Friday, October 31, 2014

The Ultimate Twilight Rundown, Part 3: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011) and Part 2 (2012)

What's scarier on Halloween than a slasher movie where a crazed lunatic tries to kill a group of teenagers? How about a movie that seems like it's trying to kill a whole genre?

This, I'm sorry to say, is THE ULTIMATE TWILIGHT RUNDOWN, PART 3 - 


Breaking Dawn, Part 1 (2011)

I have watched a lot of terrible vampire movies for this blog. I've watched terrible sequels to great vampire films, movies where Nicholas Cage tries to pull off being a "symbolic" vampire, films that were really more 1960's art projects more than actual movies, and of course bad Blockbuster video rejects with unrealistic fraternity vampires. But nothing, absolutely nothing, prepared me for what a complete and utter waste of time Breaking Dawn Part 1 is. I have never so thoroughly felt like a part of my life has been stolen, that there was literally nothing to gain from a movie's two hour time-span.

This movie is not exciting. This movie is not scary. This movie is not funny. This movie is not romantic. This movie is not even enjoyable. Its very existence seems to defy every "purpose" for a movie at all.

But let's start at the beginning:

Edward and Bella are engaged, and we get a quick montage of various characters staring at the wedding invitation as if they've just received it... followed by an immediate cut to the Cullen family setting up for "tomorrow's wedding." Apparently in this universe people send out invitations to weddings the same week that the wedding occurs?


At the end of last film, in the flower meadow, Bella had mentioned that she and Edward needed to go tell her father that they were engaged. This seemed like a potentially interesting scene - what excuse would they give for getting married? How would Bella and Edward talk about their relationship? This potentially interesting moment, however, is not in this movie, and we don't even get a hint as to what happened. In fact, we never get ANY realistic scene of either parent trying to discuss Edward with Bella, trying to talk some sense into her, or dealing at all with the wedding. Bella's parents arrive right before the ceremony, and not a word is said by anyone (except Edward himself) along the lines of "Are you sure you want to do get married to Edward right now? You just graduated high school. And you've barely been dating [your undead vampire] boyfriend for a couple of years."


Without a word of wisdom from her parents, however, Bella does briefly question her decision after she has a series of symbolic and bloody dreams where (it is implied but not shown) that Bella and Edward eat all of their wedding guests. Up to this point, this pile of red-soaked bodies is the bloodiest and most "vampiric" moment in any of the Twilight films... but it's all in a dream sequence.

"It's a nice day for a red wedding..."

We do have one more vampiric moment, however: Edward tells Bella before she marries him that "you don't know everything about me." So he (quickly) tells her a story about the 1930s when he went off on his own and killed/drank from murderers and rapists rather than animals. He clearly feels badly about this, and wants to warn Bella how "dangerous" even supposedly good vampires can be. We then are treated to a flashback scene which shows us what could have been: essentially Showtime's Dexter but with a vampire in the 1930s.

"Next week, on the CW..."  Hmm, yeah, I'd probably watch it.

However, god forbid this movie gives us anything interesting to watch, as this flashback lasts for less than four minutes. For four minutes and a dream sequence, the movie actually mentions vampires who drink blood. Four minutes in a two hour film.

From then on, we may as well not be watching a vampire film. Instead, we are watching boring (if decently shot) home videos of someone's wedding and honeymoon. At least at actual weddings you often care about the people getting married, you see their raw and intense emotions, and there is typically free alcohol. However, as Bella gets over her nervousness and marries Edward, there is no real discernible emotion at all: Edward vaguely smiles, Bella mouth-breathes, and that's about it.

According the the context/plot, Bella should be going from call-it-all-
off nervousness to completely overjoyed and in-love in these images.
Can you tell the difference in Kristen Stewart's expressions? Me either.

The wedding goes on for twenty-five minutes. Twenty. Five. Minutes. I have sat through actual, real-life wedding ceremonies that take less time. And this twenty-five minutes includes the worst part of any wedding: awkward and unfunny toasts. A whole series of them.

The story then tries to have its wedding cake and eat it too when Jacob shows up at the wedding. Apparently we as an audience are still supposed to care about this love triangle, even though Bella has clearly made her decision and there's no chance she's going to change her mind now.

But this complete filler does add five minutes to the movie...

