Well guys, you know it's coming. So let's get it out of the
way.
The Twilight Saga.
It's like Marmite. You either love it or hate it. I hate
Marmite. But do I hate Twilight? I have spent last week sitting though the five
films that make up these saga.
You all know the story.
Written by Stephanie Meyer, it is the story of Bella Swan, a
girl who has 'felt' different. When her mother decides to chuff along with her
new husband, Bella makes the choice to go to Forks to live with her father,
Charlie. At her new school, she is told of a family called the Cullens, and
takes particular note of Edward Cullen. Though they don't get along at first,
Bella is bemused by this guy, who saves her from being crushed by a van and
actually almost throws up at the sight of her. Bella researches the internet to
discover the truth and figures out that Edward is a vampire. Eventually the two
fall in love (somehow), and thus begins the journey that will change Bella
forever......
Needless to say, the series has become a source of greatness
or destruction. From Mormon beliefs incorporated, to the talked about abuse
Bella puts up with from Edward. From the introduction of werewolves in the
series, to the probable infamy of 'imprinting'. And from living with the love
of her life forever, to being hated for being a poor role model for girls and
women alike.
So what is it about these films that are praised and reviled
at the same time? What are the main questions brought up from the series that I
had discoverd? And why hasn't someone turned Justin Bieber so that we at least
HAVE an excuse to beat the shit out of him?....Oh sorry, that's my personal
problem. Yes, personal problem. ......fucking bieber.
So today, I will do a 500 word review for each film and ask
some big questions later that arose when watching these films. Some of them
most definitely will be quite buggy to ask.
Two things before I start:
One: I have only focused on the films for this article, as
going through the books will have taken too long and frankly would have been
psychologically damaging to my brain. As if it might not be to others already.
Two: There are definite spoilers here of plot development,
so sorry for those who haven't seen it......actually, you could count
yourselves lucky you haven't seen it! But if you fancy it spoiled, good for
you.
Here we go, to the place where we all suffer......Forks.
Missing words: TO DEATH
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TWILIGHT:
The first film begins with.....well what I've mentioned
above to be fair. The story begins with Bella Swan's move to Forks, shifting in
with her dad Charlie Swan. At her new school, she makes new "friends"
(I say friends in quotations because they eventually become second grade
citizens in her mind), and is told about the Cullens, in particular Edward
Cullen. The two of them meet and after he saves her from an oncoming van, she
eventually discovers he is a vampire. The two fall in love overtime, but that
is threatened by a tracker vampire James, during a game of baseball. Bella is
taken back to Phoenix, where she confronts James, but Edward and the Cullen
clan save her from death. At the end of year, Bella makes a choice: become a
vampire.
Sooooo, what is the first film like?
The story to me is difficult to talk about. Where can I
start? It's an odd story. Not bad, but off-putting I know it has vampires to
make it weird, but maybe the film didn't intrigue me so much as others.
Maybe what threw me off were the characters. I have a belief
that the characters are the driving force of a plot. If the characters fail,
the audience is pissed. The main characters themselves are odd, in their
mindsets to say the least. There are silly moments like when Edward tells her
that she didn't know the vile things that the rapists were thinking, but she
did say 'Don't touch me' to them beforehand (This, I'll come back to later).
The same goes with Jacob at the beach when his friends said the Cullens don't
come to the beach.
Speaking of friends, the side characters are bit in between.
Bella's lot at school do bug me a little, especially Eric Yorkie. He is a
creepy fuck. But I do like the Cullens to a point. Alice and Jasper are ok,
Carlisle and Esme are good. Rosalie...erm....Moving on! James the Tracker (he
had fame, money and all that you know) was alright too, he didn't bother me so
much.
I suppose one thing I did like was the acting, to a point.
Some of the actors were good casting for their roles. Kirsten Stewart....no. In
her first outing as Bella, she wasn't great. The delivery was average, but she
could sort of get away with the desperation near the end. Robert Pattison, on
the other hand, wasn't bad at all as Edward. He seemed to capture the guy
pretty effortlessly, but there were a few moments where I thought he was just a
little bit creepy with his facial expressions. The actors in the smaller roles
did a better job than the main attraction I thought despite the characters
being odd as they are.
One part I did like at first was the way it was the
mise-en-scene, and the use of the dark and light contrasting colours with each
other. I didn't feel distracted by it at all and made some scenes more
interesting. But I think it didn't work to its full extent, like it could've
made most of the human characters perhaps more colour in their faces, and Bella
more pale so you can see a contrast. But nope.
Twilight then, is ok. Not great, just ok. It's an average
start to the series which might be a bad thing. It's one of those films you
either love or hate. Hate is the more stronger word. It could've been better,
but it's certainly could've been worse.
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NEW MOON:
In the next instalment, after an incident at Bella's 18th
birthday party, Edward doesn't want to risk her life anymore and the Cullens
leave for Forks. This goes.....pretty badly wrong. Bella falls into a deep
depression, raised out by her desire to get his attention and thanks to her old
friend, Jacob Black. She starts to develop some feelings for him, but
ultimately thinks Edward is the better man for her. She goes cliff-diving and
nearly drowns, prompting Alice to tell her that Edward is going to the Volturi
to provoke them in killing him. The two fly to Italy where Bella manages to
save Edward and they get back together. At the end, Bella asks him to turn her.
Edward asks for one thing: Marriage.....oh, and Jacob is a werewolf. Just
thought I'd throw it in.
