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[chat]light: Breaking Dawn: Part 2
Shivahn
Unaware of her barrel shifter privilegeWestern coastal temptressRegistered User, Moderator mod
Unaware of her barrel shifter privilegeWestern coastal temptressRegistered User, Moderator mod
The other week, Querry and I watched Twilight: Breaking Dawn: Part 2. My previous reviews/recounts/analyses:
(Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn: Part One)
This review is long. Very long. I actually don't expect anyone to read it all, but I enjoyed writing it. Since this is very casual my process has been to stream-of-consciousness post and clean up a bit, but having done that here, it's got too much meat, so I'm going to break it down into a few sections: an overview, the background, a synopsis of the plot, and finally footnotes about that and my actual thoughts on things, as well as a short conclusion. If you actually ever intend to watch the series (I expect this applies to zero people, but need to include this disclaimer), I actually suggest not reading this post, because it contains spoilers which would detract substantially from the experience of watching the last movie. The conclusion is safe.
The tl;dr of the first part of the series is that Bella is an insane 17 year old with no sense of self-preservation who falls in love with an angsty vampire who kind of wants to kill her, attracts the attention of a werewolf boy who displays his attraction by being angry and throwing things, and eventually gets married, immediately pregnant, and then the baby is eaten out of her by her husband and she dies. And then she wakes up as a vampire. The final book is split into two movies, and the first of these movies (where she gets married, pregnant, and then gets her belly eaten) is an awful train wreck with no plot, unfinished threads, and no good qualities unless you're into the weird student art film that is the last fifteen minutes. I initially thought it was a bad idea to split the last book up in such a way, but in retrospect, I think it was a good thing.
Because it turns out that this arrangement allows for the ultimate unexpected twist: Breaking Dawn Part 2 is actually a good movie, with a solid plot, fun characters, interesting worldbuilding, and a couple of excellent surprises and satisfying mysteries.
An Overview:
A Background:
A Plot:
A Supplement, With Opinions:
A Conclusion:
(Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn: Part One)
This review is long. Very long. I actually don't expect anyone to read it all, but I enjoyed writing it. Since this is very casual my process has been to stream-of-consciousness post and clean up a bit, but having done that here, it's got too much meat, so I'm going to break it down into a few sections: an overview, the background, a synopsis of the plot, and finally footnotes about that and my actual thoughts on things, as well as a short conclusion. If you actually ever intend to watch the series (I expect this applies to zero people, but need to include this disclaimer), I actually suggest not reading this post, because it contains spoilers which would detract substantially from the experience of watching the last movie. The conclusion is safe.
The tl;dr of the first part of the series is that Bella is an insane 17 year old with no sense of self-preservation who falls in love with an angsty vampire who kind of wants to kill her, attracts the attention of a werewolf boy who displays his attraction by being angry and throwing things, and eventually gets married, immediately pregnant, and then the baby is eaten out of her by her husband and she dies. And then she wakes up as a vampire. The final book is split into two movies, and the first of these movies (where she gets married, pregnant, and then gets her belly eaten) is an awful train wreck with no plot, unfinished threads, and no good qualities unless you're into the weird student art film that is the last fifteen minutes. I initially thought it was a bad idea to split the last book up in such a way, but in retrospect, I think it was a good thing.
Because it turns out that this arrangement allows for the ultimate unexpected twist: Breaking Dawn Part 2 is actually a good movie, with a solid plot, fun characters, interesting worldbuilding, and a couple of excellent surprises and satisfying mysteries.
