Monday, March 15, 2010

Spoilers. SPOILERS. SpOiLeRs. SPOILers. spoilERS. (This doesn't even look like a real word anymore.)

One FINAL alert: This is a post about Remember Me. If you haven't seen it and don't want to  know the ending, don't read this yet! We have warned you several times. We are not responsible for you being a spoiler whore.

On Friday, we got to see Remember Me. We can't tell you how excited we were to see Rob's first post-Twilight film. Would he be any good? Would the movie prove him to be a big box office draw and solidify his career outside of Twilight? Would people like the ending? (Yes, we were already aware of the movie's ending--more on that later.)

We arrived at the theater about 15 minutes to showtime, and we (and by "we", really just Grey) were a little disappointed that there didn't seem to be that many people there, but the theater filled up right before the trailers started. It wasn't New Moon packed, but all the good seats were taken.

We thought we had good seats, about halfway up the stadium and on the end. We always like to choose the end, so that any bathroom breaks don't interfere with other people's viewing experience. (We are so considerate.) Plus, it's less claustrophobic too, and that makes Grey happy. Like we said, we thought they were good seats.

The lights dimmed and we did a little happy squirm in our seats, because we knew that the Eclipse trailer would be coming soon. Every time that green "The following PREVIEW is rated...." screen came up, we would whisper to each other, "Is this it? Is this it?" until it finally WAS! We did a little squee....

....and that's when the trouble started.

Like we said before, we thought we had good seats. But apparently not, because as soon as the Eclipse trailer started rolling, the two girls behind us started talking. Loudly.

And then one of them said "Twilight sucks."

Now, Andee and Grey are not mean people. We are actually kind of wimpy and non-confrontational. But after 2 viewings of New Moon being totally effed up (once by a coughing personal space bubble invader and once by a crying baby),  it was on. Both of us turned around INSTANTLY. Andee asked "Are you kidding me?" and Grey told them "You can't sit behind us. Seriously."


Do we have to get a praying mantis up in here to tell you to be quiet? Cause we will...

Now we were pretty proud of ourselves for being so outspoken, but we have to be honest here: we may have said this in a kind of joking way, because we are essentially wimpy and passive. And not even passive-aggressive. Just passive. So it didn't really work, and the two bitches behind us kept talking. Like every time Edward was on screen, they would go "He sparkles. He sparkles." One of them even said, "I only came to see this movie because Robert Pattinson was in it" and at first we thought, "Then WHY are you running your big fat mouths?" but then we realized that it was probably sarcasm. Those little bitches.

And then Remember Me started.

Those little heifers laughed at inappropriate moments. They talked and giggled almost constantly. We kept trying to drown them out, but it just wouldn't work. We began scanning the theater for two empty seats, and finally found some a couple of rows down. The girls giggled as they saw that we were not leaving for the bathroom, but leaving their vicinity. We sure showed them. *Sarcasm*

I bet Tyler Keats Hawkins would have known how to shut them up...

We know we should have stood up to them better. We were probably 5 years older than they were, and usually if you stand up to people, they back off. (Or so we've heard. We've never actually tried.) We had all sorts of scenarios in our heads for how we would deal with them if we weren't giant babies, including one where Grey takes her shoe off, stands up, turns around and throws it in one of the girls' faces and screams "SHUT THE F*CK UP, YOU LITTLE BITCHES!!!!!!!!" and then everyone in the movie theater claps as the girls hunch down into their stadium seats, embarrassed and silenced. That would have been nice. *Sigh*

So, the movie. We loved it. We loved Rob. He was so, so, SO good. He captures angst so perfectly. Almost every time he was on screen, we just wanted to jump into the movie and give Tyler a big ol' hug and let him know that everything was going to be ok.

Look at the plaid pillow to match his plaid shirt. How cute.

Well, at least until the end.

If you've seen the movie, you know that Tyler dies in 9/11. If that wasn't tragic enough, he dies after finding out that everything and every one in his life is going to be ok, including him. He has a brief, shining morning of perfection, before it's all over. We knew it was coming, so it made that part hard to watch. Obviously, people in our theater didn't know, because there were a few shocked exclamations in the audience when the teacher wrote the date on the chalkboard.

Andee and Grey were not entirely sure how we should feel about the 9/11 ending. As Southerners, we live far, far away from New York City, not just in miles but in attitudes, lifestyles, etc. The South is different from the North. And while we may not have had the Twin Towers disappear from our skyline, we were sitting in Mrs. Trammel's 1st period history class when someone stuck their head in the door and told us to turn on the TV, that something was happening in NYC. It was Homecoming Week, and that Tuesday was Blast from the Past Day. Andee was dressed as one of The Three Musketeers. Grey was Marilyn Monroe. We were in 11th grade.