This is the one film I had originally HATED with a passion
after watching it the first time. Watching it last week, I still hate it to a
point. There are some bits I like, but few and far in between.
Let's try and think about the good bits. When we come to
finally meet the Volturi in person, I liked Michael Sheen's kind of subdued
childish performance as Aro, Head of the Volturi. And Dakota Fanning was pretty
good as Jane, despite her lack of appearance.
And admittedly, the werewolves weren't so bad either. Sam Uley
and his wolf pack weren't terrible, but I don't remember them so well to care
about them. With Jacob becoming more of a main character in this film, his
story is pretty good in theory. On the screen, I did come close to understand
what he was going through from his point of view, but he does become a bit of a
dick because he uses the treaty as an excuse to protect Bella.
Talking about the visual aesthetics. The film has become
more darker then the first one, with the contrast in colour more noticeable. I didn't
like it at first because I thought it would be nicer if all the films had the
same lighting as the first one, to give it some unique nature. But on
subsequent viewings it's not bad as I think about it now. It does match the
darker side of the Twilight mythos and probably matching Bella's emotions
maybe.
Now onto the bad things about the movie. Unsurprising to
some, Bella is there. But we'll come back to this later.
Little bits like Harry Clearwater were pointless because he
really didn't do anything for the plot, just cover up footprints for the
family. Essentially cannon fodder. And there is Jacob and Bella's conversation
on the beach, Bella calling Jacob out for killing someone when the Cullens
haven't done. Which is bullshit where one person is concerned, as we'll see. She also wonders if he can stop being a
werewolf.....that confused me a little. Why does she want him to stop?
The acting too has suffered a little bit. Stewart's acting
here hasn't improved much. Her delivery is still pretty bad, but it's a little
bit better than in the first film. Taylor Lautner is not bad as Jacob, but
there's a lot to be desired. He does do a good job of being subtly emotional in
the first half of the film, but it does go downhill after he cuts his hair and
it just feels a bit off when he makes the actual change to being a werewolf. I
can't comment on Pattison's job too much because he appears sporadically, but
he still does a good job as Edward.
New Moon is a bad continuation, but in my mind now it has
put itself on the same level as Twilight. I will come to the major issue I have
had with this film in due course. The acting is substandard, the characters not
bad, but not brilliant. I suppose it's worse crime is that it didn't make me
care more than it should've done.
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ECLIPSE:
Bella is caught between a poor man's emo and a poor man's
Wolverine, but has another problem: Victoria is out for revenge. She's creating
an army of newborn vampires with new mate Riley to take down Bella and the rest
of the Cullens for James's destruction at their hands. So the Cullens make an
uneasy alliance with the Wolf Pack to defeat the newborns. In the meantime,
Bella slowly comes to terms with the point that she is in love with Jacob, but
she chooses Edward over him still. Eventually, the armies clash and the
newborns are defeated very thoroughly. The Volturi Guard come at the end to
oversee matters, and kill Bree Tanner, the remaining survivor. At the end,
Edward and Bella become engaged and need to tell Charlie about it.
Honestly at first, I thought this was the best of the films
on first viewing. But watching it the second time and talking about it, it's
around the same level as the first two.
The action isn't half bad to be fair in the fight scene
between the newborns and the vampire/werewolf alliance. And it's quite brutal
with almost all the newborns wiped out (which does beg the question if the
newborns are strong in their first year, shouldn't they have been a match at
least, even with Jasper's experience and training?). And they are moments
between Victoria and Edward that are interesting, especially him possibly
taunting her with James's death.
And this was the film where one of the characters actually
shined through to take my interest, even if it was for a good few minutes. HER
I will come to later on to discuss my favourite character from watching the
films.
Acting wise, I don't think Stewart made that much of an
impression AGAIN. Three out of five so far! Robert Pattison and Taylor
Lautner's acting were ok, though I wonder whether they could've put a little
more into the little cock-fight they had in the tent. Bryce Dallas Howard
playing Victoria was a good choice. She put herself on as at least a credible
threat to the family, and was generally believable a lot of the time. On par
with Rachelle Lafevre I reckon.
But there are moments that just make you go: what?. For
instance there are some bits of dialogue that won't make any sense unless you
know your history, like Bella saying she's Switzerland. I wonder how many
people the films are aimed at know their history in knowing the countries that
were neutral in the First and Second World Wars.
And the love triangle between the three fools could have
been better done I suppose. I feel as if it could've come across as so much
better and more conflicted then what was actually shown. I don't remember a
point where Bella could be struggling with her actual emotions for Jacob, as
well as figuring out why she loves Edward as well. Those type of questions
could have made for better storytelling, but alas this is what we have.
And Bree Tanner was kind of pointless as well. I had
originally read that the actress was given 'The Second Life of Bree Tanner' as
inspiration, but the character wasn't focused on much in the whole film. So
that was my expectations shot down.
Despite those little niggles, Eclipse is better to some
extent with delving into the backstories of certain characters and some good
acting, but not by much. For what it's worth, it has its moments of glory. But
there are points that brought it down to being just on par with the first two
films. It's one of those films that could have been better, but sadly not.
