“Huh. Another movie today with my name (Dawn) in the title. I was kinda tempted to skip this write up so I wouldnt hafta admit that I saw this. But for what its worth, I snuck in, and I have never felt less remorse for doing so.
While I am a fan of vampires, I am not a fan of Twilight. Curiosity drove me to the first one where I was bored outta my skull. Stubborness sent me to the rest. By this point, might as well finish it off and see the last one. I’ve rarely had to sit thru as many previews as there were before this movie. They had to show a trailer for every upcoming film that’s trying to fill the marketing void that’s gonna be left now that this saga is done. While most had me rolling my eyes, I’m kinda excited for Warm Bodies, the zombie love story starring Nicholas Hoult. But that’s beside the point.
A big part of the reason why I don’t see romantic movies that often is that I _really_ hafta be in the right mindset for them. That’s multiplied by a lot for Twilight because I find the whole thing so frustratingly unrealistic. I’ve never quite gotten what it is that makes Jacob -> Bella -> Edward so crazy about each other, and hardly anything happens. Thankfully, this one had a bit of a different focus.
Finally, the love triangle is settled. That’s what happens when you get married and have a half vampire half human kid. The plot drive is that that kid’s life is being threatened by the Volturi, who are kinda the vampire government, and it’s not exactly a democracy. So they bring in a bunch of vampire allies to help stand up against them. It was those other vampires that I really enjoyed.
For one, more time spent introducing and playing with new characters means less time watching Kristen Stewart try and act as hard as she can while Robert Pattinson mumbles and Taylor Lautner seethes. There were a few of those side guys that I actually liked. My favorite was Lee Pace as Garrett. Why could he not have shown up before now? Could we have a whole movie about him? But only if our triangular lovers aren’t included. He’s the fun and rugged bad boy vampire type that I love. I could see him running with Lestat, Spike, and Damon. Noel Fisher’s Vladimir was fun too, bringing some old school style to our motley crew of undead.
There is one thing I hadn’t entirely picked up on in the mythology that I do think is kinda cool. With all the vampire movies/books/tv shows I’ve encountered, one of my favorite things is discovering what rules the particular story in question has established. There’s usually some variation of a few core laws with the occassional one off that makes them stand out. Now we all know that Twilight has the worst ever spin on the sunlight thing with the sparkling. But the one that I overlooked, even though it had been mentioned before, is that most vampires have their own “”gift””. We’ve known Edward can mindread, Alice can see the future, and Aro can see others’ memories. But now we’ve met someone who can shoot electricity, another with mind control, and someone who controls the elements. Kinda cool. Actually, I’m kinda glad we stopped here. God only knows what other powers Stephenie Meyer would have given to her vamps if the series kept going.
For what it’s worth, this was better than the others in the series, but that’s not saying much. Had it been a stand alone vampire flick, I’d prolly have thought a bit more highly of it. But it is tainted by the rest of the series. I’m just kinda glad its all over. I hope
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 – \m/ \m/ \m/