Drew Turney
Every time there’s a film phenomenon among the lucrative tween or teen audience, a slew of cheaper rip-offs flood screens and printing presses, and you’re already three steps behind as a studio and director when it comes to artistic merit.
So like ”Aragorn”, ”Percy Jackson” and ”The Golden Compass” all tumbled over the precipice in ”Harry Potter”’s wake, this is one of a dozen interchangeable paranormal romances featuring photogenic heroes, heroines playing the misunderstood outsider so every teenage girl ever born can relate to her and for some reason, Jeremy Irons in the cast…
The emo-like new girl at school Lena (Englert) in the bayou country of Louisiana is so pretty, misunderstood and outsiderish she could be Bella Swan’s sister. Only local boy Ethan (Ehrenreich) can see her true nature blah blah blah, and the two fall in love.
But Lena’s a spellcaster – not a witch – and her family has a dark history in town the pair have to figure out together if their love is going to survive.
The special effects are befitting the $60m budget, and everything else is mildly interesting until the final few scenes, where I was genuinely thrilled at the prospect of an ending that wouldn’t be happy and didn’t show the lovers uniting in the sunset. No such luck.
Watch it only if every copy of ”Twilight” at the video shop is out.
Blu-ray details/extras : The ‘combo’ pack comes complete with a fairly standard video presentation (it lacks detail, and there’s some noticeable grain – surprising for such a recent film) but a better audio track (though nothing spectacular). Extras-wise, there’s a (near half-hour) ‘behind the scenes’ featurette, that the fans may enjoy, some deleted scenes, and a trailer.