We then follow Bella and Edward on their honeymoon, and it's kind of like sitting through someone's lengthy vacation photo slideshow, mixed with awkward sex conversations had by two virgin teenagers. Wait... isn't Edward supposed to be over a hundred years old? Are we seriously watching an eighteen year old virgin high schooler nervously have discussions and a mild-amount-of-foreplay with her 110 year old virgin husband? The nervousness in these scenes is not sexy: it's painful. And, once again, goes on too long.

Sex finally happens, but in this PG-13-movie-for-teenage-girls, all that is shown is Edward breaking the wooden bed with his vampiric strength, feathers flying, and then a fade to black.

I sat through seven minutes of nervous lip-biting for this? 

After this scene, we essentially go from watching someone's boring and awkward honeymoon to watching an after-school special about teen pregnancy. Yes, somehow, after her first time having sex (with a vampire), Bella gets pregnant (with a magical vampire demon baby). Even though all the characters in the series think this should be impossible.

For the rest of the movie, we're treated to a repeated cycle of:

1. Edward, and Jacob and the whole werewolf community wanting to kill "it" because "it" is a magical vampire demon baby

2. Bella being angry that they're calling her magical vampire demon baby "it"

3. Bella becoming deathly ill because the magical vampire demon baby is feeding off of her

4. Bella refusing to let anyone kill the magical vampire demon baby

5. Bella getting sicker and sicker, as she is magically nine-months pregnant (with the magical demon vampire baby) within weeks

This is what happens when you have sex, kids...

Edward and Jacob finally agree to help Bella keep and deliver the magical demon baby, and the other Cullens fight off Jacob's werewolf pack. The fight is actually pretty gruesome...

That is a vampire literally punching out a werewolf's teeth

...as is the magical demon birth itself. While the editing is jumpy and intentionally vague, we do get brief glimpses of what is clearly the grossest birth of a supernatural creature since the Howling III

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww...

Bella then "dies" in child-birth (which I would believe for maybe a fraction of a second if there wasn't "Part 1" listed in the title for this movie), but then awakens soon as a vampire. 

Cut to film credits.

Yes. That's it. For two hours, we get nothing but a wedding, a brief honeymoon, awkward sex conversations, a fade-to-black sex scene, conversations about pregnancy and the right to life, a brief scuffle, magical demon vampire baby birth, and then a single shot of Bella's vampire-red eyes.

I swear, nothing about this "vampire" movie is enjoyable. Nothing. If someone strapped me down A Clockwork Orange style and said I had to sit through either The Brotherhood again (the only movie I've thus far given 0 out of 5 to) or Breaking Dawn Part 1, I honestly think I'd pick The Brotherhood. That's how pointlessly painful this movie is to watch.  And... there's still a Part 2... Ugh.

Rating: 0 out of 5 bites. Seriously. It's bad.

------------------
Breaking Dawn, Part 2 (2012)

Okay, after Part 1, I had no positive expectations for this movie. I mean, how do you finish off the worst section of the story with anything at all worth watching?

Apparently the answer is: by finally giving us something worth watching. I can't believe I'm saying this, but in Breaking Dawn Part 2, Twilight finally found its inner vampire movie.

The movie begins literally where the last one left off: with Bella opening her eyes as a vampire. We get some neat scenes which show us how vampires in the Twilight universe see the world: apparently in close-up CG shots. Sure, they don't look great, but it's more interesting and more in line with a typical "vampire story" as far as things go. The first several minutes of the movie is all about Bella adjusting to the change: getting a hold on her senses, learning to hunt, etc. It's a common arc in vampire stories and one which works fairly well here. And Kristin Stewart finally gives us some decent acting again; apparently she's better at pretending to be an animalistic predator than a normal human being. So there's that.

"Grrrrr......" 

After Bella quenches her thirst and starts to get her strength under control, she is finally ready to see her magical demon vampire baby and OH MY GOD! ARRRRRGH! Um, look, I know we just spent a good chunk of the last movie talking about how magic-demon-vampire-baby-killing is bad but DEAR LORD GET IT AWAY!!! HURRY! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

Terrible CG baby face: THE UNCANNY VALLEY IS REAL!

