Photo Feature:

Bella’s birthday scene.

In this photo, we can see the very pivotal scene from New Moon, which actually was the initiator of the book.

I’m rather impressed by Jackson Rathbone, I must say. In a still, usually you can’t comprehend expressions perfectly, but Jackosn’s continual expressions have been caught on this still in a near perfect sense. One negative thing about this photo is the definite lack of effect on Kellan Lutz’s face. What’s he doing? Is he even bothered? And thirdly, Peter Facinelli, wow, doesn’t he look rather seriously violent here? Very unlike the Dr. Cullen we’re used to. Overall, I like this still from New Moon better than other stills released because it’s rather spoiler-y (lol) and has an effective look at the three brilliant actors.

We critique Catherine Hardwick and Chris Weitz’s takes on the vampires!

New Moon – Chris Weitz.

Why? Although Carlisle Cullen in Twilight did look great, he didn’t look as if he was 23. He still can’t look 23 as Peter Facinelli – however good looking he may be – is 35. But in New Moon, he gets the upper hand because he looks sharper, yet still retains the soft aura of the father figure.

New Moon – Chris Weitz.

Why? I chose this pretty photo of Esme from Twilight, which is currently my favorite to point out that although Esme looks like the Snow White she’s supposed to, Elizabeth Reaser looks too matronly and there’s no hint of any vampirism in her. In the New Moon avatar, she looks beautiful, and in a vampire way as well.

New Moon – Chris Weitz.

Why? To be perfectly honest, there’s not much difference in Kellan Lutz’s look as Emmett Cullen. But if you take a good luck for a long, long time – which I did lol – you’ll notice that in the books, Emmett is described to be slightly ominous. When I compared the movies, I thought that although in the movie Twilight, he looks perfect and better than the Twilight promo, in the New Moon, he looks like the vampire-in-control, so that got a plus point.

New Moon – Chris Weitz.

Why? To make it clear, I think Nikki Reed looks prettier as Rosalie Hale in Twilight. But in the promos, she came across too soft to play the vain and sharp Rosalie Hale, which is why many fans had their doubts about her, though I immediately took to her. Nikki’s acting proved most people wrong, as her “Is she even Italian?” was a classic Rosalie line, in my opinion. Choosing this, therefore, was really tough. But you’ll notice Nikki looks rather menacing and sexily pretty in the New Moon promo – which is what defines Rosalie Hale.

New Moon – Chris Weitz.

Why? Edward Cullen in Twilight promo looked too vampiristic, it seemed as if they gave all the vampirism of the Cullen family to him, which scores a negative. In the movie, Rob Pattinson was good, of course, but we’re talking main looks here. I mean, he looks better in New Moon trailer as well. And if we compare Vampire promos here, I definitely feel the New Moon Edward is a perfect mix of Vampire and his estranged human feelings.

Twilight – Catherine Hardwicke.

Why? Isn’t it obvious? Bella’s this clumsy, average pretty and your regular kind of girl – whatever Edward says, cause he’s in love with her. Catherine captured that look and made Kristen Stewart look every bit the Bella Swan I had imagined while reading Twilight. Chris Weitz made too much of an effort for New Moon and got it all wrong. She’s still bearable, but the Twilight Bella will be missed.

Twilight – Catherine Hardwicke.

Why? Although New Moon Alice looks glam, she’s not the small featured, thin, pixie-looking Alice. In Twilight, there was an innocence about Ashley Greene and she looked, if not exact, very close to Alice.

Twilight – Catherine Hardwicke.

Why? Agreed, Jasper Hale’s supposed to be the blood-thirsty vampire here, I miss the old look of Jackson Rathbone in Twilight, who had the pained expression on his face perfectly with an innocent yet guarded look due to the soft make-up. The New Moon Jasper loks like a human blood drinking Vampire.

So there you go, overall, I do think Chris Weitz has done an excellent job and I look forward to see how he captures the movie’s essence which Catherine Hardwicke did.

