The last Twilight movie opened in November 2012, and it was quite the phenomenon. Fans lined up 3 days before the purchase tickets, girls cried because they refused to accept there's no more Edward-Belle torture to self-impose to, people condemned the Jacob + What's-Her-Name-That-Belle's-Daughther combination, and it was the big winner (or loser, depends on your perspective) at the Razzie Awards.

So, that's it right? The end of an era, the end of teen-craziness over vampires-werewolves-humankind love torture? Well, not quite. In the first three months of 2013, we had at least seen three movies that are considered distant relatives / close siblings to that Stephenie Meyer's YA series (and one of them was even penned by her).

Third Cousin : Warm Bodies
This is perhaps just a distant relative, a third cousin. But when you watch this love story of a zombie and a human girl, you can't help but think of Twilight. How can you not? Even Teresa Palmer looks like Kristen Stewart in some angles. The zombie is pale, much like the vampire Edward. There are good zombies and bad zombies, much like there are the Cullens and the Volturis. The only missing connection is maybe there's no Jacob (Thank God!).

Warm Bodies takes itself less seriously thus enables it to be more funny and less pretentious. There are no lips biting from the heroine or a walking pale wood pretending to be romantic hero. It's much more entertaining.

Step-Sibling : The Host
Although it's written by the same author, this tale of an earth full of human bodies with alien souls is only considered by me as a step-sibling to Twilight. It's about the heroine who was forcefully inflicted with an alien souls but slowly learned to bond with this kind alien, and her "love-triangle" with her boyfriend, and a guy the alien is attracted to. It's complicated to put it in a sentence you see, and it's not really a triangle per se since it actually involves four souls. There's also a bad seeker (played by the gorgeous Diane Kruger) but there's no epic showdown between the good and the evil.

This movie with Saoirse Ronan front and center, is not as bad as some critics put it to be, at least Ms. Ronan herself is maintaining her good work as per usual.

Sister : Beautiful Creatures
I can summarize this in one phrase: The reverse-gender version of Twilight. There's this ordinary guy falling in love with a witch-in-making. A creepy big house located in the deep of the wood, mysteriously & creepy family members who always dress so luxuriously and sleep-inducing love story.

Good news is: at least the center duo can act better than that two from Twilight. But then again, hey, who can't?










Are there more coming our way? I hope not! Twilight is gone, just accept the fact and move on, stop making wanna-be movies when there are countless topics to be explored. Be more creative, that's how you win audience.

Random Thoughts After Watching "Beautiful Creatures"

Random thoughts after watching “Beautiful Creatures” (this is not a review, just random notes)

(1) I admit I have never heard of this YA novel before. I first came to know about this movie when I watched Hansel & Gretel few weeks ago, and they played the trailer before H&G. My first thought was: so this is something like last year’s Dark Shadows? And then I googled the movie and I realized: oh no, this is the reverse gender of Twilight, shamelessly rip off the same formula that brings Twilight to the utmost success: Two young lovers, one ordinary human being & the other not-so-ordinary, and their love-you-but-can’t-be-with-you torturous love story.

(2) I watched this movie back-to-back with “Jack the Giant Slayer”, and now realize they’re actually not much different: it’s the story of two young lovers who could not be together because of their different background. Just that “Jack” has better looking leads.

(3) Gladly announcing this good news: Alice Englert and Alden Ehrenreich are 10 times better than Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson. At least Englert can do more than just biting her lips and Ehrenreich can… well, it’s not so hard to be better than those two Twilighters (three, if you count Taylor Lautner) so I’ll leave it at that.

(4) The supporting actors and actresses are actually very good. Jeremy Irons & Viola Davis are very good in their limited roles. And Emma Thompson, well, I shall dedicate one whole point to her…

(5) Don’t you just love Emma Thompson? How can you not be? She’s lovely in every role. In this movie, she’s the mother of Ehrenreich’s best friend possessed by the evil. She’s both hilarious and scary (if that is even possible), and she rocks an American accent. That confrontation scene with Jeremy Irons is just great.

(6) I often mix up Rose Byrne & Emmy Rossum. I can’t explain why, because it doesn’t make sense at all but it happened. My point here is: remember how lovely when Rose Byrne became the bitch in Bridemaids? Same here, Emmy Rossum really made an impact as the evil and bitchy cousin.

(7) I spent some time trying to figure out why the actor playing the above-mentioned best friend, Thomas Mann looks so familiar to me. And I thought he was Michael Angarano. But then I googled him too, and realized: OMG, he is actually that eager young man who wants to be a witch hunter in Hansel & Gretel. I thought I’ve seen him before!

(8) One question: Why is there no mention of the husbands of these casters women, especially the evil one like Sarafine & Genevieve? If they had become evil, who would have married them and impregnate them?

(9) If Jennifer Lawrence can play 16-year-old Katniss in The Hunger Games, I bet she can handle the role of Lena just fine. Now I just wonder how different will the movie be should they cast her as Lena.

(10) Final verdict: 2.5 stars out of 5. Watch it if you like Twilight. It’s not as bad as I expected, at least I didn’t walk out of the movie half way like I did during the first & only Twilight movie I watched.