| Overall Grade: |
B |
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| Story: |
B |
|
|
| Acting: |
A- |
|
|
| Direction: |
C+ |
|
|
| Visuals: |
B |
|
|
Have an open mind, and be pleasantly surprised
by Jenn (movies profile)
Nov 21, 2008
888
of
975 people found this review helpful
If you're so obsessed with your own interpretation of the books that you protested Breaking Dawn or stand quoting full paragraphs of the meadow scene from your moonlit balcony, you will probably not like this movie. If you have studiously avoided all the clips, previews, trailers, sneak peeks, and leaked videos in the hope of getting the full impact at your first screening, you will probably not like this movie. And if you go in sick of all things Twilight or determined to spew venom about it on your blog no matter what it is, good or bad, you will probably not like this movie. Oh, and if you're expecting Queen of the Damned, Blade, or other gore fest, then you REALLY won't like this movie.
However, if you go into it as a night out at the movies to check out the latest book-to-film release everyone's been babbling about, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. If you can tune out the weeks of overhyped media saturation that have teenagers screeching pointlessly at the stars and stampeding each other in shopping malls, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. If you keep in mind that this movie comes from a small, independent, practically brand-new studio; the production was given only $37 million to work with; and they filmed it under bad weather conditions and an insanely tight shooting schedule, you might be more willing to forgive the limitations of cheesy special effects. We're not talking SpiderMan here, folks. The people who made this film thought they were making a small film. They didn't go into it to make a blockbuster.
First and foremost, if you're a fan of the series, you have to go in realizing that a lot of the book has been changed, left out, or shortened in order to fit 500 pages into 120 minutes. Scenes have been added to give the bad vampires a little more lead in. The movie is intentionally funny at times (unintentionally in others); it doesn't take itself seriously. The story's chronology has been altered substantially. The direction is at times flawed and other times very well done. The editing leaves a bit to be desired as well. The meadow scene is quite truncated.
All that said, I thought the acting was generally very well done. Rob Pattinson is incredible; Kristen Stewart works well within the frame that is Bella, but she's a little cold and dry for my particular taste. Peter Facinelli excelled as Carlisle in expressing both his need to help the sick and his influence and authority as a parent to the Cullen clan. The rest of the Cullens could have used more face time, but Nikki Reed did well expressing Rosalie's general displeasure and Ashley Greene was both adorable and vicious as Alice. Billy Burke as Charlie was a great surprise, and had a very funny take on the role that any teenage girl with an overprotective dad will immediately recognize. Taylor Lautner is definitely the best possible Jacob for this installment; whether they can adequately "grow" him to match the werewolf Jacob in the sequel remains to be seen.
Rachelle LeFevre and Cam Gigandet were both fabulous in their bad vampire roles, but I thought Edi Gathegi overacted quite a bit considering he had so little to say. Having seen how sweet and fun Rachelle LeFevre is in real life, her acting talents become even more impressive. She will be a great adversary if the series makes it to the third movie, Eclipse.
What fans have to remember are the small budget, the originally low expectations for the film that were suddenly pushed into overdrive once MTV started promoting it, and the fact that getting through this movie, and giving it our financial support, will likely guarantee a much better funded, better planned sequel. Don't expect perfection. But the movie itself, as it is, isn't bad. It's actually quite entertaining. It could have been much worse. It's getting passable reviews from top critics, something established franchises like Bond or The X Files were not able to get. Go in, have a good time, and get ready for the next one. |
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