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BREAKING DAWN: PART 1
The day of Edward and Bella's wedding arrives, and
everything goes without a hitch (even though the night on his stag do, Edward
tells her that he killed before. Why didn't he say so at the beginning?). At
the reception, Jacob arrives and is shocked at the idea of Bella's turning
after they made love. He leaves in a huff, and the Mr and Mrs Cullen (urgh) go
to Rio de Janeiro for their honeymoon. Not without its problems with the many
bruises and jumping into the water many times, Bella is shocked to find that
she is pregnant (which is impossible, but never explained why). They fly back
to Forks, and the pregnancy speeds up to balloon up Bella and she gives birth
soon after, but at the cost of her own life. (Yay!) But thanks to Edward's
venom and biting her many times, Bella's wish comes true (aww). She becomes a
vampire. ......oh and Jacob imprints on the baby, Renesmee, but that's not
important much.........right?
First feelings after watching this was thinking this was the
second worst, after New Moon. On second viewing......
There are a few plot points that do need to be addressed.
Firstly, Bella's pregnancy. She says it's impossible for her to get pregnant but
low and behold. Reading back the notes I made for the films, there hasn't been
one mention of this being an impossibility, not one single line of dialogue. If
there was an explanation in the books, why was it not brought forward? Also I
made note of the fact that the baby drinks blood, and that helps Bella feel
better, and I do wonder if someone would've figured that out beforehand. Edward
is a vampire after all. Vampires drink blood. Duh. The imprinting I will cover
later on.
The acting has gotten better as the actors continue to grow
with the characters. Kirsten Stewart improves slightly and becomes alright.
Just alright, not brilliant. Pattison's ok as ever as Edward. He does nail some
of the emotions, but not all. I would've liked him to be a bit more serious
with his killings in the past, as opposed to being a distant memory. But it's
not bad. Lautner was good in this film. His crying at Bella's death was pretty
spot on and his reaction to his imprinting was impressive. Everyone else was
pretty good in their roles, so nothing much has changed in respects.
But what REALLY bugged me was the CGI baby Renesmee. No
doubt about it, you could tell it was a fake and not a believable thing to see.
Though it might have been funny to learn that upon learning Breaking Dawn
auditions had opened, babies around the world would've downright refused to
act. It is the Twilight Saga after all, they need some dignity ahead of their
lives.
There's not much action to speak of really, the film is
really just character development to the last film, building up to the
crescendo. We see how Bella's choices have affected her body to the point of
death by holding the child inside that will kill her eventually, and how she
sticks with her decision regardless what everyone (apart from Rosalie, and
eventually Edward) thinks. Cramming a good chunk from the book can work against
you, but the pacing wasn't off-putting. Everything goes fast, but the ending
point was a good point, as Bella opens her eyes.
The Volturi do make cameo appearances at the beginning and
the end of the film, and were at least enjoyable to watch though they were
small, Michael Sheen obviously making do with what he can. Unfortunately I
don't think it's enough to save the film from going over well.
Breaking Dawn: Part One is again on par with the other
films, despite being the penultimate film. This was a film that was meant to
raise the stakes. Instead perhaps, it tried to raise the stakes and failed.
There were some bits that made for interesting viewing like the acting, but the
plot points and that....CGI abomination (I know it's a baby, but....my god)
really can be distracting. With only character bits to go on, it's not worth
the viewing again.
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BREAKING DAWN PART 2:
Bella awakens from her slumber and starts doing vampire
stuff: hunting for animal blood, running fast, and attempting to beat the shit
out of Jacob for imprinting on Renesmee. For once, life is peaceful (?) and she
is happy on turning her back on humanity, saying she was born to be a
vampire.....that is until Renesmee grows up and is discovered by the Cullen's
cousin, Irina, and assumed to be an Immortal Child, a taboo in the vampire
world because they are uncontrollable throughout time. The family gather
witnesses to defend against the Volturi's 'proof' and meet one another on an
snow covered field. After Irina is killed and a fake out battle by Alice's
vision, the child is proved to be of no consequence. At the end of it all,
Bella and Edward have their perfect piece of forever, sitting in a field and
having all the time in the world.........until Blade arrives (hopefully).
From the start, the finale does have a bit of promise. We
see Bella's first reactions to seeing all the little details on vases,
bookcases etc. Then she talked. And it gets a bit hilarious from there. From
still very bad CGI babies, to unintentional funny deliveries of lines, to very
poor relatability, Breaking Dawn Part 2 does have an accidental edge of comedy
underlining it.
Stewart's performance is....you guessed it, the same.
Although her delivery of the line, "YOU NICKNAMED MY DAUGHTER AFTER THE
LOCH NESS MONSTER?" is pretty hilarious. Always gets a smile on my face.
Pattison does bring a bit more emotions to Edward, from glee at Jacob having
the shit beaten out of him, to shock at Carlisle being "killed". It
made me notice him a lot more and cared a little then perhaps mostly throughout
the series in the first place. Lautner didn't really do much in this movie, and
perhaps because of that the acting does suffer. I suppose because his own story
is complete, there isn't much to do, especially how his arc ended
controversially.
One of the characters I was sort of drawn to was Garrett,
played by elf king Lee Pace. He was slightly enjoyable in the role and had a
sense of cockiness about him that is likeable, though he is kind of a
Anglophobic. So we couldn't be friends. Boo.
The final action piece, the huge battle between the Cullen
Friends United and the Volturi, can be a proper slap in the face because it
DIDN'T HAPPEN. It can be sort of got away with because it's Alice has the
vision to show Aro his future. But still the battle is pulled off quite well,
that I've can see it before my eyes as I'm writing this. And if the pay-off is that
the battle doesn't happen, it's very insulting to the audience. It's like a
dream sequence that show every you just watched in a film was not real, and
everything's sorted already. It's stupid and not very good storytelling.
Breaking Dawn Part 2 is then a comical insult as a film
series finale, but also average at the same time. A finale needs to bring lots
of threads to an end that feel not poor, not satisfactory, but when you can say
"that was fucking awesome!" Part 2 fails to do that, having an ending
that feels ok. If at the end of a 5-film series, this long journey, and you
can't think of anything good to say, then what does that say about the film as
a whole in your mind? All the bad points overwhelm the film, not allowing me to
care enough for the ending as a whole. It's not on par with the four films, but
below it. That in itself, surely, is a bad sign.
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That's my rant on the Twilight films altogether, showing in
my mind to be just an average series of films.
So let's rant about the main three characters, and the
problems raised with them all the mile, as well as talking about one character
that has become a near favourite of mine when watching the series.
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Bella Swan:
Who better to start with? Bella is our hero (ahem not much)
and the series is about her own personal journey of not only becoming a
vampire, but staying with her true love forever and ever. But however, LOTS of
people really think she is a boring, selfish person with no real personality, a
real waste of space and a bad role model to boot. And what I think of the
character?
A load. A fucking load. BUT! Not as so super manically
psychopathic as I see her. Just manically psychopathic. What do I mean by that?
There are some traits I do need to question about the character overall.
I have heard and read that she never fights for herself and
is always leaving stuff up to everyone else. However, in Twilight she does actually punch one of the would-be rapists away
when they came near her. She wasn't expecting Edward to come out of the blue
and save her ass. And maybe later on when she sprays James with the pepper
spray. Yes she's running away after that, but at least she's attempting to use
her brain (what little matter there is in that head). Another point in this
is.....she is in a world of vampires and werewolves. And she was easily broken
by James. Humans are owned very much in the story a number of times, until they
turn into vampires or other such creatures. And in Eclipse, does it look as if
she could take on Victoria and come out the victor? I don't think so, argument
invalid.
But that's probably the only real defence I can think of for
her.
In attacking her, they are a few points that do need to be
brought up.
At the end of Eclipse, she talks about how she's never been
normal, always stumbling through her life and never had that feeling of being
normal ever. Ever since she's entered that new world, she has come face to face
with death (and never been killed to people's sorrow), loss, and pain. But she
has never felt stronger and more real to herself, because she feels it where
she belongs now.
This little speech bugged me at first when watching the
film. I didn't fully understand what she
saying. Now I think I get what she means: She believes that she belongs in a
supernatural world because she feels she has become a better person because of
it after facing a great multitude of challenges. She has somewhere where she
can truly be comfortable with. .....I'm on the fence about this for the minute.
When watching Twilight, New Moon and
Eclipse, I didn't really get much of a feeling she had become a stronger
person because of the events that happened. Maybe it's because she hadn't
really learned anything from being in those situations, like in New Moon when
she continuously put herself in danger so she can hear Edward in her mind. Because
of coincidence with the tidal wave and Alice's visions, they manage to get back
together at Volterra. I guess I feel as if I don't fully understand what she's
learned. If that's a bad sign for a film I don't know what is.
Speaking of New Moon, there is another point that needs
bringing up: Bella's break-up with Edward. She's built Edward around her life
at that moment, and falls into a deep depression when he breaks up with her. I
will not deny that break ups with someone you truly love can be hard and bring
you down a notch. But Bella.....Bella sticks around in her mood for a good few
months. Many people have cited that this is not normal behaviour for a
break-up. I don't know fully the average time it does take for someone to move
on from a relationship break-up, but I also don't know if four months is
exactly the right point, especially when you decide you want to be with that
person forever and stay in that supernatural world as well. Seems a bit
obsessive to me.
That's probably the main reason why people hate her with a
passion: She's made her life around this one man that makes her world go around
(somehow) and with her stubborn nature she pushes her way into this world, not
wanting to come away from it, because she thinks it's where she belongs, with
Edward. What she wants, she'll have.
Finally in Breaking Dawn Part 2, we hear her say she has
never felt more alive being a vampire and thinks that she was always destined
to become one. She takes pleasure at being something different, cracking more
smiles in that film then she ever has in the other four films overall, has more
control over her senses (even though she's a newborn)and able to defeat Emmet
in an arm contest. So are we meant to interpret her human life as utterly
boring compared to the life of being a vampire? Well....possibly. Her life
could be intended to be shown as lifeless and dull, and more weird than it
needed to be.
Let's look at the so called "Friends" she makes at
school. The friends she makes take an immediate interest in her (especially
Eric Yorke. Creepy fucker), and probably help to make her feel very
uncomfortable in her environment. In the first few minutes, Eric leaps on her,
Mike and Jessica know her name on first meeting and Angela takes a photo of her
upon seeing her. Yeah, I'd be scared too. These guys GIVE her an excuse not to
be human at all because they're all over her in the first place.
Her father Charlie doesn't really make her life anymore
interesting, nothing I can really remember from the films about the commitments
he made to make her life a little more better or such. But he still had his
moments where he does truly give a crap about what Bella is actually doing with
her life. He wants to be there for his
daughter, except Bella can't allow him to because she gets herself into
problems that she can't get herself out of, like the pregnancy. Maybe Bella
sees their relationship in the first film as repetitive (going to the same
restaurant) and boring. With Edward, she sees a new life of freedom and love.
If that makes any sense. But that's never really mentioned or hinted at in the
films, just the idea of being with Edward. Yay.
Bella Swan's character can be summed up in one word:
Nutcase. She is pretty much just that, someone who makes the point of cutting
off all ties with her boring life and builds a new life around the man she
loves (?), eager to have herself turned at the drop of a hat. She isn't a good
role model for the audience at all, if she turns her back on what she calls a
miserable life for one person who makes her whole (I will come to this soon,
don't worry). Yes, she does have her moments of fighting back and being
marginally clever, but most of that is overwhelmed by her sense of desire. She is a poorly driven character with no sense
of proper self until she gets what she wants, an obsessive child. That's what
she is, a child. Nothing else. What a load.
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Edward Cullen:
Edward is the male protagonist of the series. Always trying
to convince Bella to remain human and protecting her from all sorts of danger:
vampires, werewolves, Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris etc. Eventually he does turn
her into a vampire in the end, and spends the rest of his life with forever and
forever and forever.....until he kills her. For breaking his heart with some
guy called Rupert Sanders.....honest! But like Little Miss Succubus above, he
has received a number of criticisms for being an abusive character, overbearing
and boring. So Edward is an...odd character
from the look of things.
One of the attentive bits of creepiness he achieves come in Twilight, where he reveals to Bella that
he likes to watch her sleep, and has been doing so for the past couple of months,
because it fascinates him. Many people have pointed out that this could be
attributed to stalker like behaviour. And yes it can be unnerving to hear that
someone you like has a habit of coming into your room. I do have the feeling
that it is creepy. You may remember the sequence where she wakes up and sees
him standing just a few feet away before she turns the light on and then he's
not there. Yeah, doesn't that scream charming to you? He might be doing it
because of his overwhelming attraction to her scent, but that's more likely to
lust more than actual fascination.
Speaking of scents, one thing that did bug me again was
Edward's overwhelming attraction to her blood (note to self, don't put fans in
rooms where blood might be smelled). He says while in the mountains that he has
never been so attracted to a human's blood before, and her blood is like heroin
to him. Yes, he made a comparison with heroin. I ask the question: Why Bella
specifically? Why not anyone else? He's been with Carlisle for many years and
has trained himself to not be attracted to human blood, so why does Bella's blood
smell so alluring? It's never explained. At least in the films.
In the Twilight wiki (yes it exists), "singers"
are explained that each human has their own individual taste and smell, and
those smells can be more then appealing to one specific vampire. It makes them
go crazy. Now that's left me really confused. I've never heard of a case where
vampires have an overwhelming desire for one specific human, just for all
humanity. Maybe this was just meant to be an explanation for Edward and that
would make a lot of sense. But I'm not entirely sure of this whole idea that
vampires have "singers" that are more appartising, it just doesn't
flow right to me. It's like drinking coke I guess, it still tastes the same
anyway. Unless someone modified to taste absolutely divine.
Another part of his charming personality is his overprotective
nature for Bella. He stops her from doing something he thinks will compromise
her safety, like leaving her in New Moon,
stopping her from seeing Jacob in Eclipse,
and also wants to kill the growing Renesmee in Bella's womb for breaking his
precious little human into pieces. Let's look into this.
He leaves Bella in New Moon to protect her from himself and
his world because it is dangerous by lying to her that he doesn't love her. He thinks
he's doing the right thing for her. And to an extent, it is kind of successful.
Yes, the vampires leave town and don't make contact with her until Alice sees
Bella almost killing herself accidently. And also he didn't exactly take into
account Bella's obsessive behaviour with trying to keep some reminder of him in
his head. So in one way, this is a case of him doing the wrong thing to protect
her. By lying to her, it doesn't push her away. It does the opposite, pushing
her to find a way to keep him in her head.
Another example of him doing the wrong thing is when Bella
tries to go see Jacob of her own accord,
to patch things up with him. However when trying to start her truck, Edward
appears and explains that the werewolves may harm her. Bella however knows that
the pack would not do such a thing, especially Jacob. Eventually, Edward
relents and tolerates her visits to them. Along with the fear against the pack,
It might be understandable why he's trying to do: Jacob is in love with Bella
after all. Everyone knows that, even the cat knows it. And she doesn't give two
fucks. This picture shows how much she cares.
And after Jacob forcibly kisses her, Edward is rightfully
pissed. Bella is his. So perhaps his paranoia isn't without explanation. Also
Bella did say she would always choose Edward, and Edward could've read Jacob's
mind at the time. So yeah, one point for each side.
And finally we come to his decision to kill the child
growing inside Bella that will become Renesmee. I'm not sure I fully understand
what's going on in his head, but I can guess that because he's a vampire, he's
fearful that the baby inside will damage and eventually kill her, leaving him
all emo and depressed again
(sooo...shouldn't he have known that vampire babies
can drink blood before they figured it out?).
Now that would make sense because
the baby is obviously a vampire as well. So again, his fears are rational. But
Bella somehow feels a connection and refuses to kill it. Later on after Bella
has tasted blood and feeling better, Edward can read the baby's thoughts and
realises that it adores both of them. So he loses all sense of hatred for this
baby and loves it back. Not entirely sure how a baby can do that, but let's
just suspend whatever disbelief we have left (if any). So maybe again it's
understandable where he's coming from, but there might be a fine line. He wants
to kill it because it would take her down, but it's still a baby. Like any
baby, it needs to feed and love and attention (and blood). Such a difficult
stance to take.