An Overview:
Stephanie Myers doesn't know how to write romance that's appealing (or even really acceptable), or love stories (same thing, really), or plots that revolve around love stories, but she's a surprisingly competent worldbuilder and, when the stories don't revolve around love, can be really engaging. I am 100% serious when I say that the Twilight world would actually be an excellent setting for a tabletop game. And by frontloading all of the love story and relational issues into Breaking Dawn: Part 1, the second movie is freed from the shackles that hold down the series as a whole, and has a very different feel. Here is the trailer music for the movie:
It feels like it should be in the trailer for a Lord of the Rings movie, or something Game of Thronesy, but this is extremely appropriate music for the movie. I'm going to do a somewhat more thorough recount than I usually do, because the plot is actually fun, so I want to. But before I begin, some important background information that kind of casually came up in previous movies but which I may not have mentioned or may have been minor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmI7WMzegIEIt feels like it should be in the trailer for a Lord of the Rings movie, or something Game of Thronesy, but this is extremely appropriate music for the movie. I'm going to do a somewhat more thorough recount than I usually do, because the plot is actually fun, so I want to. But before I begin, some important background information that kind of casually came up in previous movies but which I may not have mentioned or may have been minor.
A Background:
There is a vampire coven in Italy that serves as something akin to a vampire government. They are called the Volturi, and are headed by Aro, played by Michael Sheen, who is excellent in this part. They are mostly important because they are the ones that ensure, brutally, that vampires remain secret, that people aren't aware that they still exist. This mostly entails hunting down and murdering vampires who are killing too much in one area and gaining attention, or are otherwise dealing with humans in a way that risks the secret coming out. They serve as an ominous force that other vampires are afraid of (especially the Cullens, since they choose a way of life that is likely to interact with humans), and which colors their interactions with each other.
Some vampires seem to have powers. Edward can low-key read minds. Alice, his "sister," can see the future. The Volturi tend towards more dramatic powers. Aro, when touching people, can see everything in their head. Jane, one of his Guard, can cause crippling pain by glancing at people. One of them can release a focused gas that paralyzes anyone in its way.
Bella saw a vision of the Volturi at her wedding in the previous movie. Everyone was wearing white, she kissed Edward, looked through the wreath, saw the Volturi, looked back, everyone's white was covered in red and they were all in a huge heap of bodies. This was never followed up on, but sets the stage for the next movie, so I'm including it here.
Some vampires seem to have powers. Edward can low-key read minds. Alice, his "sister," can see the future. The Volturi tend towards more dramatic powers. Aro, when touching people, can see everything in their head. Jane, one of his Guard, can cause crippling pain by glancing at people. One of them can release a focused gas that paralyzes anyone in its way.
Bella saw a vision of the Volturi at her wedding in the previous movie. Everyone was wearing white, she kissed Edward, looked through the wreath, saw the Volturi, looked back, everyone's white was covered in red and they were all in a huge heap of bodies. This was never followed up on, but sets the stage for the next movie, so I'm including it here.
A Plot:
The start of the movie is the introductory credits, of course1.
The actual movie starts off with Bella out hunting a deer. A rock climber cuts himself while halfway up something like a kilometer tall cliff face. She smells him and runs away from the deer, towards him, and then in a scene straight out of a wuxia movie, starts climb-flying up the cliff face before being stopped by Edward. She goes back, but a mountain lion's about to kill the deer, so she kills and eats the lion instead. Edward and Bella have sex a few times, which I mention because in heavy contrast to the previous movie, where the sex scene was bungled badly, it works here. It's much more intimate and slow, and less erratic. It does its job as a scene showing two people who love each other having sex.
Jacob decides to tell her dad that she survived instead of pretending that she's dead (as the vampires have been planning on), and starts this off by saying "you don't live in the world you think you do," and taking off his shirt. I like to think that he meant "you're living in a gay porn," because that's definitely the feel I got. He takes his pants off and turns into a werewolf. Later, Charlie (Bella’s father) shows up at the Cullens’ and talks with Bella. He ends up dating one of the werewolf clan women, who likes to fish and hunt and stuff, so that was nice. In addition, now that Jacob doesn't need to show off his sexy male virility by being an asshole, Stephanie Myers is freed from writing him like one, and he's suddenly really friendly, fun, and generally cute, both as a guardian to Bella’s daughter, Renesmee, and as a jokey friend of Bella and the Cullens.
