Before you shoot me for my title of my blog post...yes, I am going to give a brief review of Twilight Breaking Dawn pt 1. Now before I begin let me start by saying that I read the entire book series, I saw every movie in the theater and I own them all on DVD. You can't call me a "Twihard" but you can call me a fan. I say that because "Twihards" live, breath, and love everything about the series, where I didn't/don't. Don't get me wrong, I throughly enjoyed the books, I couldn't put them down; that is before I got to the final book, Breaking Dawn. I wasn't sure I wanted to finish it honestly, but I did, mostly to just get closure and get it over with and read what I already expected and known was going to happen. It was too predictable for me. I've written reivews of Twilight and New Moon which can be found over at Goodreads. I never got around to review the last two books, my two least favorite of the series.
So, my review of Breaking Dawn; I am going to try and do this with as little spoilers as possible, but if you don't want to know anything about the movie until you see it, than best to read this after. Here goes:
The movie followed the book almost to a T. However, Hollywood felt the need to add sex scenes that were not in the the book. If you're taking children be aware of that fact. There were a few things I wasn't sure happened in the book, but they may have, it's just been so long since I read it, and there were things in the book that I missed in the movie. If you read the book you know it was basically 3 books in one. I felt though that the book was overly long and got very boring and dragged on far too long. I enjoyed the middle of the book where the POV changed to Jacob. No question the best part of the book, for me. So, if you're like me and on "Team Jacob" (let me not get into how much I hate that Team crap) you may be disappointed too (and not only because you don't get to see his sexy abs).
There were zero surprises. If you read the book than expect to see what you read, but some of your favorite scenes or dialogue will probably not be there. The movie, though filmed well, just felt average to me. There was nothing overly exciting about it. Was it worth the $10 ticket? No. I should have waited for the DVD. Will I see part 2 in the theater? Probably, because I am a glutten for punishment I guess. Really I can't form an opinion of this movie. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. Am I the only one? I've been reading reviews and friend's Facebook posts and I seem to be the only one with this blah opinion on the movie, but again, I am also the only person I know who didn't love this book.
The acting still leaves little to be desired. Taylor Lautner plays an excellent Jacob and he is by far the better actor here. Robert Pattinson still plays the tortured Edward with weird longing looks and facial expressions. I know Pattinson is capable of more as I've seen him in Remember Me and Water For Elephants, but there is just no excitement or believability in his role as Edward. Kristen Stewart...where do I begin? She looks the part, aside from her mouth constantly being open, but her acting still needs work. As my buddy (who went with me) pointed out, she is void of emotion. She tries really hard to have emotion and there in lies the problem...forced acting. Is she capable of truely becoming and being the character she plays? I'm not sold. I didn't love her in The Runaways either.
One (of several) things I didn't like in the book was the operation scene. When I was reading it, it went from this love triangle drama right into a not-gory-enough horror story. I won't lie, it was rough reading/visualizing for me. Yes, the book was predictable, but no I was not expecting it to get so graphic. You will see this scene played out in the movie and it's done very well. If you haven't read the books though you will not understand what is happening. Now the operation scene never needed to happen in either the book or the movie if the story would have never taken an impossible direction. It took that direction because the writer, Stephanie Meyer, wrote a story with a happy ending where her protagonist, Bella, got everything she ever wanted. All wrapped up neatly with a little bow on top; not real life. Nobody gets all their wishes and dreams fufilled and everything's all hunky-dorey, but maybe that's my pessimistic nature speaking. That is my biggest issue with the book, that and the fact that Bella never grows up. Instead of maturing, like most protagonists do, she seems to get less mature as you read each book.
Visually the movie was great. The styling, again, could have been much better. The wolves speaking, telepathically, was done a bit strangely, but how is one to do that exactly? Bella's dress wasn't at all what I pictured in my mind when I read the book. There were parts of the movie that if you haven't read the book (ie: my buddy is only part way through) that you will not understand, and that is unfortunate.
Where do I stand? I think I am gonna be about 1 in 100 that isn't swooning over this movie. Frankly I thought New Moon was better. If I have to give it a rating I feel okay at 5 out of 10. It really was just average. True to the series the action scenes wanted to be exciting but lacked something though the movies definetly make them more exciting than how written in the books, but this isn't a series about action. It's a love triangle drama with sparkly vampires and non-werewolf werewolves thrown in.
That's my 2 cents.
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