One final thing I will make note is the possibility of his
and Bella's relationship being abusive. In Breaking
Dawn Part 1, Edward tries to make Bella look at the results of their
love-making with bruises all over her. Amongst this point are a few others
leading some people to conclude that Edward is an abusive character towards
her. In the films, I'm not entirely sure I got that argument. Don't get me
wrong there are moments where I thought he's a dick and didn't need to do
everything for her, but there are some moments where I do think he isn't as bad
as people make him out to be. Perhaps what he needs is a good slap every now
and then.
Edward is a difficult character to talk about. When it comes
down to it, he perhaps should have a little more guidance in what he's doing,
rather than being let out of the house so often. He tries doing things
completely the wrong way and doesn't really get punished for it from Carlisle
or anyone else, and he's certainly not the perfect guy for anyone to fall in
love in with, especially if he watches you sleep. And maybe they shouldn't turn
people at the age of 17 as well as kids. They obviously don't know what they're
doing. So this guy might be a good reason to stay single, if you come across
anyone like him.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacob Black:
The second male protagonist of the series, Jacob has a small
role in the first film. He gives Bella information about the Quileutes and says
his dad brings word: There'll be watching (when it's probably more him than
most). In the next three films, he develops an budding friendship and unrequited
love for Bella, which isn't fully returned. But his love for her disappears
when he imprints on her daughter Renesmee, bringing his story to.....a happy
conclusion? His character is a bit of a
stick in the mud, moping over Bella every few seconds and is a bit of a dick at
times.
His story arc begins in New Moon where his feelings for
Bella develop further as she uses him to hear Edward in her head, turning into
full blown love that doesn't go anywhere in the series. No matter what he does
to convince her that Edward's a dick, she still sticks to her guns and remains
with her vampire stalker fancy.
At times though, he does come across as a dick to me. It's
when he keeps mentioning the treaty a number of times to Edward, threatening
him if he bites the one he loves, the truce between Cullens and the Quileutes
is over. When seeing that onscreen, I believed he's simply using the truce as
an excuse to make sure he has a chance to be with Bella. And even if Bella
tells him it's none of his business and it's her choice, he's still insistent
that he won't let her become one of them. The problem here is that Jacob's
obviously masking his own motives so he tries to not be seen as the bad guy,
and passing off Edward as the evil man. But everyone to an extent sees through
his plan and it does backfire everytime.
The Alpha Male thing
was a little bit interesting. Though touched upon lightly and wasn't much of an
journey for him (he only broke away from the pack because they would kill
Bella), it would've been a little more interesting if that was looked at more,
and maybe elaborate further why he chose not to be Alpha since his grandfather
was alpha of the pack to start with. But sadly, we're given the what of the
situation, but no why it happened. The 'why' is important for any character, it
allows us to maybe relate to them better and perhaps put us in their shoes.
Without the why, we're left with bones, not flesh. If you get what I mean.
And now we come to the most obvious point in Jacob's life:
his imprinting on Renesmee. And there are a few issues that arise from this.
Firstly, the two instantly connect with each other (while she's a baby) and in
Alice's vision, they'll develop a future relationship together as she grows to
full term adult. Now you might be asking, and I'm asking myself: eh? What is
this strange devilry delivered at our doorstep? I have one theory that this
might have been an attempt to give Jacob some sense of a happy ending and
explaining how their relationship from brotherly love to romantic love.
But...it's still weird thinking about it. This is all Stephanie Meyer's fault
in fairness, using the excuse that it's involuntary to do so to your soul-mate.
Maybe it would've made more sense if she reached full term and then he
imprinted. But the fact it's done to a baby, knowing you might develop romantic
feelings for the child in future, it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable. Secondly,
what throws me off is the fact that Jacob and Bella are brought together more
so by a connection, when in fact it was Renesmee unborn and Jacob that were
drawn together. He explains later in Breaking
Dawn Part 2 that him and Bella never made sense, but now it does: Renesmee
was the reason. I think my brain just blew up.
So Jacob was attracted to Bella, but it didn't make any
sense for him until Renesmee was born. His destiny was to be with Renesmee
through Bella? first thoughts: kind of weird again. Is Jacob basically Meyer's
fuck puppet? This was not in anyway
talked about EVER in the series at all. I'd always assumed that Jacob had
developed some kind of attraction for Bella, not for her kid (wouldn't he be
more likely to go for Edward? His testicles would have more than likely
contained a sperm Renesmee somewhere). I might've missed something here
completely, but until I get further confirmation or correction on whether he
was drawn to the child in the womb, or was drawn to her in the whole
series...........I'm more inclined to go for the former because it makes a
little more sense, but still makes it weird.
Jacob is an even more odd character in the series. He
doesn't really do much in the series that doesn't involve being around Bella
and Edward, moping about their relationship, using treaties for his own issues
and imprinting on random babies for a happy ending. Perhaps he was more
developed just for the sake of more drama to occur in the series when really it
was not needed past New Moon, and the
fact that he gets a happy ending in the shape of imprinting.....it's just
weird. I wouldn't go as far to say he is a pointless character (Harry
Clearwater always felt pointless as you might tell), but he just throws me off
as an total idiot.
--------------------------------------------------
My favourite character:
Believe it or not, I did develop somewhat of a liking for
one or two people in the series. One of which recently has been Carlisle
because he's probably the only one who at least shows a modicum of
intelligence, or whatever intelligence he's been given. He probably should've
realised that vampires still drink blood with Bella's pregnancy in tow so that
might knock him down a bit. But...ever since I watched Eclipse, one character
has stayed properly in my head that made me think at first: My god, you're
awesome.
Yep, It's Rosalie Hale. Why?
