Sunday, November 18, 2012

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

So it has finally come to an end - I'm going to assume if you're reading this you are somewhat interested in Twilight and have seen the movies or read the books.
In order to cash in on the fact there are only four books, Breaking Dawn was split in two - a la Harry Potter - and we have Breaking Dawn Part 2 .
The big flaw in the second half is the start....it's almost as though they filmed the whole thing at once then split it in two. There is very little joining of the two films, even a 'previously' bit might have helped.
We pick up the story as Bella (Kristen Stewart) wakes as a newborn vampire much to Edward's (Robert Pattinson) delight.
They have a daughter (I always hated Renesmee as a name) who Jacob (Taylor Lautner) has imprinted upon and is therefore obsessed with, somewhat creepily.
The first 20 minutes or so is spent with Bella revelling in her newfound strength, agility and poise and we watch her child grow quickly into a 10-ish year-old probably.
It is then that Irina (Maggie Grace) sees her and wrongly believes she is an immortal child and reports this to the Volturi who set out to destroy it, setting up a confrontation with the Cullens.
After you get through the slow patch at the start, which could have been helped so much by developing Bella's newborn character - she was very well restrained when you consider how newborns have been described through the series, there are some pretty funny and well done scenes, though nothing will top the baseball scene in the first movie.
When Jacob decides to show Charlie (Billy Burke) that he is a werewolf it's hilarious, and also the obligatory scene where he gets his shirt off.
The 'friends' of the Cullens that assemble to witness to the Volturi are very well imagined from what they were described as in the book.
There's a 'twist' that is talked about that deviates from the book but I'm not sure that it is such a big twist, more an extrapolation of what might have happened had it been written about in the book...you'll know when you see it/if you have seen it.
Overall I've enjoyed the Twilight series.
It's not high art or intellectual fiction but it is enjoyable, if a little on the soppy side.
I still don't think the casting was right in places (particularly Edward) but that's just my opinion. There is a nice touch at the end of Breaking Dawn Part 2 where they go through the entire cast from the five films, as well as use the book as way of ending the story.
Considering they did it fairly rushed when Twilight became a hit I think the series was well done - it is just a shame it had to be rushed because there are things in all five movies that could have been done so much better.
As far as this film goes, a 7.5 out of 10, and that'd be about true for the series as a whole.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Vices

We've all got them, those things that we know aren't good for us but we just can't help but fall under their spell.
At the moment I'm trying to offload one of my vices while at the same time trying to not let one I'm particularly enjoying be more than a little fun.
The vice I'm looking to lose is a bit of an unhelpful gambling habit that occasionally gets out of control. It's the type of gambling that you know you're not supposed to win at but for some reason it seems to be appealing.
I think you know the type I'm referring to.
Sometimes I wonder what part of the brain is overriding the common sense part that tells you that even if you do happen to have a win in the big picture you will lose.
I'd like to think I can overcome that. The feeling you get when you've lost is not pleasant, you feel like chasing the loss and you end up losing a lot more than you can, or should, afford. It's a different experience with the horses. There is less element of chance involved and I'd like to think my knowledge is better than the average person's.
So I am making an effort to overcome this vice.
The other one is at times a lot of fun and at other times I'm disappointed in myself. At the moment though I think the fun outweighs the disappointment so I'm happy to play a bit while it is fun.