eclipse.

But no. I finished the novella with sadness.