Her Backstory. It's a sort of reminder of The Bride's
revenge story from Kill Bill. She had
a fiance, Royce King II, whom on one fateful night bragged about her beauty
while drunk. Despite her rejections, he continued further and groped her
against her will, eventually raping her along with many of his friends and
leaving her for dead in the streets. After her turning, she took her revenge on
all of them, saving Royce for last and donning a bridal gown to be theatrical
(makes sense if you think about it. Now married to Emmet, she hates her vampire
status and wishes to be human again, have the opportunity to grow old with him,
being surrounded by their grandchildren and not be stuck in time. The first
time I heard this backstory of her life and desire to become human again, she
grew on me so much more then Bella did throughout the first two films. She
would've made a better main character than Bella would have done in the first
place. In fact, I'd even go as far as saying Twilight should have been THAT backstory. She's a more sympathetic, and complex
character than Bella any-day.
As well as that, her desire to be human again leaves her at
odds with Bella, believing she is disrespectful of her choosing immortality for
the wrong reasons (which is probably true, Bella is a twit) and voting no for
her to become a vampire because it's not a life she'd choose for herself. She
believed she had a perfect life, in love with a man she thought cared about
her. In that, I do feel sympathetic towards her for losing her life when it was
bliss, such a rude awakening to go through. If she was to be human again, I
would've taken an interest in looking at that story more than this whole saga.
Admittedly, she does defend Bella's decision to have the
child instead of listening to everyone's idea of an abortion, apparently due to
her being unlucky not to have a family. It does make sense, considering she
could imagine grandchildren being around her, though she wouldn't be the
mother. Renesmee becomes a kind of surrogate child for Rosalie to an extent.
Despite it being a little bit overbearing, it does give her some development.
Secondly the actress that plays her, Nikki Reed, does a
pretty decent job playing her (with the addition of looking hot, but that's
just a little personal like). Some of her delivery was pretty good throughout
the series and the expressions she does do match up with the character to make
her at least believable. Granted some of it isn't always spot on, like she says
some lines that sound as if she's bored (no offense), but nonetheless she does
a pretty good job overall.
Also, she had
probably the best joke in the entire series: Giving Jacob a doggy bowl. That
just cracked me up, I was nearly on the floor. It might've been a bad joke, but
it was her way of being snarky to Jacob. She just oozes sarcasm and nastiness.
Those are some of the reasonS why Rosalie is close to, in my
mind at least, being the best character in the series, despite the lack of
screen-time. She is a breath of fresh air on screen from the mind-numbing of
Bella and Edward's relationship, giving us a good deal to look at and take some
proper interest in. If she was ever in York at some point, I'd think I'd ask
her if she fancied a drink around town even though she's fictional.
For all the idiotical
things The Twilight Saga does have, I'm quite happy there is some things to genuinely
like in the film, whether they're badly delivered lines, Michael Sheen's
laughter, or even seeing Jasper in pain from being around humans. But over all
that, Rosalie is simply divine. My favourite character.
I don't care if spelling is an issue, SHE'S STILL AWESOME!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I would've been putting questions to anything wrong with
the series in general. But I think I pretty much covered everything that made
me feel confused, freaked out, angry, wanting to kill people in general etc.
But in the end I only have one question to ask:
Why, oh why, oh why, oh my fucking god WHY........are Bella
and Edward in love?
It's the first question I ever asked myself when watching the
first film, and it has bugged me for a while ever since. Why are these two
people in love, or better yet: HOW are these two people in love?
When I first watched the film and I heard Bella says I was
unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him, I was asking: why? Nowhere in
the film did they have a proper defining moment or conversation where you could
see on their faces that they properly like each other. It was moment, after
moment, after moment, after moment without any proper scenes to show how these
two know their destined to be together. Even watching the film twice for this
blog, I could not fanthom properly why and how these two sticks in the mud are
believable.
This is meant to be the gel that sticks with the whole film
series, to make a relationship believable with these two characters and
yet...is there really an answer as to how and why these two are in love?
Ok......let's start from the point where these two met to
where they 'fall' in love.
When Edward comes through the door, Bella almost instantly
finds him attractive. That's fair enough, I can believe that she think he's
looks awesome. But during that day in their class, Edward gives her the heebie-jeebies
(did I just say that?) and she wants to confront him about his behaviour, but
doesn't get a chance. It's only after he returns that they start to hit it off
(her convienantly forgetting to ask him what his deal is), and she starts telling
him about why she moved up. Then he saves her life from the van crushing her to
death, and then she wonders who the fuck is this guy.
When they chat again in the cafeteria, he says that its better
if they're weren't friends, not that he didn't want to be friends. So is he
trying to make friends, or is he just being an awkward fuck? Bella gets some
information from Jacob about cold one and finds a book in Port Angeles where
he's saved by him, and has dinner. There he explains that he feels very
protective of her (why?) and doesn't have the strength to stay away from her.
It's from this point she does her research and comes to the right conclusion
that he's a vampire.
And finally, they have their chat in the mountains. Edward explains
how Bella is weaker compared to him (AS IF YOU COULD OUTRUN ME!) and how her
smell had driven him crazy. Bella doesn't care (even if he's killed people!)
and says she's afraid of losing him, and it feels like he'll disappear. Then
they go to their favourite meadow and stare into each other's eyes.......urgh
my brain's turning to mush again.
The point where it turns first is probably when Edward
returns to school and is nicer to Bella this time around. Bella doesn't ask him
what his deal is after what happened first between them, instead just saying
'yeah' when he says her name. Neither does she properly follow it up.
