my edifying Friday night
I feel five million times better than I did yesterday, so I'm going to talk about Breaking Dawn.
I was pretty impressed with how bad that was. For a movie that includes a girl getting married, having sex for the first time, getting pregnant, being destroyed from the inside by a fetus she does not even know the nature of, her child being delivered by its father via dental cesarean, and being turned into a vampire, it was astonishingly boring.
Lots of it was very pretty. The wedding was gorgeous, though I laughed at how the camera lingered on every aspect of the wedding to fuel the romantic dreams of teen girls (and Bella's dress was very pretty--the top was a bit weird, but the silhouette was perfect for KStew and the back was gorgeous). The Brazilian landscape was surprisingly underused, the camera instead focusing on long closeups of Kristen Stewart. Which I suppose makes sense. The books are really all about what's going on inside Bella's head, and I think this movie really highlighted that. The one part where I think it really, really failed though--and maybe this was because the book POV shifts to Jacob for some pretty important bits?--was at not really giving the audience a clue as to why Bella makes the choice that she does. It's clear that she thinks about her future without her human family and children, but all we get on choosing to keep a child that is actively killing her is that it's a "kinda miracle." UM.
I'm glad that they commented on the weirdness of 18-year-olds getting married, and showed Charlie's active displeasure with the whole situation. I wanted more discussion on the suicidal-pregnancy thing, though. I mean, I guess the bizarre lack of concern for personal safety fits in with Bella's personality, but her total disregard for anyone else--particularly Edward--and especially since they don't even know what the baby *is* (at least in the film, I don't remember how early in the books they know about the half-vampire kids) needed a lot more framing and attention than I think it actually got. Too many people just seemed too accepting of the situation.
There were things I liked, though. I liked the focus on Bella's body--her nervousness and her last-minute toiletries on the first night of her honeymoon, her thinking about it afterwards (as a rule, I disapprove of the idea that having sex makes you magically different, but it is a big step, especially when it is connected so strongly with marriage like in this story), the scene of Bella looking at her pregnant and emaciated body in the mirror and Edward being horrified when he catches a glimpse of it. I think the film would have had a lot more momentum if they'd focused more on this aspect, and the mounting tension as Bella gets sicker and the baby gets bigger. But in typical Twilight fashion, it was the angst that was at the forefront--a lot of people being unhappy but not really doing much about it.
The birth scene was hyper and bloody, but the pacing was messed up even here. There's one bit where Bella's bleeding out on the table and Jacob is standing there doing nothing and Edward is just staring at the baby. All of the tension that had been mounting up to this point is just totally lost at the sight of the comically-bloodied three-month-old that emerges from Bella's womb. Up until that point, though, the birth scene was really interesting, but it was a sharp departure from the slow angst of the film up until then, and I wish, as I said before, that the tension and pacing had worked to increase gradually until Bella goes into labor and everything explodes.
So, given the source material it wasn't bad (and there were bits of the honeymoon that were actually quite cute) but I feel like if the screenwriter and director had been given a little bit freer reign they could have done something that was actually decent. I do want to watch it again, though, now that I know what to expect for all the craziness.
random things:
+ Soooo Jacob imprinted. On a creepy CGI baby face. I can't wait for the reviews to come out of people who had no clue this was coming. I liked the actress they chose for grown-up Renesmee, at least?
+ All of the vampires had bad hair. At least they made fun of Edward's. And the name "Renesmee."
+ CLAIRE AND QUIL HAHA GROSS : (
+ All I could think of, in the scene where Bella realizes she's pregnant, was the fact that she hadn't washed her mouth out yet. Also, was her staring at the fried chicken a nod to her being a vegetarian?
+ "Possibly."
I was pretty impressed with how bad that was. For a movie that includes a girl getting married, having sex for the first time, getting pregnant, being destroyed from the inside by a fetus she does not even know the nature of, her child being delivered by its father via dental cesarean, and being turned into a vampire, it was astonishingly boring.
Lots of it was very pretty. The wedding was gorgeous, though I laughed at how the camera lingered on every aspect of the wedding to fuel the romantic dreams of teen girls (and Bella's dress was very pretty--the top was a bit weird, but the silhouette was perfect for KStew and the back was gorgeous). The Brazilian landscape was surprisingly underused, the camera instead focusing on long closeups of Kristen Stewart. Which I suppose makes sense. The books are really all about what's going on inside Bella's head, and I think this movie really highlighted that. The one part where I think it really, really failed though--and maybe this was because the book POV shifts to Jacob for some pretty important bits?--was at not really giving the audience a clue as to why Bella makes the choice that she does. It's clear that she thinks about her future without her human family and children, but all we get on choosing to keep a child that is actively killing her is that it's a "kinda miracle." UM.
I'm glad that they commented on the weirdness of 18-year-olds getting married, and showed Charlie's active displeasure with the whole situation. I wanted more discussion on the suicidal-pregnancy thing, though. I mean, I guess the bizarre lack of concern for personal safety fits in with Bella's personality, but her total disregard for anyone else--particularly Edward--and especially since they don't even know what the baby *is* (at least in the film, I don't remember how early in the books they know about the half-vampire kids) needed a lot more framing and attention than I think it actually got. Too many people just seemed too accepting of the situation.
There were things I liked, though. I liked the focus on Bella's body--her nervousness and her last-minute toiletries on the first night of her honeymoon, her thinking about it afterwards (as a rule, I disapprove of the idea that having sex makes you magically different, but it is a big step, especially when it is connected so strongly with marriage like in this story), the scene of Bella looking at her pregnant and emaciated body in the mirror and Edward being horrified when he catches a glimpse of it. I think the film would have had a lot more momentum if they'd focused more on this aspect, and the mounting tension as Bella gets sicker and the baby gets bigger. But in typical Twilight fashion, it was the angst that was at the forefront--a lot of people being unhappy but not really doing much about it.
The birth scene was hyper and bloody, but the pacing was messed up even here. There's one bit where Bella's bleeding out on the table and Jacob is standing there doing nothing and Edward is just staring at the baby. All of the tension that had been mounting up to this point is just totally lost at the sight of the comically-bloodied three-month-old that emerges from Bella's womb. Up until that point, though, the birth scene was really interesting, but it was a sharp departure from the slow angst of the film up until then, and I wish, as I said before, that the tension and pacing had worked to increase gradually until Bella goes into labor and everything explodes.
So, given the source material it wasn't bad (and there were bits of the honeymoon that were actually quite cute) but I feel like if the screenwriter and director had been given a little bit freer reign they could have done something that was actually decent. I do want to watch it again, though, now that I know what to expect for all the craziness.
random things:
+ Soooo Jacob imprinted. On a creepy CGI baby face. I can't wait for the reviews to come out of people who had no clue this was coming. I liked the actress they chose for grown-up Renesmee, at least?
+ All of the vampires had bad hair. At least they made fun of Edward's. And the name "Renesmee."
+ CLAIRE AND QUIL HAHA GROSS : (
+ All I could think of, in the scene where Bella realizes she's pregnant, was the fact that she hadn't washed her mouth out yet. Also, was her staring at the fried chicken a nod to her being a vegetarian?
+ "Possibly."