When Bella tries to spend time with her terrifying magical demon vampire baby, we find that Jacob is strangely protective of the creature, um, I mean child. It turns out this is because Jacob "imprinted" on the baby and now is magically tied to the child and loves it more than anything else in his life. As he puts it: "It's a wolf thing."

I think Bella's face here speaks for us all.

Bella doesn't take kindly to this what-kind-of-sounds-like-magical-pedophilia at first and attacks Jacob. This is our first look at how ruthless vampire Bella can be, and also how it changes her relationship with Edward. Previously, Edward always seemed to be walking a fine line between good Puritan Christian and bloodthirsty monster. He's mostly shown Bella the "Puritan Christian" side, but then this is his face when Bella nearly breaks Jacob in half:


Oh. Right. Okay then. So, we're actually committing to the whole 'vampires are kind of evil' thing? That's... actually surprising, Twilight.

Yes, believe it or not, this movie actually HAS vampiric behavior in it. Vampires in this film actually want to drink human blood, kill things, and have violent sex. I mean, huh, it's almost like this series has been about vampires all along...

Scene doesn't actually cross over into sex-blood-drinking, but the
director seems to want to imply it as Bella bites at Edward's neck

We also have a scene where Bella's father, Charlie, learns the truth about the supernatural creatures living in Forks, WA. When he visits Bella, he sees that his daughter has changed and somehow become one of these 'things.' When Bella asks him if he's okay, he chokes up while answering: "I don't know, Bella. I've just seen a kid I've known my entire life turn into a very large dog, and my daughter looks like my daughter but doesn't!"

It's a surprisingly emotive scene, cementing that the actor who plays Bella's father (Billy Burke, from Wonderland and 24) is one of the best actors in this series. The kick to the chest comes when Charlie says that he doesn't want to lose Bella again. "Then you won't. I promise," she replies. But as they hug, you can tell that Charlie is pretty sure that he already has.


Wow, a few decent moments so far, and surprisingly very little annoying Bella narration. Could this movie actually be... okay?

Soon we learn that the Volturi are on their way, however, because word has reached them that there's a vampire child.

The fact that we cut from the "new wold" Cullens to the "old world" Volturi
is actually pretty clever. Nice use of visual contrast, director Bill Condon.

Since the Volturi don't know it's a magical demon vampire baby, they instead think that it's an illegal turning, as vampire children have been forbidden for centuries. We get an actually amazing looking and delightfully horrifying flashback to medieval times, when the Volturi slaughtered a whole coven because they were harboring a vampire child.

Like the last movie's 1930's Edward flashback, this scene is brief. However, it tells a whole story and is actually pretty satisfying in and of itself.

I'd watch a whole movie about this...

We're a little over a forty minutes into the movie, Bella has still barely narrated, and there has been lots of violence, drama, emotion, and vampire lore. Could this movie actually be... slightly better than okay?

The Cullens say that they need to assemble vampire friends and "witnesses" to stand with them against the Volturi. Cue the family splitting up to go all around the world. We meet all different types of vampires from all over and OH MY GOD, IS THAT LEE PACE?!


Yes, Lee Pace (The Fall, Pushing Daisies, The Hobbit) plays a vampire who was a fighter in the American Revolution. He quickly becomes the best character in this movie, flirting with the Cullens' cousin and making random quips about how much he hates the British. He also gives us our fully on camera (if in the shadows) murder and draining of a human being by a vampire in the whole series. And, it's worth noting, Pace's character is supposed to be one of our "good guys."

"Does anyone have an after dinner mint?"

Yes, after four previous movies stressed how important it was that the Cullens were "vegetarians" (feeding only on animals, even though that's obviously not the definition of vegetarianism) and thus "good" vampires, this section of the story seems to throw that half out of the window. Now the "good guys" are anyone who will stand with the Cullens against the Volturi, and as Jacob mutters later in the film: "There are a lot of red eyes here." (Red eyed vampires in the Twilight universe are ones who feed on and kill humans rather than animals.)

We also get to see all sides of the Twilight vampire world, from India to England, Brazil to Romania. Vampires from all over come to join the Cullens, and they each add their own personality to the story. The Romanian vampires even play into some classic vampire-tropes (including the thick "Transylvanian" accent), and Bella and Jacob jokingly call them "Dracula One and Dracula Two."


We also get to learn about a wider array of vampire powers, including elemental control, psychic shields, and a Lovecraftian "living smoke" that can swirl around and attack enemies.