The plot starts quickly, and unlike previous movies, is solid and consistent. Renesmee is growing up quickly (as in, after a few months she's a few years old). Another vampire sees her playing with Bella and Jacob (who imprinted on her, and thus is her staunch guardian and is constantly with them), and runs off to tell the Volturi. We are informed that it is strictly forbidden to turn children into vampires2, and the Volturi, upon hearing it, are likely going to come and murder every one of the Cullens, as well as Renesmee.
So it seems that the Volturi are likely to come and kill everyone. Everyone's doubly convinced that they will, because their leader, Aro, always makes it a point to "pardon" one person from any coven he's exterminating. Since he can see into their minds, he always saves the most repentant one. Or so he claims; in fact, what he is generally doing is finding people with powers he wants (as I said, vampires have random powers), fabricating excuses to murder their coven, and taking the people he’s interested in to increase the power of the Volturi3. And he doesn't have anyone that can see the future, so he is probably mostly interested in obtaining Alice, the psychic, and Renesmee is just a convenient excuse to acquire her. The Cullens decide he's unlikely to try anything if there are enough witnesses, so they plan to run around the world collecting friends and contacts who will help them stand down the Volturi. Alice and her boyfriend run off, which is, uh, alarming, because when your psychic runs off before a big fight you suspect that some shit might go down. They leave a message written on the back of a page of the Merchant of Venice.
The Cullens spend a while collecting other vampires4. It's revealed that the reason Edward couldn't read Bella's mind in the first movie is that her power is being a "shield," someone who is essentially immune to other powers. The high concentration of vampires causes more of the people with the werewolf gene to shift, so they start to form a small army. Though the real reasons for the political shift aren't stated, the werewolves are all allied with Cullens and prepare to fight the Volturi if they arrive.
In a plot point I liked, Bella goes home, realizes that the note was torn out of one of her books, and opens the book. She finds a note written on the next page, saying to meet a man named J. Jenks in Seattle, and realizes that this is something that Alice saw was necessary, but had to obfuscate so that only Bella would see it, because her shielded status makes her immune to Aro's mind reading. Bella secretly drives off and meets with the man, who it turns out is a forger5. He gives her two plane tickets, and forged passports for Jacob and Renesmee. She realizes that she has to prepare them to leave.
Eventually, the Volturi arrive. The vampires and werewolves meet them on a snowy plain surrounded by mountains and forests. Aro makes it a point to scan for Alice, the real reason he's there, but doesn't see her. The Cullens explain that Renesmee is not an immortal child, they've broken no laws, and so the Volturi shouldn't kill them6. This means the informant who initially saw the child gave bad information, so they pull her limbs off, light the body on fire, and throw the parts into it, and then tell the Cullens that just because no laws have been broken, doesn't mean that this isn't a dangerous time and situation, or that they should be let go.
This all builds to the climactic fight: Alice suddenly arrives, after having been gone the whole movie, and tells Aro that he can read her mind to see her visions of the future. She puts her hand out so he can perform the mind reading. This starts the final battle:
....and then the camera pulls back. Aro is still holding Alice's hand, with a strange look on his face. She tells him that now he's seen the future, he knows what she knows. Now he sees what lies ahead. It is time for him to make a choice. He stops to think, then slowly turns and addresses the rest of the Volturi, convincing them that there is no threat, and that they need to stand down. They are eventually convinced, and leave7. The rest of the movie is the denouement. Edward and Bella are happy together, there's some scenes of Renesmee growing up with them and Jacob, who's taken on a role like an uncle (though they definitely get married in the future). Eventually, the credits play8.
The actual movie starts off with Bella out hunting a deer. A rock climber cuts himself while halfway up something like a kilometer tall cliff face. She smells him and runs away from the deer, towards him, and then in a scene straight out of a wuxia movie, starts climb-flying up the cliff face before being stopped by Edward. She goes back, but a mountain lion's about to kill the deer, so she kills and eats the lion instead. Edward and Bella have sex a few times, which I mention because in heavy contrast to the previous movie, where the sex scene was bungled badly, it works here. It's much more intimate and slow, and less erratic. It does its job as a scene showing two people who love each other having sex.
