Recasting in movies

News came yesterday that Bryce Dallas Howard will be stepping into the role of Victoria for the third film of the Twilight Saga called Eclipse. According to Summit, the studio that releases the Twilight films, the original Victoria, played by Canadian Rachelle Lafevre had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts with another film (Barney's Version).

Well, according to a statement from Lafevre, she was quite surprised to be replaced and as a fan of Twilight, I was too.

I was quite happy to see a Canadian take on such a role in a very popular series and looked forward to her having a meatier part in Eclipse. In Twilight and New Moon she wasn't quite a major character but her presence was.

But will I miss Lafevre as Victoria? I really don't know until I see how she is in New Moon but I think I can understand that the studio wants a bigger name to take on a role that is larger in Eclipse. That's not to say that Lafevre is not a great or good actress, I just haven't seen her in enough stuff to be the judge.

Dallas Howard on the other hand is the daughter of Ron Howard and does have acting chops. I saw her do As You Like It on HBO and thought she was great. As well, she is no stranger to taking over a role as she played Kate Connor in Terminator Salvation and from my understanding, Claire Danes played the role in the previous Terminator film.

Taylor Lautner was in danger of losing the role of Jacob Black in New Moon because the studio felt that he couldn't pull off Jacob's transformation in the film. The actor worked hard to keep the role and now it is unlikely the role will be recast.

It is unfortunate that if it is indeed they wanted a bigger name for Victoria, it is a shame for Lafevre. I think the studio should have given her a chance since the scheduling conflict doesn't seemed to be that insurmountable.

I would have been mightily pissed if the Harry Potter producers decided to re-cast Ginny for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince because the part was definitely more major than previous films. I too wouldn't blame them to have a bigger British actress play Ginny because her part was really huge in HP6 but it would have been a major diservice to Bonnie Wright who has played Ginny since the beginning and to fans who have grown to love Wright in the part. I am 100% sure that recasting Ginny was never in the cards but you can't help but wonder sometimes when a role because so much bigger than what it was before.

Recasting isn't uncommon in movies. Maggie Gyllenhaal took over from Katie Holmes in the Christopher Nolan Batman movies. I didn't lose sleep over this one. I remembered Maggie Gyllenhaal more in The Dark Knight than I ever did Katie Holmes in Batman Begins.

Of course the recasted Dumbledore but the Harry Potter producers had to considering that Richard Harris died. It took me forever to accept Michael Gambon as Dumbledore until I saw him in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Over in TV, you had the two Darrens on Bewitched and the two Becky's on Roseanne and of course the two Cecilys on Road to Avonlea. This latter one bugged me. I thought Harmony Cramp's portrayal of Cecily was sweet and cute. There was an episode where her character contracted consumption and I thought that this would be her episode to shine but alas she was relagated to her bedroom. When the character re-emerged in season 6, I thought they brought her back as it seemed those episodes would be meatier Cecily episodes but alas they recasted with Molly Atkinson.

Back in movieland, I am sure there countless other examples in movie history but it is hot and I am tired so I can't think of any right now.

Maybe there is going to be major backlash from Twilight fans over Dallas Howard replacing from Lafevre as Victoria that the studio will have to recant but that is unlikely to happen.

Honestly though, the film that Lafevre is filming instead of Eclipse is based on a Mordecai Richeler novel and stars Paul Giammati and Dustin Hoffman. You are better off doing that movie Rachelle than Eclipse. No offence to Twilighters, I mean I love the whole series but Barney's Version is more a prestige picture.

Harry Potter vs Twilight

The debate always seems to rage when either one in the series releases a movie.

I haven't read any articles on these debates because I just don't want to. I think there really isn't anything to debate about. But it seems that you have to love one or the other. For example, I listen to a Harry Potter podcast called Pottercast, now I love Pottercast and everything they talk about but there are times when some of the hosts irk when when they disparage Twilight. The hosts have read The Twilight Saga too and some have enjoyed it but they seem to think it inferior to Twilight.

Now, I agree that storytelling wise Stephenie Meyer is nearly not as good a writer as JK Rowling but why do we have to chose between the two?

I love them both and you can't compare the two. The only thing they have in common is that they are popular book series and that Robert Pattinson is Cedric Diggory to Potter fans or Edward Cullen to Twilight fans. To me, he is both depending on my mood but mostly he is Edward to me.

I wrote in a previous blog post about this debate on which I love the most and I think I said Harry Potter because it got me to read. While that reason holds true still. Twilight crept up over the past few months because of all the New Moon hype and I am a romantic at heart and The Twilight Saga's basis is all about the love story between Bella and Edward.