What are your opinions? Comment and let us know!

October 2009:

Lion and Lamb Love – Visit Site

The online Twilight family is spread all over the world in such a huge volume it seems nearly impossible to track down all of them. However, some exceptions, such as L3, stand out to you as a more brilliant star in the entire galaxy. A beautiful layout, and an excellent and amazing gallery makes for what is usually expected of a fansite. In addition to that are the other well maintained sections, like the media, of the site that draws everyone back.
To top it all, their staff’s online reputation adds to the quality features of the site, therefore, it was only too obvious to pick L3 as the first Site of the Month at Quintessence!

Nobody in the earlier centuries, or even those who’ve read and watched countless adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula could in their wildest dreams imagine such a tender love story that has been woven in The Twilight Saga.

People are taking to vampires, this writer an example herself, in a way that is unprecedented. The blood-draining killers, leaches, so to speak are that no more.

A look at the most famous literary vampires, therefore, is only natural! My personal list includes the following vamps, evil or Cullen!

- Lestat De Lioncourt: Appearing in Anne Rice’s several books in The Vampire Chronicles, including The Vampire Lestat, Lestat De Lioncourt is one of the most well known fictional vampires – he has also been mentioned by Stephenie Meyer indirectly in her partial draft of Midnight Sun, when Edward Cullen is wondering if Bella reads Anne Rice. Lestat is essentially, very good looking with shoulder length glossy blond hair, and nails which look like as if they’re made of glass. Because of his obvious vanity – he is very interested in his looks and fashion, he’s referred to as the ‘Brat Prince’, a title which he is very fond of. He is a charismatic character, but still somewhat of a loner. Very late in the series, Lestat falls in love with a witch of the Mayfair clan named Rowan Mayfair who shares the same feelings towards him. Rowan asks Lestat to turn her into a vampire but despite the feelings toward one another he painfully chose not to, because she is a guiding figure in the Mayfair family and he cannot take her away from it. Thus, this a tragic and intriguing character in every way, making it to the top of my list.

- Aro: Aro is one of the three vampire leaders of the Volturi, in The Twilight Saga. He possesses the extraordinarily powerful gift of tactile telepathy, the supernatural talent to ascertain the thoughts of a person with a single touch. He’s widely accepted as the main leader of the Volturi world over, demonstrating this when he calls Caius and Marcus to vote on Renesmee Cullen’s doom or not. His flamboyant selfish personality is obvious as he states “I haven’t seen a prospective talent so promising since we found Jane and Alec. Can you imagine the possibilities when she is one of us?” His nature is also obvious when he kills his own sister Didyme when he realized she and Marcus were getting wary of his rising tyranny, sparing Marcus whose powers were too valuable to lose. Aro is power-hungary and very dominant, which makes him an all-round classic villainous vampire.

- Count Dracula: Perhaps the first vampire any reader will associate with the Undead is Count Dracula, whose historical literary appearance in 1987 gothic novel of the same name, Dracula, almost makes half the world believe he was a real, well, person, instead of being a fictional character created by the Irish novelist, Bram Stoker. Count Dracula has been the inspiration for almost all vampire novels, even though he, himself, is fictional. Most myths associated with vampires have been originated from Dracula such as the three brides, coffins, avoiding sun etc. Dracula was a citizen of Transylvania – which has since been assoicated with being a country infested with the unnatural in most movies and books. Dracula was an epitome in vampire fiction, synonymous with the word vampire itself. Even though he was a treacherous villain of the novel who ultimately is hunt down by Van Helsing, he remains immortal in vampire fiction.