Jacob decides to tell her dad that she survived instead of pretending that she's dead (as the vampires have been planning on), and starts this off by saying "you don't live in the world you think you do," and taking off his shirt. I like to think that he meant "you're living in a gay porn," because that's definitely the feel I got. He takes his pants off and turns into a werewolf. Later, Charlie (Bella’s father) shows up at the Cullens’ and talks with Bella. He ends up dating one of the werewolf clan women, who likes to fish and hunt and stuff, so that was nice. In addition, now that Jacob doesn't need to show off his sexy male virility by being an asshole, Stephanie Myers is freed from writing him like one, and he's suddenly really friendly, fun, and generally cute, both as a guardian to Bella’s daughter, Renesmee, and as a jokey friend of Bella and the Cullens.
The plot starts quickly, and unlike previous movies, is solid and consistent. Renesmee is growing up quickly (as in, after a few months she's a few years old). Another vampire sees her playing with Bella and Jacob (who imprinted on her, and thus is her staunch guardian and is constantly with them), and runs off to tell the Volturi. We are informed that it is strictly forbidden to turn children into vampires2, and the Volturi, upon hearing it, are likely going to come and murder every one of the Cullens, as well as Renesmee.
So it seems that the Volturi are likely to come and kill everyone. Everyone's doubly convinced that they will, because their leader, Aro, always makes it a point to "pardon" one person from any coven he's exterminating. Since he can see into their minds, he always saves the most repentant one. Or so he claims; in fact, what he is generally doing is finding people with powers he wants (as I said, vampires have random powers), fabricating excuses to murder their coven, and taking the people he’s interested in to increase the power of the Volturi3. And he doesn't have anyone that can see the future, so he is probably mostly interested in obtaining Alice, the psychic, and Renesmee is just a convenient excuse to acquire her. The Cullens decide he's unlikely to try anything if there are enough witnesses, so they plan to run around the world collecting friends and contacts who will help them stand down the Volturi. Alice and her boyfriend run off, which is, uh, alarming, because when your psychic runs off before a big fight you suspect that some shit might go down. They leave a message written on the back of a page of the Merchant of Venice.
The Cullens spend a while collecting other vampires4. It's revealed that the reason Edward couldn't read Bella's mind in the first movie is that her power is being a "shield," someone who is essentially immune to other powers. The high concentration of vampires causes more of the people with the werewolf gene to shift, so they start to form a small army. Though the real reasons for the political shift aren't stated, the werewolves are all allied with Cullens and prepare to fight the Volturi if they arrive.
In a plot point I liked, Bella goes home, realizes that the note was torn out of one of her books, and opens the book. She finds a note written on the next page, saying to meet a man named J. Jenks in Seattle, and realizes that this is something that Alice saw was necessary, but had to obfuscate so that only Bella would see it, because her shielded status makes her immune to Aro's mind reading. Bella secretly drives off and meets with the man, who it turns out is a forger5. He gives her two plane tickets, and forged passports for Jacob and Renesmee. She realizes that she has to prepare them to leave.
Eventually, the Volturi arrive. The vampires and werewolves meet them on a snowy plain surrounded by mountains and forests. Aro makes it a point to scan for Alice, the real reason he's there, but doesn't see her. The Cullens explain that Renesmee is not an immortal child, they've broken no laws, and so the Volturi shouldn't kill them6. This means the informant who initially saw the child gave bad information, so they pull her limbs off, light the body on fire, and throw the parts into it, and then tell the Cullens that just because no laws have been broken, doesn't mean that this isn't a dangerous time and situation, or that they should be let go.
This all builds to the climactic fight: Alice suddenly arrives, after having been gone the whole movie, and tells Aro that he can read her mind to see her visions of the future. She puts her hand out so he can perform the mind reading. This starts the final battle:
Shortly after Aro grasps her hand, she pulls it back, surprised, because she senses that it doesn't matter what he sees, he's simply going to start the fight and kill everyone. She turns around and tells Bella that it's all starting, and now is the time to execute the plan; Bella puts Renesmee on Jacob's wolf back and he runs off. One of the Cullens is killed because he was too close to the Volturi, which causes the daddy vampire doctor to run and jump at Aro, who intercepts him in mid-air and pulls his head off, then drops it on the ground.