As I also said in my previous blog, Harry Potter isn't abut romance but about Harry's journey to defeat Voldemort. There are twinges of romance in the books but I think the movies do a better job in bringing that forward and when I saw HP6 and the great job that Steve Kloves did with Ron and Hermione and Harry and Ginny, it has made me realize that I truly do love Harry Potter more. I think when you invest almost 10 years of your life to a book series, I think it deserves some more devotion as oppose to only 8 months with Twilight but I did fall hard for that series.

If there was another thing that the two have in common is that it looks like they are in the rare breed that they will have their entire series made into a film, joining Lord of the Rings. I can't think of another one but if someone knows of one, please post in the comments section.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is filming it's two parts now. New Moon is coming out November 20 and Eclipse starts filming next month here in Vancouver. Robert Pattinson has signed on to do Breaking Dawn but other than that, it still isn't in the bag that it will be made.

Other book series like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials probably won't have all of those books made into films considering the box office failuer of The Golden Compass.

Lemony Snicket's 13-book series probably won't hit the screen either since the first Lemony Snicket movie (based on the first three books) wasn't that great. I read somewhere that there is supposed to be a sequel but I think that is unlikely since you will have to recast the kids.

Inkheart, which was released earlier this year, really tanked at the box office so it is very unlikely that the rest of the book series will be made.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a five book series and the first film, The Lightening Thief, which is coincidentally being directed by HP1 and HP2's Chris Columbus, is coming out this fall. If it is successful then we can expect the rest of the books to be made into films.

People tell me I should read Percy Jackson because I love Harry Potter. My problem is that I really don't want to get into another book series. I resisted Twilight because I was told the same thing but I am glad that I did. So we will see if I pick-up Percy Jackson at the library.

The Chronicles of Narnia looked like they were going to get all of the books made into films considering the success of The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe but alas Prince Caspian didn't do as well and Disney dumped the franchise to 20th Century Fox to make The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Having just read on Wikipedia, it looks like Dawn Treader is being filmed now.

I was really hoping that Narnia will have all of its novels made because I really enjoyed the films. So it is good news to read that Dawn Treader is filming for a 2010 release. Here is hoping that The Silver Chair gets released.

But anyways, Twilight vs Harry Potter. To me there is no debate. I don't have to choose because I love them both equally and it is true depending on what hype cycle I am in, I might love one over the other ever so temporarily.

Adam tries to be too cute

Director-writer Max Mayer brings us a story of Adam (Hugh Dancy), a young man with Asperger's Syndrome living in New York City. His father just died and he recently lost his job as an electronics engineer. His escape of all his troubles is his love of space exploration.

One day he meets cute his new neighbor, Beth (Rose Byrne), when both come down to do laundry. Beth is a school teacher and aspiring children's book author. After this encounter, Beth is immediately smitten with Adam.

Because of Adam's condition, he is quite awkward in social situations and usually resorts back to taking about space but it is this subject that brings our couple together as Adam shows Beth his home planetarium.

When Beth learns about Adam's condition, she consults a colleague about Asperger's and whether or not you can form a romantic relationship with someone with it. This scene really played out like a very special episode of Blossom.

Adam and Beth also connect over two raccoons in Central Park. Soon enough the two start dating.

A subplot, which was sort of unnecessary to the film's plot, involves Beth's father (Peter Gallagher) as he goes on trial of accounting fraud. He mentions is so casually near the beginning of the film that you think that it was meant to be a comedic bit.

Hugh Dancy offers a fine performance as someone with Asperger's without going too over the top but he tries to be too cute in some scenes like the Christmas party scene or when he meets Beth's parents for the first time.

Byrne also turns in a nice performance as Beth and has nice chemistry with Dancy. Gallagher on the other hand was over the top as Beth's dad especially when he tries to forbid when Beth from seeing Adam.

It wasn't a fantastic movie but overall Adam was a good tale with good performances if only it didn't try to be too cute.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince a crowning achievement

By Vanessa Ho

If you haven't read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince then stop reading this review now. I am warning you that this review will be filled with spoilers. Last warning. Alright, you've been warned and after waiting eight months for the film version to come out, I think I can be a bit spoilerish.

If it wasn't for getting into The Twilight Saga, I would think these past eight months would have been unbearable but thankfully I got into and it helped dull the pain but as the weeks to the premiere ofHP6 started creeping up, I became increasingly anxious to see it.

Well, the wait was well worth it. Steve Kloves returns as screenwriter after taking a break from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (or HP5) and he has again done a marvelous job of distilling a quite wieldy book into a digestible and enjoyable movie. Just like he did with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (HP4), he has made the right plot cuts to help keep the movie going forward.

Unfortunately, he made some cuts that I didn't agree with such as Harry inheriting 12 Grimmauld Place from Sirius Black and the fact that he also inherited Kreacher. I hope that these very important plot points are in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part one.
I am not going to bother writing a plot synopsis because if you are reading this, you have already read the books.

