The Hunger Games vs Twilight

Recently the hit Twilight Series   written by Stephenie Meyers, just finished filming their final  movie Breaking Dawn Part 2 coming out  November 16, 2012. This series has made quite an impact on the nation because of  it’s thrilling action and heated romances. But sites say that the New York Times Bestselling  Author Suzanne Collin’s new Hunger Games Series might be the “New Twilight”. The first film which is coming out March 23, 2012 is told to be the movie of the year and to be even  more successful then Twilight.  This upcoming movie has had an even bigger impact not only because of the thrilling action and love interest but because of its story line .

“In a not-too-distant future, North America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss’ young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district’s female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.” (Suzanne Collins)

In my personal opinion  considering that I have read the books I am more excited for The Hunger Games Series then I was for the Twilight Series. I believe that it will be just as much of a success.

~Callie York

Twilight Fanatics

Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn. Even the names of these four books are absolutely wondrous. Millions are addicted to this Twilight saga phenomenon and I am one of those millions. Harry Potter had its chance at fame, but as that series comes to an end a new one rises to the charts. There’s books, movies,  t-shirts, posters, team Edward, team Jacob, and so much more emphasizing this new addiction. The ultimate question is after the last movie is released will the Twilight craze fade to the back or will Stephanie Meyer continue writing more about this unique couple.

Now, if you’ve been living under a rock I’ll tell you a little about what these master pieces are about. In the first book Bella moves to Forks, Washington and falls in love with the vampire Edward who saves her from another evil vampire. In the second book, Edward leaves Bella knowing how unsafe their relationship is. Bella goes to her best friends Jacob for help, who just so happens to be a werewolf. When Edward thinks that Bella died he goes off to the all powerful Volturi ( the leaders of the vampires) asking them to kill him. In the third book, Bella and Edward’s enemy creates an army of new born vampires. In the final book of this amazing series Bella becomes pregnant and has a vampire/human child, who brings up some conflict with the Volturi.

These books and movies are perfect for everyone, they have the romance for the girls, but plenty of gore and action for the boys. Now most of the stereotypes out there will make fun of how absurd it is for romance with vampires and werewolves, but let me tell you most of the people who say this just do it to be cool and have actually never seen the movies or read the books.  About 8 out of 10 people who have either read the books or seen the movies, love it.

Now will Stefanie Meyer continue the Twilight series? She has already written background books, like about one of the vampires in the new born army in the third book. She also has made a graphic novel and insiders guide. She attempted to write another book Midnight Sun which was parts of Twilight from Edwards perspective, but when it was illegally published onto the web, Stefanie Meyer was so upset she is not sure if wants to continue with this book. Personally, I don’t think that  Stefanie Meyer will keep writing about the Twilight saga, but instead start a new series. No matter what happens though, the Twilight Saga still is one of the best series that I have ever seen!

~Sami Bellina

Are you Sure This Isn’t a Spoof Movie?

The Breaking Dawn movie is the expected finale to the Twilight saga. Edward Cullen marries the love of his life, Bella Swan. During their honeymoon, a shocking twist occurs. Bella becomes pregnant with a child that will kill her. This is only part one of Breaking Dawn that is complete with a cliff-hanger ending. But is part 2 worth watching after this?

I have seen the Breaking Dawn movie twice so far. I personally think iit did not get any better the second time.  I mean sure, the CGI(computer graphics imagery) effects were awesomewith the wolves and everything, even though the talking inside the heads of the wolves was a little cheesy.  In addition Robert Pattinson can NOT act. Every line out his mouth seemed fake.

A good movie should pull you in and take you to its world. You can get lost in a good movie and honestly, I couldn’t get lost in anything except the tiny mistakes that were made constantly in the movie. For example, if you have seen it, you might not have noticed that when Edward pours the bag of blood into the Styrofoam cup, it’s red. When Bella sucks it out from a straw, it magically turns blue again, then red. I feel like one of the little aliens in the movie theater criticizing the horrible Sci-Fi movies, but it’s really funny how the producers can make so many mistakes when they know just how many people are going to flock to see their movie.

Overall the movie was pretty good and I do recommend it to people who are looking for a romantic- fantasy film. I thoroughly apologize to all the Twilight obsessed fans who might have just read this blog post.

~Amanda Murray

The Best Books into the Worst Movies

Some successful books are popular enough to get them turned into a movie. Some of these movies turn out to be extremely successful, such as the Harry Potter or Twilight series, but some movies get some of the worst ratings in the movie business, despite being extremely successful as books, such as Percy Jackson and Eragon. Now I think that the movie producers who made these movies where simply blind to the opportunity that they had. They had a ready-made target audience, tons of free publicity, and a perfectly fine script. Yet somehow they got it in their heads that they needed to change all that. Now don’t get me wrong some changes that they make are sometimes good but never the less deviate greatly from the story line, therefore making any and all fans that just wanted to see their favorite book on the big screen, angry. I believe that the people who make the movies should take their success on a silver platter without changing it, as this will just anger fans of the books.

Now while the movie producers are somewhat to blame, the fans of the books should not judge a movie by it being similar or not to the book. Many books are simply too long to have all the parts put into one movie and they must cut parts out to get it to movie length. I find that many fans will dismiss a movie simply because it was not close enough to the book. From there they will continue to spam websites with bad reviews and ultimately make nobody else watch it because of their reviews Even people who didn’t read the book do this. All together most movies that deviate from the book aren’t bad but crash and burn because of all the bad publicity from die hard book fans, without giving non-book people a chance to decide for themselves. So next time you are about to give something a bad review just try to remove your bias for a second and think of it as a movie not a book turned into a movie.

~Jack Pepper