At this point, the fight is clearly happening. People charge at each other. Seth, the 13 year old werewolf is killed. Things go pretty poorly. The vampire who can control the elements creates a huge chasm, which knocks many of the Volturi into it. Leah, the female werewolf, falls into it while saving Mrs. Cullen. Some of the important Volturi, who helped kill Seth, are torn apart and decapitated. The camera does a great overhead shot of the battlefield. In addition to the wolf and vampire bodies, there are a couple of corpses that have been lit on fire scattered throughout the field. It's a very good battle scene, though also depressing because basically everyone likeable, including a 13 year old, dies.
Bella and Edward both start to fight Aro, eventually decapitating him. They find a flaming stick, and light his body on fire. The camera zooms in on his decapitated face as it gets brighter and brighter, then to his point of view as Bella pushes the torch closer and closer and eventually the world is entirely flame...
At this point, the fight is clearly happening. People charge at each other. Seth, the 13 year old werewolf is killed. Things go pretty poorly. The vampire who can control the elements creates a huge chasm, which knocks many of the Volturi into it. Leah, the female werewolf, falls into it while saving Mrs. Cullen. Some of the important Volturi, who helped kill Seth, are torn apart and decapitated. The camera does a great overhead shot of the battlefield. In addition to the wolf and vampire bodies, there are a couple of corpses that have been lit on fire scattered throughout the field. It's a very good battle scene, though also depressing because basically everyone likeable, including a 13 year old, dies.
Bella and Edward both start to fight Aro, eventually decapitating him. They find a flaming stick, and light his body on fire. The camera zooms in on his decapitated face as it gets brighter and brighter, then to his point of view as Bella pushes the torch closer and closer and eventually the world is entirely flame...
....and then the camera pulls back. Aro is still holding Alice's hand, with a strange look on his face. She tells him that now he's seen the future, he knows what she knows. Now he sees what lies ahead. It is time for him to make a choice. He stops to think, then slowly turns and addresses the rest of the Volturi, convincing them that there is no threat, and that they need to stand down. They are eventually convinced, and leave7. The rest of the movie is the denouement. Edward and Bella are happy together, there's some scenes of Renesmee growing up with them and Jacob, who's taken on a role like an uncle (though they definitely get married in the future). Eventually, the credits play8.
A Supplement, With Opinions:
1. The movie starts off with some intro credits, which are done extremely well from an artistic point of view, and which really set the stage. There are stunning shots of the Pacific Northwest, beautiful green pine and lakes. It switches between shots of white, snowy landscapes and blood-red trees in fall, only to switch back to white shots of snow crystals growing, then to mountains painted by a low-hanging red sun. The text flits between white and red, playing with the contrast between innocence and the bloody nature of vampires, all while a stream of landscapes and waterfalls morph between snow-white vistas and blood-red arteries, which turn briefly to red leaves, which become white as frost forms and covers them. Before the movie even started I was pretty pleased. I am not normally one for overly artistic intros, but I really enjoyed this, which I've included below.
2. The reasons for this are actually weirdly well thought out, and is exemplary of some of the worldbuilding and thinking through consequences that I was surprised to see in the movie: people stop aging when they become vampires, so if a child is bitten, they maintain a childish level of self control. This often leads to them murdering villages and risking vampires being exposed and pogroms started. While this is relayed, there's a little scene of Aro, the Volturi head, arriving at a massacred village hundreds of years ago. He has his Volturi hold down the woman that created the "immortal child" vampire, they tear her arms and head off, light the body on fire, and throw the rest of her parts into it. They then take the child and throw him into the fire. The main reason I'm writing in such detail about this scene is because Michael Sheen, playing Aro, has the shittiest smile when he's preparing to burn the child. He looks so happy to be getting to throw people into the fire. He's actually super great in this, as I said.
