I saw The Twilight Saga: Eclipse today. I’m not going to write a formal review, since there are plenty of those online already. This will just be my very personal opinion with random observations. It seems silly to warn anybody about plot spoilers, so perhaps it’s more accurate to say this contains movie spoilers.
I’d better state where I’m coming from first. I read the Twilight trilogy after the first three books came out, before any movies were made, and before Breaking Dawn was released. I am not a Twilight Mom, because I have no kids. I’m certainly no teenager, either! And I’m not a Twi-hard. I guess you could say I’m a Twi-feather-light (or how about a Twi-light-weight?). I certainly caught the addiction while reading the first book, but I didn’t love the sequels and I pretty much hate Breaking Dawn. I didn’t like the first movie, except for Bella’s dad and Jacob. I tolerated the second movie because of Jacob, especially with all those shirtless scenes. (Yeah, I’m old but I’m still breathing.)
How do I explain my attraction to Twilight? I tell everyone who’ll listen, especially those who are seriously considering reading the books for the first time out of curiosity, that the first books is a drug. It’s a potent drug that causes an endorphin rush in your brain, the one you get when you’re falling in love. I don’t know how or why exactly the book works so well, since it’s not particularly well written. All I can say is that it works, and it keeps on working. The endorphin rush will happen again when you re-read the book. I think it’s a real shame that it is so effective, because so many fans keep re-reading it, when there are so many other good books to read. The endorphin rush doesn’t happen when you read the sequels, but you read them anyway hoping for another fix.
Eclipse left me more satisfied than the first two movies, but I didn’t love it. I suppose it has a lot to do with the fact that I don’t like Robert Pattinson, and I really like Taylor Lautner. When I read the books, I was on Team Edward. When I watch the movies, I’m on Team Jacob. It’s just too damn confusing.
Okay, so here’s some random impressions:
I thought the engagement ring was ugly. My friend thought the ring looked like a vampire’s sparkling skin, which is the best excuse I’ve heard for such a strange design.
I was surprised by how much I liked the young actor playing Riley, Xavier Samuel. I will be adding him to my “watch list.”
Daddy Swan was delightful again. Loved him.
My favorite line was from Jacob to Edward: “…I’m hotter than you.”
I cracked up when they showed the Cullens at the beginning of the climactic battle scene, all standing in a row frozen, looking exactly like action figure dolls. Talk about a shameless merchandising ploy!
All the stuff about Sam the wolf’s love triangle was odd and underdeveloped. I recognized that it was being used as a parallel to the main love triangle and setting things up for Breaking Dawn with the imprinting business, but it was unsatisfying.
I feel sooo sorry for Elizabeth Reaser. She’s waited through three movies to do something, and she had one line. She’s a really good actress who could have been doing much more interesting work instead of standing around as a background extra in these films.
I love Dakota Fanning. I don’t understand why during her crucial scenes in the clearing after the battle, she’s got a bright white light behind her when everybody else just has trees.
So, now we wait until November 2011 for part one of Breaking Dawn, which I may just have to skip. This whole business of splitting movies into two parts is ridiculous. (Imagine if they’d done that with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.) We don’t mind a longer movie, and we all know it’s just about making more money at the box office.
Recent Comments