Now...shouldn't she ask him anyway, especially after he's being all nice to her
now? Wouldn't that make you more suspicious to what he's like as a person if at
first he looks at you funny, then is like 'Oh hi sorry I didn't introduce
myself last week'. It's kind of weird not to isn't it?
In the same class, Edward asks why she moved up for the rain
and she explains that it's complicated, but explains that her mom remarried to
Phil. I don't know whether this is warranted or not because they are making
small talk. But this is the guy that made her want to confront him, yet she
felt the need to explain to him why she moved up. Logical. My thinking about
this is whether they are close enough friends for her to think talking about her
moving away from her mother. Answer: Nope, but in Twilight, anything goes!
Then we come to Edward saving her. It's understandable that
Bella wants answers for what happened, and isn't going to take his lies. So she
decides to find out for herself how the fuck he doing this....after a while of
course. Does Bella have a brain?
One thing that does bug me is when he says in the cafeteria
after that field trip: "It would be better if we weren't friends, I didn't
say I didn't want to be". Well then, he keeps coming over to her and
making conversation instead of doing the better thing. On the field trip, he
was being quite rude to her so maybe he was trying to protect her there, but
here...he's giving her some confused signals. Make up your mind Edward! Bella
seems to be bemused by him as a person. He's rude one minute, the next he's all
charm.
And again he saves her, this time from the rapists, and they
go have a meal together (because the police obviously have enough on their
plate without anymore attempted rapes to report, but whatever). He says he
feels very protective of her. I asked myself at first: why? Is it because of
her blood that he's not only protecting her from himself, and that sort of
expands to her getting into trouble and him coming to save her? Or does he feel
the need to do the 'right' thing to save a human's life? This is where it gets
confusing. I know I'm thinking this stuff myself, but even if he had a reason,
he still followed her unless she needed help. Isn't that stalker like, even
though it's helpful? Bella didn't know he was following her at all! Yet she
even says to him don't keep away from her when he says he doesn't have the strength
to do so anymore. Bella is not normal or even, dare I say, weird in an
acceptable manner.
So after all the research she does and figures out he's a
vampire, she doesn't run away. She embraces the fact and doesn't care about his
status, or what he's done, she accepts him for who he is, more intrigued with
him than ever. It's how he saved her. It doesn't explain why he saved her. But
she doesn't care, she's more concerned with losing him.
Now this is a point where I have thought is this the reason
why, because he's a vampire? If so, Bella's in for a run of her money. Yes, she
probably understands that's why he was weird to her at first, why he saved her
from the truck and the rapists etc. But remember, he did follow her and gave
her confusing signals, so I don't know if I myself, if I was Bella, would fall
in love with him. But all of that's good anyway for her!
Perhaps then that's the reason WHY, because Edward is a
vampire. From the moment she saw him, she was fascinated by him, and now she
knows the reason why he's done what he can do, why he was funny with her
firsthand, protect her (stalker), and makes his mind up that he can't stay away
from her. For Edward, killing her was an incentive but chose to hold himself
back. With the protection, it might have made sense before, but then he went
down kinky territory, following her from a distance, and he can't hold back
from her.
But I don't think these two are really in love with each
other. For one, Bella might be more in love with the idea of Edward. The
vampire thing is intriguing enough for her; she can feel protected (STALKER!)
and it might explain why at the end, she wants to be like him. She wants to be
a vampire because she enjoys that kind of lifestyle. Yes, I call it a lifestyle
choice (suck it Westboro Baptist Church). And she does get that at the end, she
becomes a vampire and basks in the glory of it. Edward on the other hand is a
bit of a creepy guy. He can't make his mind up whether he wants to protect her,
or be close to her due to his vampire nature. Perhaps it's more of a lustful
thing in his mind because ultimately they do come together. Such sad sad
fools......
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
And guys.....that is it. The Twilight Saga is over.
It's been a fascinating, confusing, brain-mashing, shitty
ride.
What can I say about the saga overall?
Honestly, the films themselves are pedantic, frustrating,
questionable and laughable. It started off as alright to just downright
incredible HORRORENDOUS. Bella Swan is unbelievably stupid to an inane point
where I just want her to DIE! Edward Cullen is a stalker who needs to DIE! And Jacob
needs a KICK UP THE ASS. There are some really nice parts of the film, there
really are. Rosalie is awesome, the colours used for the films are great in
some of them, and in a couple of films did genuinely give me something to laugh
about. But they are very far and few in between each film, which is pretty sad.
I know that the books might be just as awful, but these
films have nearly given me brain-damage enough. So I don't think I'm going near
the books for a very, very, VERY good while. Hopefully until I die.
I have nothing more to say about this series......ever,
ever, ever, ever......EVER AGAIN!
But for a couple of last words, I can say without fear or
problems:
FUCK TWILIGHT!!!
-----------------------------------
For last words, I am taking a break from The Randomizer for
a month throughout October. I feel as if I have spent a good chunk on it with
difficulty in finding what to talk about. For this time, I will be focusing on
my book writing and get that sorted as quickly as I can in the time I have. I'm
sorry if I will be disappointing many of you, but I need this time to recover
ground for myself, and be able to have some time to myself. Don't take this the
wrong way please. I still enjoy writing the subjects I have in mind, but there
comes a point where I just feel what can I write about? And I will return in
November. So don't fret my friends!
Until then, goodbye for now.
Love,
Si