3. This plot point was surprising, because I hadn't been thinking about Twilight in the same epic terms as Stephanie Myers clearly was. It makes sense: a powerful vampire lord is fabricating excuses to consolidate power around him. It's a neat idea, and part of why the setting might work as a tabletop game. It fits very well with this movie, even if it wouldn't be expected within the rest of the series.
4. It turns out that most vampires get extremely random abilities. This is another part of why I think it would make a good tabletop game. Everyone has super strength, speed, and perception, but the rest of their powers are so varied that the collection of everyone feels like the start of an X-men movie. They get a guy that can control the elements, who throws fire about and makes walls of water, as well as playing with Renesmee by creating a little dust storm in his palm for her (as in all the movies, incidental characters are fun and often cute). Two Amazonian women come with the power to make people see whatever they want. There's a woman who can conduct electricity and taze people at will.
5. Another worldbuilding bit I liked, because given the vampires' non-aging and needing to relocate constantly, they need to have a contact who can forge documents for them
6. The actual exchange involves Bella, Edward, Jacob, and Renesmee walking slowly across the snowy void to present Renesmee to Aro, after a long bit of both sides standing opposing each other. This was actually a really great scene. Modern movies are really hectic, jumping from thing to thing. Marvel movies, for example, have no down time. Compare modern Star Wars to classic Star Wars: in the old movies, there were shots of empty desert, to emphasize desolation, or icy expanses, or pans across grubby cities. Movies were fine having people sitting around chatting for a bit, instead of only showing action. This scene is allowed to breathe, and it's much, much better for it. The landscape is beautiful, the expanse between the two groups is meaningful, and the slow walks back and forth serve to draw attention to the gravity of the moment, as well as add to a sense of anxiety about what is about to happen.
7. This is probably my favorite part of the movie, for several reasons. It's a nonviolent end to a movie that was expecting, and showed, severe violence. It's not telegraphed, and there is no indication at any point that it's not happening exactly as seen, so you don't spend the entire fight scene not caring about events. You are invested in the 13 year old whose neck is broken and who whimpers and dies on the ground, and to Leah who falls into a chasm. You're shocked by the decapitation of Carlisle, invested in Jacob and Renesmee getting away, satisfied at seeing Aro finally pulled apart. And despite this, the fact that it doesn't happen doesn't feel like you're cheated. It's easy to casually reverse things in a way that feels unearned, unfair, and dumb, and which retroactively ruins scenes. See Rise of Skywalker for a trillion of these fake character deaths that serve only to cheapen the movie, and which make me roll my eyes. But that isn't how this feels. It feels well-done and earned, and gives the viewer the benefit of experiencing the battle scene as a dramatic and terrible moment, and then a great satisfaction when you see how clever Alice actually has been. Cutting back to the exact scene earlier is done really well, too: it could have been jarring or confusing, but instead I instantly knew what had occurred, even though movies that do this kind of thing often fumble at least a little. Finally, it is satisfying to see it play out. The camera cutting back to Alice, resetting everything, then leaving Aro to fumble around with the magnitude of his decision is excellent. It was thoroughly enjoyable to watch this very clever, proper, lordly man who is a monster stare off before struggling to regain the composure he lost after seeing his own death, and try to reverse course and rally towards a retreat. Michael Sheen does an excellent job of this, and acts the part extremely believably and well.