- Carlisle Cullen: Carlisle Cullen, born in 1640’s London, is the founder of the Olympic Coven in The Twilight Saga. Carlisle has an unparalleled gift of immense compassion, love and sensitivity which helped him with his decision of resisting feeding on human blood. After practicing this since the very first time he fed as a vampire, Carlisle is all but immune to human blood. He practices medicine and finds immense peace at the hospital where he is saving human lives. Dr Cullen, as he is known in the human world, is an unprecedented character in vampire fiction, even if his dietary habits were already published decades ago in other fictions, the character sketch of Carlisle puts in front of you a vampire who could have been worse than Dracula if he had so chosen, but consciously making a choice of such compassion puts Carlisle in a light as hardly ever before on a vampire, not even the so-called ‘vegetarian’ vampires.

- Stefan Salvatore: Perhap the forerunner of Twilight vampires, Stefan Salvatore is a fictional Italian vampire from the immensely popular The Vampire Chronicles by LJ Smith. Stefan is a classic Italian beauty with dark, wavy hair and shimmering green eyes, again being rather unconventional with the bloodsucking vamps. He is the younger of two vampire brothers who’d been fooled into “exchanging bloods” with another vampire Katherine whom both of them loved. Realizing nothing could be changed once both brothers had duelled and became Undead for once and for all, Stefan accepts reality, always believeing it was his fault Katherine died and his deeds can never be redeemed. A classic example of a loner and mysterious handsome hero, he can feed on animal blood as well. Stefan’s character basically deals with belonging, loyalty and love.

- Edward Cullen: The modern poster-boy for vampires, Edward Cullen is the hero of The Twilight Saga. Immensely beautiful, with supernatural gifts of vampiric strength, extraordinary speed, and a unique one of reading minds makes Edward Cullen mysterious, alluring and rather in-demand in the vampire royalty, The Volturi. His charisma, personality and demeanour is a mix of Lestat and Stefan which puts him above most vampires when it comes to mysticism. Edward has always been a loner, and a family man never needing anybody except his immediate adoptive family. But his ability to love passionately is roused when he falls in love with a mortal human, Bella Swan. His story continues as this forbidden and very different love saga unfolds and reveals the true Edward in the books, the loving hero of one of the most appealing teenage romances written – just with more than enough vampires.

- Alice Cullen: Alice Cullen is a rather interesting character from The Twilight Saga. Nothing was known of her human life, so basically her story starts with her entry in the Undead world. Alice is a gifted vampire, she can “see” future, or visions, more appropriately. Her powers, however, are not accurate as they depend on people’s minds and decisions which are always fickle. According to Alice, weather is more predictable than people. Alice knew before she had even met him, that Jasper Whitlock Hale is the love of her life and is looking for her – even before he knew it himself. She had also been able to take control of her vampire instincts as she had had visions of the Cullen family and knew she and Jasper were bound to that family. Alice’s extraordinarily friendly nature, while still being a vicious vampire sets her apart from her family. Thin in the extreme, as she is described, Bella Swan has difficulty in believeing she is anymore powerful than her own self, however, Alice is a powerful vampire with uncanny abilities.

- Louis de Pointe du Lac: Louis de Pointe du Lac is a fictional vampire appearing in The Vampire Chronicles, and was a companion of Lestat for most part of the series. Lestat, upon seeing for the first time Louis’ “fine black hair” and deep green eyes, and sensing his passion, was completely and immediately seduced not only by Louis’s beauty, but also by his tragedy and human heart and thus, created in him an Undead for companionship. However, Louis was of a completely different nature than his Creator, being the only vampires to refuse the powerful blood offered by Maharet and Lestat, preferring to gain strength with age. He fed on animal blood and later left Lestat, seeking life on his own, as Lestat, being the vain vampire that he was, did not prove to be the friendly mentor Louis had expected him to be. However, towards the end of The Vampire Lestat in around 1985, they are re-united when Louis becomes a rockstar in the mortal world, still even towards the end, Louis and Lestat never truly reconciled with only resentful feelings left in them towards each other. It was noted  that with the transfusion of blood Louis may have lost some of his humanity and become more vampiric in nature and had become almost equal to Lestat in power.