Grey as MM before school (Waiting to see if Andee has a pic from that morning. She can't go look on her computer because NONE OF US HAD DIGITAL CAMERAS THEN. Weird.)

We sat there, a classroom full of 16-year-olds from south Alabama, and cried as we watched the towers fall on live television. It wasn't happening to us, but at the same time, it was. For 16 years, we had been invincible, and now we weren't. No, we weren't in NYC. We didn't lose family members or friends. We didn't have to rebuild our lives. God bless all those that did, and God bless New York City. But we can empathize and sympathize, because just like 11th graders in NYC that day, we lost our innocence, too. The world was no longer the same place for us that it was on Monday, September 10th. And it has obviously stuck with us ever since.

So it was with very serious minds that we thought about the 9/11 ending.

  • Should the 9/11 ending have even happened? Tyler could very well have been hit by a cab, or shot in the subway. Or someone could have broken into his apartment and killed him, because we can't remember if he ever did get that deadbolt. 
  • Should they have casted British and Australian actors to play the lead characters? It was an American tragedy, after all.
  • Should RM have stuck to the original script? We believe that the original script called for Tyler's brother Michael to have been killed at the World Trade Center instead of committing suicide. What you don't realize until the end is that Michael dies when the WTC is bombed in 1993, not during 9/11. So when Tyler dies in 9/11,  it's a shock because you don't realize that it hasn't happened yet, so it's more of a twist and less of a pointless use of 9/11.
  • Would using 9/11 as a twist be worse than using it for emotional reaction? Would it actually trivialize the event? We used to think that it was wrong of them to make Michael commit suicide, and that taking the twist out of the movie would make the use of 9/11 pointless. But now we're not so sure.
  • Is the use of 9/11 really pointless? It was a tragic event in American history. At some point, it will be portrayed in movies. It was an important, impactful moment in time, and events like that are almost destined to appear on screen. Was this a horrible portrayal of 9/11? No, it was quite good. They filmed it just right--no planes, no sensationalism. 
We really didn't find definitive answers to any of these questions, but we do know that we really enjoyed the movie. Rob was fantastic, and so was the rest of the cast. With Rob and Emilie, it was like watching two real people on the screen, and that is probably (hopefully) what most actors strive for, right? Even if you did want to punch Aiden in the face, or tell Tyler and Ally to act more like 21-year-olds and less like 30-year-olds. Or remind the Hawkins crew that those little brats didn't cut Caroline's throat with the scissors, just her hair.
Ok, so they do look like college kids here...

Or throw your shoes at giggling bitches sitting behind you.

3 comments:

  1. You used a praying mantis! THE MANTIS! You have no idea how amused I am by that.

    I loved Remember Me too. I wanted to hug Rob too. I sobbed forever afterward and when I finally calmed down, I went to Target and saw a backpack with the Statue of Liberty on it and started sobbing again. I'm sure I looked like a complete nut job but it's ok.

    It was a fantastic movie. The message was important and they handled the subject well. I think they used 9/11 because it did affect everyone. Even 7th graders sitting in the library in Oklahoma (like I was). I never read the script so while I had a tiny idea that something was going to happen with 9/11, I really had no idea.

    Now THAT was a long and mostly serious comment. Goodness.

    PS. Those chicks were bitches. I woulda gave them the bitch glare, tolerated it for three minutes, told them to shut up, and then went to the workers at the movie theater and complained. Free popcorn, FTW! ;)

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  2. Dear fangbanger,

    So, obviously when Eclipse comes out, we're going to need to see it with you. Maybe then I will have the courage to throw my shoes at people's faces.

    Sincerely,

    Grey

    P.S. I feel like the praying mantis could randomly pop up in this blog. He's a pretty awesome little bastard.

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  3. Ohmygaw. A mantis. My delight can only be expressed through interpretive dance, so pay attention while I shake my ass. [pause] Fantastic, no?

    Does it seem lazy of me to just say, "I agree with EVERY WORD about "Remember Me"?" (<--- fairly sure that's mispunctuated) I hope not, because I'm saying it. Every word, every theory, every opinion. I would have bawled my eyes out had I been alone, but thankfully my closeted Twi friend kept me laughing through the agony.

    I further agree with you guys and Fangalicious that the 9/11 inclusion was tasteful and meaningful. It's sensitive material even for me (a 21-year-old then-Oklahoman who wept over my desk all day at my first real grown-up job).

    Finally . . TRUST in the Fang. Her bitch glare would have incinerated the bitches and the free popcorn would have been to pacify her so that no other theater-goers were harmed in the viewing of the film. Those are the hawt librarian glasses of a killer, Bella.

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