In this installment of the "Twilight" series, adapted from the book written by Stephenie Meyer, Bella (Kristen Stewart) must deal with the fact that she may never again see her beloved Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson).
The film begins as Bella realizes that although her love Edward, a vampire who will always stay 17, will not age, SHE will. The fact that this is her 18th birthday does not help matters. This disturbs her and she wants Edward to turn her into a vampire to prevent this. At her birthday party at Edward's family's house, she cuts her finger and one of his family members tries to attack her because of the blood. The Cullen's decide that they must move away so they won't put Bella in danger. We don't see much of Edward until the last part of the movie. Unhappy Bella mopes around for months until she goes out with a girlfriend with prompting from her caring father. While out with her friend, she realizes that when she puts herself into a dangerous situation, that the ghostly specter of Edward appears to warn her not to proceed.
This seems to pull her out of her funk and she runs over to her friend Jacob Black's (Taylor Lautner) to have him rebuild her a couple of motorcycles that seem to have appeared in the back of her truck. He, just like Edward, is enamored of her. They spend a lot of time together until he begins to act strangely. Bella discovers that Jacob as well as some of his fellow Quileute tribe members are actually werewolves (by an inherited gene) whose purpose is to kill vampires. He tells her that a vampire is hanging around and that they are trying to catch her. The vampire is Victoria who has made it clear that she wants to kill Bella. Bella wigs out and decides that she is going to have some "fun" and go cliff jumping into the ocean and is pulled out of the water by Jacob. Edward is led to believe that Bella is dead (he can somehow see this) and therefore decides that he can't live without her and is going to Italy to ask the Volturi (kind of like the royalty/vampire jury of the vampire nation) to kill him. They refuse because of his talents as a vampire. He decides that he is going to break the cardinal vampire rule and expose himself to the public (he likes to sparkle) which results in certain death by the Volturi. Bella meanwhile speeds to Italy with Edward's sister Alice (Ashley Green) to stop him. She manages to get there in time, but the Volturi want to see her. Aro (Michael Sheen and the "head" vampire) is amazed to discover that Bella is immune to their vampire powers of mind reading and pain inducing and decides not to kill her as she can be useful later when they are assured that she will be turned into a vampire by the Cullen's.
I know that most people loved this movie, and I did thing it was pretty good, but not great. It's not that I don't like the romance, but it was a bit over the top. Don't get me wrong, this 40 something body is still housing a 17 year old mind and I still remember what it was like to be devastated by a failed romance that was supposed to last FOREVER!!!! But come on! I did like the parts with the werewolves but thought that there wasn't enough of that action. I was also looking forward to the part where Jane (Dakota) and the Volturi interact with Edward and Bella, but this part was much more interesting in the book. Dakota Fanning's Jane did not have nearly the impact and presence that she had in the book, the part was very small here. I thought that Kristin Stewart's acting was pretty bad and exaggerated but Michael Sheen's too brief portrayal of Aro was great. The best part was that when Jacob pulled off his shirt to dab the tablespoon of blood on Bella's forehead after her motorcycle accident, there was an audible gasp in the theater by ladies of all ages quickly followed by groaning by the men. Hilarious! The forest scenes in the movie were beautifully photographed.
130 Minutes. Rated PG13. I give this movie THREE STARS.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment