After seeing the trailer for this latest movie, my heart dropped; it sucked. It looked so commercialized and like pure fluff. I had low low expectations. My favorite of the franchise has always been the first; then, I enjoyed the darkness and bits and pieces of the cinematography in new moon; and pretty much felt indifferent towards Eclipse.
The movie now claims the third biggest midnight opening ever behind it's own New Moon and the last Harry Potter (Althought I haven't heard much mentioned about the inflated 3D prices included in the Deathly Hallows). It's also got the 5th biggest weekend ever. Some study also said that the audience was 60% 21 and older and 80% female. Damn. We can't blame it all on the tweens anymore. The few critic reviews I've read don't like this one very much. I'm trying to be objective here but it's hard to look at this movie as not being a fan. It's pretty simple though; if you don't like the twilight franchise, you're probably not going to like this movie. If you are a fan of the franchise, I don't see how you cannot like this movie.
Some, okay most, of the plotline is pretty far-fetched but somehow it's pulled off in this movie. There was almost zero parts of this movie that were un-deliberately funny (except for the worst scene in the history of movies, i.e. the wolf pack scene with voice changers). The writing was smart and the characters finally matured into themselves. There was valuable screen time given to all the characters without feeling forced. I especially enjoyed how the editing didn't just cut from scene to scene in a linear fashion but took a roundabout unique approach, like when Bella was remembering her honeymoon night spliced with little flashback scenes or when a revolving camera shot showed both of their vows cut together. It was just these little choices that were my favorite. I also loved the editing at the end. It was just spot on.
The cgi emaciation effects in the movie were stellar and such a great enhancement to the movie in my opinion. The second half of the movie really did feel like a separate movie but somehow flowed naturally from the first half. There was some natural humor thrown in the movie as well which was refreshing.
The three main actors did surprisingly great. I'm not surprised because I doubted their abilities, rather because the previous movies hadn't devoted much time to their character development instead losing out to plot development. I've heard a lot of people say that finally Kristen Stewart is smiling, but this is the first time her character has been truly free to be happy. In the previous movies there's always been this elephant in the room preventing her character's happiness that has been almost eradicated in this one. Ok, well in the end I really enjoyed this movie because of all the smart decisions made therein. The movie didn't just go along in a linear fashion making sure to hit the major plot points (i.e. Eclipse), it actually took time to establish tone and create a mood for the scenes. While I've always enjoyed the stylized cinematography employed by Catherine Hardwicke, this movie was filmed beautifully and each shot was well thought out.
It almost feels like there won't be a need for a Part 2, however I now have faith in Bill Condon that Part 2 will make as much sense as Part 1.
So there it is, a horribly biased look at the movie. Though, it doesn't much matter. If you're not a fan, you won't see it and if you are a fan, you've already seen it. "Childhood is not from birth to a certain age. At a certain age the child is grown and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies" -- Breaking Dawn pt. 1.