What I loved about the movie is basically Ginny (Bonnie Wright). I was so happy to see Wright's name finally make it to the credits. I have been so disappointed in how the filmmakers marginalized her role in the movies that it so great that she was such a major character in this film. Sure, she is Harry's (Daniel Radcliffe) love interest but she was simply amazing in the confidence she exudes not only in her feelings for Harry but in her abilities as a witch.
I also loved that finally after five movies of merely hinting at Ron and Hermione (Rupert Grint and Emma Watson) they finally are hitting us over the head with the fact that Hermione really fancies Ron and shows great jealousy over Ron's relationship with Lavender Brown (a perfectly cast Jessie Cave). The scene after Ron gets poisoned and he is in the hospital wing with Ginny and Hermione at his bedside and the Lavender comes rushing in demanding to see Ron (or Won Won –thanks Kloves for keeping that bit in from the books), because she is after all Ron's girlfriend and gets jealous after seeing Hermione there and demands to know why she is there. Hermione stands up and says "I'm his friend" and then Ron proceeds to say Hermione's name in his sleep making Hermione happy and effectively breaking up (later much to Ron's happiness) with Lavender. My favourite part of the book and now movie. I've always loved Ron and Hermione and I hope how their relationship is depicted in Deathly Hallows will be great in the movie.

And Freddie Stroma as Cormac McLaggen, a Gryffindor who takes a fancy to Hermione, has the right amount of blowhardness.

One of the things that I love about the Harry Potter movies is the casting. They always get it right, they did an awesome job in finding Evanna Lynch as she is the perfect Luna Lovegood and getting Imelda Staunton to be Dolores Umbridge in the last movie. This movie brings us Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn, Hogwart's new potions master that also holds a key memory that delves into the history of Voldemort.

I also finally accepted Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. It took three movies to finally shake Richard Harris' interpretation of the Hogwart's headmaster.

The scene that did that for me was of Gambon and Radcliffe in the cave was lifted straight from the book and director David Yates and Kloves brought it to life in a very chilling sense. Those Inferi were indeed frightening and also having to watch Dumbledore drink that potion to retrieve what they think is one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

As with Wright, I am so happy that they gave Tom Felton so much more to do than he ever did in the entire film series. His Draco Malfoy had the perfect mixture of school bully and emotional confliction over the task Voldemort asked him to perform. It was also awesome to see Alan Rickman do so much more as Snape than in previous movies.

Other highlights his Nicholas Hooper's wonderful score and the scene with Katie Bell getting poisoned by necklace was also very frightening.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is right now my favourite movie adaptation of JK Rowling's boy wizard book series followed by Goblet of Fire, Prisoner of Azkaban (except for that final frame), Philosopher's Stone, Order of the Phoenix (I still disagree with some of the cuts) and Chamber of Secrets (those spiders still freak me out).

I look forward to seeing HP6 again but this time in IMAX. I really want to know what scenes are in 3D and also I want to catch all the stuff I might have missed.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen one craptacular movie

By Vanessa Ho

Growing up, I was a tomboy. With two brothers on either side of me and being close in age to boot, it was inevitable that I would be one. Transformers were our bonding experience. We had most of the Transformers. Older brother had the leader of the Autobots –Optimus Prime while younger brother had the leader of the Decepticons –Megatron. I got second bananas on both sides –Bumblebee and Starscream.

Imagine our excitement when, in 1986, there was going to Transfomers: The Movie a feature length animated film that was based on the cartoon show that was airing at the time. We thought it was going to be a blockbuster because the one showing we wanted to see was sold out but come Monday, I don't think it made a blip at the box office.

Back then the cartoon movie was like the Citizen Kane to an 11-year old. I re-watched it a few years ago and upon further reflection, it wasn't such a great movie.

Fast forward to 2007 when Michael Bay directed a live-action version of my beloved toys. I wasn't quite sure how he was going to do it but I was excited to see the film. I walked in excited and I walked out disappointed. While the effects where amazing, the story was confusing (the All Spark –what the heck is that?) and the dialogue was terrible. What was with Optimus Prime saying "My bad." Terrible just terrible. But the really awful thing about Transformers was that they turned my beloved Bumblebee from a Volkswagon bug into a Camero and gave him a Herbie-like personality.

Despite not liking Transformers, for some reason I had faint hope that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen would be better than the first.

The answer to that is no. While the effects were still amazing and the Autobots and DEcepticons had more personality, the dialogue still sucked and the storyline still confusing.