8. The credits at the end were really nice as well; it's actually the credits for the entire series, so all the actors are shown in black-and-white while neat music plays. It's just a lot of very good shots showcasing the actors involved. I think I would've hated it as feeling undeserved if it had followed any of the other movies, but this one was honestly quite good and very epic, and having just finished that climactic fight with the plot twist, I felt that it fit very well as a sort of ending of a saga. I have included them below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v4XdstvFIY2. The reasons for this are actually weirdly well thought out, and is exemplary of some of the worldbuilding and thinking through consequences that I was surprised to see in the movie: people stop aging when they become vampires, so if a child is bitten, they maintain a childish level of self control. This often leads to them murdering villages and risking vampires being exposed and pogroms started. While this is relayed, there's a little scene of Aro, the Volturi head, arriving at a massacred village hundreds of years ago. He has his Volturi hold down the woman that created the "immortal child" vampire, they tear her arms and head off, light the body on fire, and throw the rest of her parts into it. They then take the child and throw him into the fire. The main reason I'm writing in such detail about this scene is because Michael Sheen, playing Aro, has the shittiest smile when he's preparing to burn the child. He looks so happy to be getting to throw people into the fire. He's actually super great in this, as I said.
3. This plot point was surprising, because I hadn't been thinking about Twilight in the same epic terms as Stephanie Myers clearly was. It makes sense: a powerful vampire lord is fabricating excuses to consolidate power around him. It's a neat idea, and part of why the setting might work as a tabletop game. It fits very well with this movie, even if it wouldn't be expected within the rest of the series.
4. It turns out that most vampires get extremely random abilities. This is another part of why I think it would make a good tabletop game. Everyone has super strength, speed, and perception, but the rest of their powers are so varied that the collection of everyone feels like the start of an X-men movie. They get a guy that can control the elements, who throws fire about and makes walls of water, as well as playing with Renesmee by creating a little dust storm in his palm for her (as in all the movies, incidental characters are fun and often cute). Two Amazonian women come with the power to make people see whatever they want. There's a woman who can conduct electricity and taze people at will.
5. Another worldbuilding bit I liked, because given the vampires' non-aging and needing to relocate constantly, they need to have a contact who can forge documents for them
6. The actual exchange involves Bella, Edward, Jacob, and Renesmee walking slowly across the snowy void to present Renesmee to Aro, after a long bit of both sides standing opposing each other. This was actually a really great scene. Modern movies are really hectic, jumping from thing to thing. Marvel movies, for example, have no down time. Compare modern Star Wars to classic Star Wars: in the old movies, there were shots of empty desert, to emphasize desolation, or icy expanses, or pans across grubby cities. Movies were fine having people sitting around chatting for a bit, instead of only showing action. This scene is allowed to breathe, and it's much, much better for it. The landscape is beautiful, the expanse between the two groups is meaningful, and the slow walks back and forth serve to draw attention to the gravity of the moment, as well as add to a sense of anxiety about what is about to happen.
7. This is probably my favorite part of the movie, for several reasons. It's a nonviolent end to a movie that was expecting, and showed, severe violence. It's not telegraphed, and there is no indication at any point that it's not happening exactly as seen, so you don't spend the entire fight scene not caring about events. You are invested in the 13 year old whose neck is broken and who whimpers and dies on the ground, and to Leah who falls into a chasm. You're shocked by the decapitation of Carlisle, invested in Jacob and Renesmee getting away, satisfied at seeing Aro finally pulled apart. And despite this, the fact that it doesn't happen doesn't feel like you're cheated. It's easy to casually reverse things in a way that feels unearned, unfair, and dumb, and which retroactively ruins scenes. See Rise of Skywalker for a trillion of these fake character deaths that serve only to cheapen the movie, and which make me roll my eyes. But that isn't how this feels. It feels well-done and earned, and gives the viewer the benefit of experiencing the battle scene as a dramatic and terrible moment, and then a great satisfaction when you see how clever Alice actually has been. Cutting back to the exact scene earlier is done really well, too: it could have been jarring or confusing, but instead I instantly knew what had occurred, even though movies that do this kind of thing often fumble at least a little. Finally, it is satisfying to see it play out. The camera cutting back to Alice, resetting everything, then leaving Aro to fumble around with the magnitude of his decision is excellent. It was thoroughly enjoyable to watch this very clever, proper, lordly man who is a monster stare off before struggling to regain the composure he lost after seeing his own death, and try to reverse course and rally towards a retreat. Michael Sheen does an excellent job of this, and acts the part extremely believably and well.
