The Lost Boys

Synopsis

A recently divorced mother takes her family to live with her father in California. Her two sons discover a gang of vampires in the town. One son, Michael, inadvertently gets involved with the gang because of a pretty face and becomes a half-vampire (once he drinks his first human blood he will become a full vampire). The other son, Sam, fortunately gets acquainted with some vampire detectives. Sam must try to help Michael become human again by killing the leader of the vampire gang.

Entertainment Value - 3

I saw this movie a while back, but thought it would be appropriate to post a review after hearing the news of Corey Haim's unfortunate death yesterday.  I don't know why, but I've come across this film (never seen it) quite a few times in my life and for some reason thought it was more highly acclaimed than it actually was.  It was a special on whatever channel does "Movies for Guys who like Movies," so they obviously thought it was good.  Even edited for TV the film was rather violent.  I'm perplexed at whatever the rationale is of creating an R-rated film targeted to young teenagers, when they normally can't watch the film without an adult.  Granted I'm an adult and I saw it of my own accord, but I didn't really enjoy it.  At first I thought it was rather a waste of my time having sat and watched it, but reflecting on it more I came to some pretty neat realizations.

Moral Value - Failure to Communicate? - 3

[Spoiler Alert]

Even though the movie portrayed some pretty serious evil, it did so in a way to not glamorize it, but to show us the destroying effects of evil.  Michael, the son who became half-vampire, at first wanted acceptance into this "cool" new group of friends and realized he had gotten in too deep, too late. With his constant desire to attack humans, he struggled to control himself, and this restraint is what ultimately allowed him to not become utterly consumed by this evil curse.

Restraints (obedience/adherence to laws, commandments, standards, etc.) do not exist to keep us from happiness, they are there to protect us from becoming enslaved by evil.  The ideal situation would have been for Michael to not get mixed up with the gang in the first place, but that would have defeated the purpose of the movie.

Another specific incident in the show really made me think.  The mother ends up falling for (inadvertently) the head vampire (whom Sam and his vampire hunters already suspect) and invites him over for dinner. When he arrives at the house, he waits to be invited in (normal behavior, right?). Once invited in, dinner is served and all attempts to expose him as a vampire (by Sam and et al.) are oddly ineffective (e.g., passing him garlic instead of Parmesan cheese, which should have burned him). During the battle at the end of the movie, we see that the mother's love interest actually is the head vampire, and the reason he couldn't be exposed earlier (at the dinner table) was that he was invited into the house.

Once we invite evil things into our lives, we become powerless to see it for what it is. We become enslaved to evil thinking and doing the longer we entertain it, and it can ultimately destroy us and our families.  On a more positive note, however difficult evil is to discern in our daily lives, God has promised us He "will not leave [us] comfortless: [He] will come to [us]."  We are all blessed with the Spirit of Christ when we are born and have the power to discern between good and evil.

Twilight: New Moon

Synopsis

This is the sequel to the movie/book Twilight. Edward is convinced that he is no good for Bella and leaves her in hopes of giving her a normal life to live. His absence causes Bella to enter into a deep depression. Her only way out is Jacob, who seems to be just what she needed, and almost gets pulled out of her slump, until he leaves her too. After Bella miraculously saves Edward's life (a self-imposed death sentence) she must choose between Jacob and Edward who turn out to be mortal/immortal enemies.

Entertainment Value - B

This sequel is a lot better than the original (I'm sure a new director helped), though the storyline in the first was more interesting. I would have liked to understand a little bit more about the werewolves and seen more interaction with the vampires (the scene in Rome was pretty cool). My wife (who's read the book) explained a little bit more to me and that helped.

Moral Value - Failure to Communicate? - 3

I don't think either Jacob or Edward are good for Bella. Both of them put Bella into a situation where she is forced to lie to her dad, who really loves her and should be most important in her life (at least until she moves out of the house to go to college, but she's still in high school!). Any relationship that endangers her family is probably an unwise one; not to mention the fact that Bella's obsession takes her so far as to almost kill herself various times only to catch a fleeting glimpse of her beloved.

Granted, Edward's influence over Bella is paranormal, however, the emotions this story pulls out of people who watch/read it are real and and unhealthy (particularly young girls/women).  Specifically with the novel, some of the people I know that have followed the story have expressed the emotions and thoughts that it draws out of them and how they have a hard time putting them aside. I wouldn't call these people unprincipled, I just think Stephanie Meyer is a talented writer that could probably write something with a little more moral fiber.

I failed to mention it in the earlier post on Twilight, but I made some comparisons to the chemistry between Edward and Bella and aggressive mimicry on my other blog. I still think this applies to this second installation.

Stepping down from my soap box, the story's a fun one to follow (though I'd recommend keeping your emotionally charged teenagers away from the books for as long as you can), so if you have a buck it's worth checking out at RedBox.

Twilight

Synopsis

High School junior Bella ends up falling in love with Edward Cullen, a rather deadly choice of young men. Pursuing their relationship puts Bella in danger and could result in her death.

Entertainment Value - D

This movie was replete with bad acting, though it was a pretty true adaptation of the book (it was a relief that the movie took place outside of Bella's Edward-obsessive thoughts). Edward seems to be the one struggling the most emotionally whereas it's Bella in the book. The fabled kiss-scene wasn't that great (Spiderman's was way better). The soundtrack was awkward with weird music in weird moments, the one exception being Muse blasting during the baseball scene, that's a cool song and was probably least awkwardly placed in the script.

If you're a fan of the books or the story sounds interesting, the fight scenes are pretty cool.

Moral Value - Failure to Communicate? - 3

This story is not a very good portrayal of a relationship. The much-talked-about kissing scene was totally inappropriate with her just sitting there in her underwear with Edward in the room. There was some restraining of emotions between the two, but only because Edward was afraid he'd kill Bella not because it wasn't right.

The father-daughter relationship wasn't too positive, you don't get a chance to know Charley, so Bella's leaving him isn't as drastic as it should have been (or was in the book).