Um, excuse me, but WHY HAVEN'T ALL THE MOVIES BEEN ABOUT THIS?! You have a world where vampires are also basically the X-Men and you spent at least three whole movies on nothing but a LOVE TRIANGLE AND A BORING WEDDING?!?  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU?!?!

The Volturi arrive for the big showdown and everyone stands around dramatically the way you do before a large movie battle.

Hello again, Lee Pace...

At this point, the movie seems to only loosely be about Edward, Bella, Jacob, and the magical demon vampire child. And that is perfect. All the vampires, especially the Romanians who were cast out by the Volturi centuries ago, have their own reasons for wanting to fight in this battle. This is no longer just about our love triangle and a magical demon vampire child: it's about freedom. Or something.

Before the battle begins, Alice (the future-seer) goes up to the leader of the Volturi and shows him a vision of the future.

The Volturi leader is played by a gloriously scenery-chewing
Michael Sheen, by the way. I doubt even Christopher Walken
had this much fun while playing a vampire.

The movie then suddenly erupts into an epic and brutal battle. Necks are snapped, limbs are ripped off, faces are torn in two, and bodies are set on fire. Even after several "epic" battles in previous Twilight films, this is by far the most intense and the most violent.





Now, as anyone who has read anything about this movie knows, the epic battle turns out to be a part of Alice's vision; essentially, it's all a dream. The Volturi see that the battle will end with most of their old guard slaughtered, so they decide to not fight the battle and instead be reassured that the magical demon vampire child is not an illegal turn and will be kept hidden. It is also revealed that she is not the only half-vampire-half-human in the world: there is at least one other 'Dampire' from Brazil. Reassured, the Volturi leave after only killing one Cullen cousin in punishment.

Now, a lot of movie-goers were angry about the "fake out," but it honestly didn't bother me that much. Maybe it was partially because I knew about the reveal ahead of time, but I appreciated that we essentially got the brutality of a major (PG-13) vampire apocalyptic battle, but without the story having to deal with any of our main characters dying.

The strangest thing to me though was that the movie (and the novel previously) seems "fine" with the status quo essentially staying the same: the evil and traditional Italian vampire council stays in power and they may, it is heavily implied, try to kill the Cullens again some day. But for now, everyone can go on with their lives. It's not the most dramatic ending, but it's mostly satisfying I guess.

Near the final scene, Alice gets a final vision of Edward, Bella, Jacob, and the magical demon vampire child (now adult) all happy together somewhere in the future. It's as close to a "happily ever after" that a vampire movie could give. In fact, it is such a storybook ending that the final shot may as well be directly out of a Disney princess film: the image of Edward and Bella transforms into a book page, which flutters close, focusing briefly on the final words of Stephanie Meyer's novel:


And that's it. That's the final Twilight movie. And it was..... actually, pretty entertaining. After the most terrible Twilight movie ever in Part 1, it's bizarre how watchable and kind of fun Part 2 is. While I'm pretty sure I'd rather watch almost any movie on earth before I watch Breaking Dawn Part 1 again, I'd choose Breaking Dawn Part 2 over, say, the original Underworld.

Overall rating for the last Twilight film: 3 out of 5 bites
--------

So, that's it. I've survived them all. So, does Twilight deserve all of the vitriol and annoyance thrown its way from vampire story fans? Probably. The first and final films are okay and add some minorly interesting details to their vampire lores, but that doesn't balance out how terribly bad and painful a majority of the love-triangle-focused story is.

Also, by the end of the series, I'm still not sure how "self-aware" Stephanie Meyer was about her characters. It seems like she intended the vampires to be at least slightly "evil" all along, and that Bella wants that sense of "power" (thus why she is drawn to Edward and his world). But we're also supposed to actually root for the couple and not feel concerned about all of these vampires being super-strong and violent and potentially quite powerful and manipulative? It's really muddled and unclear.

Overall, Twilight didn't kill the vampire genre. It's not exactly great, but the series has some watchable moments here and there; I'd stick to the first one and just maybe the last if you're at all curious. Otherwise, go watch an actual amazing vampire or werewolf movie like Byzantium or the original The Howling. Something where the vampires don't sparkle...

Happy Halloween, everybody! 

~  LK

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