8. The credits at the end were really nice as well; it's actually the credits for the entire series, so all the actors are shown in black-and-white while neat music plays. It's just a lot of very good shots showcasing the actors involved. I think I would've hated it as feeling undeserved if it had followed any of the other movies, but this one was honestly quite good and very epic, and having just finished that climactic fight with the plot twist, I felt that it fit very well as a sort of ending of a saga. I have included them below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Krn5BzGMM88A Conclusion:
Thus ends the saga of me watching the Twilight saga. I have complex feelings about it. As you probably gathered, I think the final movie is really good. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's got a good plot, an interesting world, and interesting characters. I thought that the climax was fantastic. If it were a standalone movie I would recommend it to everyone - it's better than a lot of other movies I've seen lately. But therein lies the issue - it's not a standalone movie. It is much less satisfying if you don't know who the characters are, haven't grown to like Carlisle and Alice and the rest of the Cullens. The movie spends little time with them, but the characterization in previous movies is very important to the positive qualities of this one. And a lot of minor plot things in previous movies are important - you don't need to know each and every thing, but if you start the movie not knowing the faces of the various vampires and werewolves, or how the werewolves happen, or who the Volturi are, it'd just be really confusing.
I can say that I'm glad I watched the series. It was fun to write these posts, and make fun of the first few movies, and legitimately enjoy this one. If this movie didn't need the previous ones to set it up, then I'd say everyone should watch it. But whether it's worth watching four other movies, movies where I assumed each one I saw was the saga's nadir because I couldn't see how the following one would be worse, only to be proved wrong, that's a harder question. But I do think it is a question, which is pretty remarkable of the last movie.
I can say that I'm glad I watched the series. It was fun to write these posts, and make fun of the first few movies, and legitimately enjoy this one. If this movie didn't need the previous ones to set it up, then I'd say everyone should watch it. But whether it's worth watching four other movies, movies where I assumed each one I saw was the saga's nadir because I couldn't see how the following one would be worse, only to be proved wrong, that's a harder question. But I do think it is a question, which is pretty remarkable of the last movie.
+19
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I secretly enjoy this hot take because I suspect it is... less widely supported by the internet populace than many.
This should be the new I'm not into Pokémon
Mario Royale, AR RC Mario Kart, 3D All Stars, etc.
It had just been refitted at a cost of £2.3million and returned to service on the 22nd of August
Somebody is getting shouted at
Yeah, my general opinions were:
I didn't love Twilight, but a lot of the peripheral stuff (scenery, specifically!) and some of the vampires and, yeah, the silly baseball game are all actually fun, and it's medium fun to watch.
New Moon was bad, I figured the next one would have to be a step up.
Eclipse is somehow worse, surely this will be the series nadir?
Breaking Dawn Part 1: What the fuck?
Breaking Dawn Part 2: What the fuck?!
Danged werewolf pedophile.
A twist I certainly didn't expect.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
I have no opinion on Twilight and don’t care to.
It was incredibly weird and really dumb, although the baseball scene was pretty cool.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
We did our own MST3K style commentary over it, with another one of them joining to watch every 15 minutes or so.
Getting close to the end of the movie, one of them shushed me because he couldn't hear the dialogue.
But the whiplash on the quality is insane, I thought I was gaslighting myself for a second. It just seemed implausible.
What is your take on shirtless werewolves
Okay now watch all of True Blood and compare and contrast for us
Oh god
my time
If you can ignore all the bits with the main characters, it is excellent.
what else ya using it for?
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Well for one True Blood has a lot more naked people.
Also Eric (Alexander Skarsgård).
*fans self*
werewolf kitties are great!
I really enjoyed some of the villains though, the one anti-vamp preacher guy was very amusing
He was complaining about the movies (how bad they were) when they came out, long before they became a sensation. He's not new to complaining about how crap they were.
He's right too. They're bad, but that doesn't mean he didn't make money off it. He doesn't lose the right to complain about how shit they are just because they found commercial success.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius