Tag Archives: Edward

Twilight Saga – Breaking Dawn Part 1 (Movie 4)

Alright, it’s that time again – Twilight Time. Oh yeah. I wanted to see it the day it came out…but I was drawing WaM. Go figure.

I’m sure you figured out by now, that while the books are kinda’ bad, I’m a fan of the movies. I really like the movies. I will probably buy a box set when the fifth one is finally out. I admit it.

The movie is basically the same as the book, so my earlier review still applies more or less, even if I wrote it oh, a year and some ago.

I love Bella’s Dad & Jacob. I swear, I go to these movies to see those two act. Billy Burke needs to be in more films. The man’s hilarious and absolutely perfect for the role of Charlie. Or maybe I just need to see more of the movies he is in. One of the two.

Actually, all the parents and grandparents in this movie are great. The side cast of Twilight are all awesome and talented. :D

And Taylor Lautner is still the best of them, and he works well as Jacob. And since Jacob is my favorite character, book or movie, I wish him well in the future once the Twilight films are done.

As for book scenes to movie scenes, the wedding was great, the honey moon was funny, and the birth of the kid went about the same as the book…probably worse. But I excepted that as there was no possible way to make the scene in the book transfer to film and not have it be horrible. It was horrible in the book. There was no saving it.

At least the imprinting thing with Jacob wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Yay Jacob. Actually, there could have been a lot more of Jacob. All of his book scenes were really slimmed down for the film. Which is depressing since those were probably the best parts of the book.

I also look forward to the ‘Nessie’ scene in movie 2.

But all of that was pointless because by this point, I’m sure you’ve made up your mind about Twilight long ago. :D

Twilight Saga – Breaking Dawn (Book 4)

Well, went to a wedding today and that two hour drive gave me just enough time to finish reading the forth Twilight novel. Hurrah~

I don’t actually have that much to say. Despite this book being disliked by even the fans, to be perfectly honest I enjoyed it. It’s finally reached the point of ridiculous in Twilight that I found the book amusing at the very least.

Mostly, just a lot happened. Bella & Edward get married; she becomes a vampire, vampire kiddie and of course the much acclaimed missed moment of awesome when the final battle of the series is…a chat. Etc.

Of course there were the bits that were annoying (read: Bella the ultimate Mary Sue with her perfection in everything from the birth, to handling being a vampire, to mastering her skills at the end, blah blah blah – or the total cop out at the ending. I’m sorry; but it was a cop-out and if you read it you’ll probably agree.) but there were its fun moments.

I’ll admit to laughing when Bella went psycho on Jacob after realizing he nicknamed Renesmee “Nessie” – and thought that despite all the crazy over Jacob imprinting on a little kid it was actually kinda cute. I mean, the kid had the maturity of an adult already so it wasn’t as noticeable as it could have been.

Let’s see. All the characters I liked lived, so there’s that too I suppose.

This is probably the least informative/rant worthy review, but honestly I didn’t have that much to rant about. Let’s face it – I’ve read worse. I really have. I’ve willingly read fanfiction that has a worse plot and even worse writing so for comparisons sake it wasn’t that bad.

And before I forget – about a forth of the book was from Jacob’s point of view dealing with him and his pack and I’ve thought that side of the story was interesting from the second book. Leah & Seth were fun and even seeing Jacob reluctantly bond with Edward was fun. Especially when Edward was freaking out over the pregnancy and admitted that if “having puppies” was safer for Bella he’d go for it. Particularly funny when Jacob thought about what that meant.

Either way, I’ll still end up seeing the double feature that comes out for this book & will probably like it.

Conclusion for the Twilight Series:

Could have been worse. I’m probably throwing myself into the ‘fan’ category as long as we’re acknowledging that it’s mostly a guilty pleasure. XD

Either way – my advice? Read it for yourself and make your own opinion….

And I do like the movies. Heh.

Twilight Saga – Eclipse (Movie 3)

Alright, I just finished watching the third Twilight Movie: Eclipse. And the trailers are right – it is much better than the other three movies.

And Despite my misgivings for the third book, I ended up enjoying the third Twilight Movie quite a bit. (And I wasn’t the only one if all the people laughing and clapping in the theatre was any indication…)

Jacob’s still awesome, they play up the tension between him and Edward well and Officer Swan is still hilarious. I laughed at the jokes, and well. I think I’m pretty much doomed and may actually be a Twilight fan.

But all was not glory – there was a few issues. The cinematography was much better in the second film by far and this movie tended to suffer from soap opera face ups. I think they may have over used this particular film technique.

Second, the first hour was rather choppy and for once I’m glad I read the book BEFORE the movie – if only to fill in all the gaps. Eclipse tried to fit too much in and give everyone their little moment of backstory. Sadly this leaves most of them cut a little short (and I’m still angry we didn’t get a full body shot of Rosalie in her wedding dress!!! She wore it, too. It’s insulting we only got to see her from the shoulders up.) I think this is the one time where it’s handy the book filled every thing in with more detail.

Overall though, not many complaints. It was two glorious hours of man-law. Edward vs Jacob. It was wonderful and even the guys in the theatre were laughing at the machismo dripping from the two of them as they fought over Bella.

Anyway, I enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to the two-part Break Dawn films. (Which I’m half-way through reading! Progress!)

Twilight Saga – Eclipse (Book 3)

I have finally finished Book 3 of the Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

I can’t remember the last time I read a book that had me going back and forth between hatred for the main character, boredom and disgust. Now, I’m sure there was a spot here or there that I liked or was tolerable, but it was so overrun by a total disgust with Bella Swan that overshadowed everything else.

In fact, I’m pretty sure any discontent I have with the Twilight series has to deal with Bella Swan. I don’t think I’ve ever found a main character in a book that was this unlikeable. There is nothing I like about her and by now I’m sure you’ve realized this is a rant more than a review.

It took me so long to force myself to finish this book (I kept putting it down and reading each chapter was quite literally a chore) that I barely remember what happened in it. So I’ll have to settle for ranting about what I do remember.

But! We’ll start off on a positive note with a few quotes that I actually quite liked:

“He’s like a drug for you, Bella…I see that you can’t live without him now. It’s too late. But I would have been healthier for you. Not a drug; I would have been the air, the sun.” – Jacob Black

“The clouds I can handle. But I can’t fight with an eclipse.” – Jacob Black

“I wasn’t about to send you off alone. With your luck, not even the black box would survive.” – Edward Cullen

“If we had happy endings, we’d all be under gravestones now.” – Rosalie Cullen

And from there – we’ll start with subject one:

Werewolves

I like Jacob Black. I think it’s the movie’s influence because they did a good job with him, but even in the books I’ve liked him. He was interesting, down to earth and he’s a werewolf. Can’t go wrong there really. In fact, despite the fact all of her werewolf references and the like are made up and new, its’ actually a concept that works (unlike the sparkling, glittering skin of the vampires). The hive mind thing they have going on is interesting and it helps bring all the characters together.

Eclipse goes out of its way to try and destroy Jacob. I think it became apparent in New Moon that Jacob was probably the better choice out of the two and so it had to demonize him. He’s now screwing with Bella (don’t get me wrong, she’s still a selfish, manipulating brat but even she doesn’t deserve some of what he does) and going so far as to forcefully kiss (molest) her and corner her into choosing either him or Edward by force and guilt. It wasn’t as horrible as it could have been, but it was definitely a character derailment – but I will admit it was funny having the other wolves complain about his thoughts about Bella leaking into all of their heads.

Not to mention when Bella broke her hand trying to punch him I laughed out loud. Physically. I really had needed that.

Vampire Fight

I feel gipped. They spend a great deal of this book setting up a giant Vampire Battle with Victoria & a crew of new borns she’d recruited…and we don’t get to see it. We hear about it via Seth’s mental link with the pack, but Edward & Bella are separated from the action. We do get a bit of a fight between Edward, Victoria, Seth & a guy named Riley but it was so-so and ended predictably with you guessed it – Edward winning.

Not to mention the Volturi. Talk about a missed opportunity. They show up at the end go “opps, did our job for us” kill some poor sap and leave. Just about the only thing I enjoyed was them mentioning that Aro really wants to see Carlisle again – and that lead to me getting depressed yet again because the storyline with Carlisle and the Volturi would have actually been interesting. Ah well, maybe one day I’ll brave the Twilight Fanfiction section and find something there.

Bella and Marriage

I could tolerate Bella being too dumb to live.  I really could. I could even deal with her being a selfish, spoiled brat who couldn’t make up her mind with ‘some people are just like that’ and move on. What I could not tolerate – were Bella Swan’s views on marriage. They just baffled me.

Let’s lay this down – Bella in all of her selfishness wants to become a Vampire before she’s too much ‘older’ (older being relative because she keeps forgetting he’s pushing over 100 years old) than Edward. She’s claiming it’s to avoid the Volturi but let’s face it – she just wants to sex up Edward. Anyway, Carlisle has agreed to change her after graduation but she wants Edward to do it. Edward has one condition – he wants to marry Bella before he turns her into a vampire and gives her the ride of her life. So far, I’m not seeing any problems. She wants to be with Edward for eternity – he’s taking the logical first step.

Bella is instantly disgusted by the idea and she thinks Edward is an old fashioned and joking with her. Bella absolutely does not want to get married and I was flabbergasted. I didn’t understand at all. It made no sense whatsoever. And eventually, Edward drags an explanation out of her and we find out it has to do with her perception of marriage. She’s using her mother’s teenage marriage as a basis and I suppose I can understand that – but her attitude about the entire thing is what gets me. She’s willing to DIE and become a vampire – and somehow that’s better than a teen wedding brought on by unexpected pregnancy?

I want to quote for you Bella’s exact explanation for why she doesn’t want to get married. I’m hoping I’m not the only one who’s confused and disgusted by it.

I’m not that girl, Edward. The one who gets married right out of high school like some small-town hick who got knocked up by her boyfriend! Do you know what people would think? Do you realize what century this is? People don’t just get married at eighteen! Not smart people, not responsible, mature people! I wasn’t going to be that girl! That’s not who I am….”

This is a girl who’s been trying to jump Edward Cullen since she met him. This is a girl who wants to be turned into a vampire (let us recap: dead, immortal, drinks blood, permanent life change) absolutely right now without listening to the people telling her to wait until she’s older. A girl who claims she can not live without Edward Cullen in her life for the rest of her life forever and ever bound to him for eternity and she gets disgusted by the idea he asks her to marry her. She’s disgusted by how other people might look at her for being a teen bride. She was also disgusted by the idea that people would think it weird Edward dating someone so much older than him (I’m sorry, but there isn’t that big of a stretch between 17 and the 20’s with someone as mentally mature as Edward.). But this marriage thing topped the cake for me.

I have never wanted to leap into the pages of a book and slap someone so much in my life. If I give Twilight anything, it is the ability to induce emotion in the reader be it good or bad.

The General

So far of the three books – this has been the most painful. I really hope the movie is better (because we’ll at least get to see the fight scene – there’s no way they could get around skipping it in the film) and by the grounds that I actually enjoyed the other two films, books aside.

And now I start my journey into Breaking Dawn – which just may kill me. Apparently not even the fans can stand that one. Wish me luck. I’m going to need it.

Twilight Saga – New Moon (Book 2)

Alright, let’s see how I do reviewing Book 2. For once I’m not writing this immediately after finishing the book so my thoughts are a tad less organized. But here we go –

The Book

Better than the first one.

Now granted, New Moon had it’s head banging moments and horrible scenes. But it had one or two good scenes and I actually enjoyed reading about Jacob & the Werewolf crew. So not a total loss. I think part of that is the fact Edward was missing for over half the book.

Edward alone I can handle.

Bella alone is almost tolerable.

Bella & Edward together gets near unbearable. I can’t even really put it into words but them together is some of the most unbelievable stuff I’ve ever read. It just pushes my suspense of belief out the window. Maybe it’ because I’ve never been in love or seen anyone in real life act like this. But the sheer level of obsession these two have with each other can not be healthy. It just can’t.

People date, they break up, they move on. Sometimes it’s harder than others – I realize that. I believe in love. But this sort of love that they describe almost has no basis. Why do they love each other? What really caused Bella to be near Catatonic for months? As far as I could tell the only thing Edward did (other than the save her life thing – which isn’t really a basis for a romance…) was be mean to her and mention she smelled really really good.

]Though, in New Moon towards the end, Bella refuses to believe Edward could love her so I ended up reading a page of Edward declaring why he loves Bella and I stared at the page – when did she show any of those behaviors? It was like he was describing a different person. I, it was just odd.

But I’ll move on. It’s almost baffling and I’m not sure I could keep up with it.

Let’s talk about things I liked instead. Because admitting there are things I liked in this book are good. I could go on forever about how Bella’s a selfish idiot (Her Vote to become a vampire? No. Just. No.) So let’s talk about good things:

Aro – I loved Aro. This is a vampire. He’s a total monster who still manages to be bright and cheery and keep his manners like a real gentleman. There’s a charisma there that I didn’t expect to find in this book.

Jacob – I’ve already stated he’s the only person in the book who not only seems believable but sympathetic. Plus, werewolves are cool. And her recreation of the classic myth for them isn’t nearly as intolerable as say, the sparkling.

And…that’s all that comes to mind at the moment. Overall, save for a few frustrating moments with Bella & Edward, I liked it.

Which brings me to –

The Movie

I’ve admitted it before and I’ll admit it again. I liked the New Moon Movie. There! I said it.

The directing was 100x improved and it was obvious with the new cinematography and pacing. It featured Jacob (one of the few who could act) and dare I say it – Jacob and Bella actually had chemistry on scene. I was actually drawn in a few times as they interacted.

Plus? I actually laughed when the joke was intentional. I can’t say that about the first movie (save for her dad pulling out the shot gun – that’s always gold.).

But yeah. Not many complaints about the movie, actually. Aside from the plot but that can’t be helped sometimes.

Now…for Eclipse.