Revenge of the Fallen takes place two years after the events of the original. Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) in pursuit of a normal life after saving the world, is off to an East Coast college to study Astronomy, leaving girlfriend, Mikaela (Megan Fox –who adds no value whatsoever storyline-wise) and his parents' (Kevin Dunn and the hilarious Julie White) home in LA.

Trouble starts when a shard of the All Spark cube falls out of one of Sam's sweatshirts. He picks it up and upon doing saw gets downloaded with Cybertronian symbols that apparently are a map that leads to a source of Energon on Earth. Apparently, the Decepticons want it and one in particular known as the Fallen, who is so powerful that only a Prime (meaning Optimus Prime) can beat him.

Confused yet? Don't worry, I didn't really quite understand what was going on and in fact I am so confused that I can't even recap the rest of the plot.

There were definitely things I did like about the sequel. The first being the interpretation of Soundwave as a telecommunications satellite (in the original cartoon, he was Walkman that spewed out tapes that acted as his robotic minions).

I also got really excited that the film featured the Constructicons –a subdivision of the Decepticons – that when they combine together form Devastator.

What was annoying? Megan Fox. I know her purpose was eye candy but her line delivery throughout was so wooden. Shia LaBeouf was fine but I don't really see his appeal as this is the fourth movie that I've seen him in where he and the film aren't great (the others are Transformers, Eagle Eye and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls). Also, it was really hard to distinguish who was an Autobot and who was a Deception. While their symbols are visible in close-ups, far away they all looked the same and at times, I thought the human army lead by Josh Duhamel were attacking the Autobots.

The two twin Autobots were annoying in a Jar Jar Binks kind of way and weren't really necessary to the story.

And, if you've seen the original cartoon film –you will see some (and I mean a tiny some) elements in this film.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is definitely one loud and way too long summer blockbuster and it doesn't really matter what I think, there is going to be a Transformers 3 in a couple of years and I will probably be there to watch it.

The Proposal an engaging rom-com

By Vanessa Ho

There is a certain formula to romantic comedies and The Proposal gets it just right and sprinkles it with a lot of humour.

In any romantic-comedy, the male and female leads need to antagonistic towards each other. In The Proposal we get Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) a takes no prisoner workaholic editor-in-chief at a book publishing company in New York City and her assistant, the put-upon Andrew Paxton (Canadian Ryan Reynolds). Andrew (and for that matter most of the employees at the company) hate her.

Next we need a situation that forces the two leads to spend an inordinate amount of time together so that they can get to know each other.

So, Margaret is a Canadian whose Visa has expired and now has to be deported back to Toronto for year before she can go back to the job she loves. Not wanting this, she pretty much bullies Andrew into marrying her.

Andrew reluctantly agrees under certain conditions that he be promoted to editor and get a manuscript he loves published. Margaret agrees. The snag is that U.S. immigration believes that their marriage is a sham and they have to prove that their relationship is the real deal. So off to Sitka, Alaska they go for the weekend to meet Andrew's family and celebrate his Gammy's (the wonderful Betty White) 90th birthday.

In all romantic comedies one or the other makes assumptions of the other person. So when Margaret arrives in Sitka, she is surprised to learn that Andrew's family is quite well of and practically owns the majority of the businesses in town.

Another staple of the romantic comedy, especially in ones where the couple are pretending be one is a scene of forced PDA but to only realize that they actually like it. In The Proposal after announcing that they are engaged, Gammy suggests the two kiss where it starts awkward but ends up being a bit more passionate.

Usually there is an ex involved and that role in The Proposal is filled by fellow Canadian actor Malin Akerman and the movie makes clear that Andrew and her still has feelings for each other (although the movie really doesn't make much use of it as a way to make Margaret jealous).

Of course throughout the film, Margaret and Andrew get to know more about each other and until you know it they are in love for real. And when the U.S. immigration officer, played by Dennis O'Hare, visits to check-up on the couple, Andrew's family suggests they get married during their stay.

I don't want to give away too much more but since this is a romantic comedy, I think you know how it ends.

It is odd to have American Bullock play a Canadian while Canadian Ryan Reynolds is playing the American. There is really nothing Canadian about Bullock's Margaret.

The strongest thing about The Proposal is the team of Reynolds-Bullock. Bullock really should do more comedy; it really is where she shines the best.

Sparks fly and hilarity ensues when they are combatants yet they lack chemistry when romance is involved. I found it incredibly hard to believe that Andrew would fall in love with Margaret; I think the writers didn't do enough to redeem her or make her loveable in any sense to the audience.

White of course steals the show as Reynolds' Gammy in every scene that she is in.

The much ado nude scene with Bullock and Reynolds was very funny and I could have used more of a naked Reynolds (that man is hot and ripped in a cute sort of way.)

The Proposal was a traditional romantic comedy with no surprises. However, while it hit all the comedy parts just right, it fell short of the romantic parts.