Date: 1st April 2013
Dear Stephanie Meyer,
I am not a fan, but I have admired your Twilight books and movies for their runaway popularity, and the fact that you have single-handedly made vampires sexy again. For a new generation that did not know who Buffy is or swooned over young Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise as sexy bloodsuckers, I suppose your vampires are fresh. I don’t love your books or your stories like so many of your followers, but I see that people are still suckers (pun-intended) for impossible love stories and always eager to explore their ‘dark’ sides.
So I was surprised to learn that your new book/movie did not have broody emo vampires, but a strong survivor female lead Melanie/Wanderer and a science-fiction theme. I’m not sure I can name another science-fiction movie made for young females. Yay!
I like the back story: Melanie is one of the remaining humans in the world that have not been taken over by aliens called Souls. They arrive in shiny metal pods and look like LED sea slugs. Once inserted into a host’s body they take over all function, and make the human’s eyes glow. Pretty.
The Soul that takes over Melanie’s body, Wanderer/Wanda soon realizes that Melanie is still in there. They soon escape from the Souls colony to reunite with Melanie’s family, where they fall in love with two different guys. So far okay…
But here’s where the story starts to fall apart. Why can’t Wanda tell them that Melanie is in her head? They didn’t kill her so far. If Melanie knows that her family is safe, why didn’t she just take Wanda far away from the hideout instead of leading all the Souls straight to their hiding place? Don’t the Souls have ultrasound underground sensors, that could analyze the ground and find the humans? I think that with all the Soul’s advance technologies, they should at least have that…
Okay plot holes aside, I do like Saoirse Ronan for the role, because I think she’s a great actress. She’s a real serious actress, getting nominated for Academy awards and stuff. But as a hero, she is kinda boring. Granted, she’s still more interesting that that Kristen stoner that played Bella Swan, but Saoirse (how ever do you pronounce that name?!) is well, like a desert scenery; a lot of dramatic angles, but really nothing to look at.
Speaking of boring, those two guys playing the love interests… zzz…zzz… Sure, they aren’t bad looking but come on! We want swoon-worthiness; or at the very least something that suggests a smothering inner turmoil. These two sure aren’t Team Edward/Jacob material. I’m not sure I would even care if either died in the end.
So I guess what I’m saying is that while I wanted to like your girl-power sci-fi flick, I guess I’m just not in that key demographic group that loves silly fantasy dramas regardless of the makeup; and I want hot guys in the movie. And while I have your attention, I might suggest hiring better people to make your movie posters. You know, those things that help sell the movie?
All the best,
Doris
Hi Doris,
Whilst I don’t disagree with your sentiments entirely on the flick (ie. why the aliens do not use ultrasound tech to detect the humans etc.), perhaps you have completely allowed all the typical kinda loopholes in teen-chick-flicks like these to delude your attention away from the real story and issues that perhaps the author was trying to bring across.
For me, the movie spoke to me in a few ways, in terms of political aspects as well as personal issues I have with myself. The movie touches on a sensitive topic that may mirror on the American people and their struggle with immigrants that flood their country, and taking away their jobs and slowly outnumbering the “true-blue Americans”. Whilst immigrants bring with them new knowledge, culture, technology, all in good faith that the motive is to strive towards a better tomorrow, why are the Americans angry about this? Do they perceive immigrants as a threat to their livelihood and existence?
Here in Singapore, I am quite sure that we are also heading towards that kind of direction. For me, the film spoke to me in that way. Yes, perhaps there are negative connotations that foreigners may bring along with them, but is the situation all bad?
What I am trying to say is that the movie was not all that bad and superficial. It spoke to me rather powerfully, strangely enough. And I realised that you have reviewed this film as a mere chick-flick with no message to send across. Just my thoughts about your review, which was quite entertaining actually.
PS: Did the helicopter wrapped with silver foil look ridiculous or what?