TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN PART 2

 
Summit Entertainment

Breaking Dawn Part 2 by Georgia

      "OH YEAH! TEAM JACOB!" Is an example of what I did not scream as soon as Taylor Lautner, AKA Jacob Black, went on screen. However, my mom did yell "eight minutes!" when Taylor Lautner took his shirt off, about eight minutes into the film. We also laughed a lot. But this isn't a feel-good family movie--this is the FINALE of the beloved (and hated) film series: Twilight. 
      I admit it: I did read the books as the series was coming off its pedestal (to be replaced by the Hunger Games) and I sort of understand why people (teenage girls/moms) like it (*cough cough romance.*) Sure, there's romance. Edwards a vampire. But the writing...*twitching in agony* and the CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT....
     But I'm not here to talk about the books, which Stephanie Meyer is making millions off of. I'm going to discuss the highly-publicized movie with "a twist ending,"  as advertised in the trailer. How can they possibly create a "twist ending" if you've read the books??? I ranted repeatedly to my mother. If they changed the ending even a little bit, a bunch of vicious Twihards would murder everyone who had anything to do with the movie. Well, I won't tell you the twist ending, but there's nothing to fear, Twihards. There's the magical vampire sex you guys have been waiting for; Jacob's creepy protective-pedophile love over Renesmee. Oh yeah there's Renesmee, too--Bella's fast growing human/vampire daughter. The best, least inappropriate, sort of sweet scenes are the ones with Bella and Renesmee. She's definitely got the maternal thing down.
    Yes...the movie still has a cheesy special effects, lines, and acting, but who cares, right? Let's give Mrs. Meyers another billion so she can have a house in Italy, and Billy Joe Armstrong needs his fence painted, apparently, because he wrote AND SUNG one of the songs in the credits! And I totally called it in the credits! I said: "Mom! That Billy Joe Armstrong! That's Greenday!" Mom: "No! It can't be!" FIVE MINUTES OF CREDITS LATER...Me: "It is! Ha! I called it!" Listen to it, I beg of you: (Greenday's Twilight Song ) 
      In the end, see this movie if you want a good laugh or if you actually enjoy these movies or if you have nothing else to see.

Breaking Dawn Part 2 by Amy 

During a film, I am always the shusher.  If you break out your cellphone to check an email or a text during my few minutes of total abandonment of all responsibility other than watching a movie, you will hear me ask you, politely, to please turn off your phone as it's distracting.

At Breaking Dawn Part 2, which my darling Georgia dragged me to see, I became the "shushed."

I did not come to the film with an open mind.  I came to it with a closed mind, an annoyed mind that so many had found the poorly written Twilight books compelling reading, and, in complete disclosure, a jealous mind--why can't millions of people like my own book, huh???  I know, I don't have a weird love triangle, or vampires, or wolves.

I am not a fan of vampire movies.  The last one I saw was Interview with a Vampire and that had Tom Cruise (before he was abducted in to Scientology) and Brad Pitt (before he grew facial hair).

But here is what I found interesting about this final installment--Bella, at last, does things besides look mopey and wait for her two boy toys to save the day.  She is rather kick-ass in all her newborn vampire strength, though I could have done without the "I must feed off the blood of any animal I can find" scenes.

From a parental standpoint, I questioned the PG-13 rating.  As Georgia mentions above, there are several scenes of vampire sex.  Bella & Edward are having lots of it.  They can't get enough of it.  Am I just getting to be an old fart longing for the PG movies of John Hughes with their long, drawn out kisses and smoldering sexuality?

When we got to the epic battle scenes between the Cullen clan and all the cute wolves against the Volturi, I admit I was gripped.  It was great film-making.  Tension-filled.  Both Georgia and I were freaking out.  

And then came the much touted "twist ending" which should have been called "The twist ending that they chicken out of at the last minute which results in the most over-used trite ending."

When I expressed my outraged opinion about the ending-within-an ending vocally in the theater, I got shushed.  I marred the viewing experience for some middle-aged Twihard.

And for that, I'm sorry.

But I'm sorrier still that I caved to my teenager and spent $16 to see the damn thing.  

Twilight vs. Hunger Games

The Twilight Saga vs. The Hunger Games
  Oh, yes. It seems ever blog with a teenager (and some blogs without) are blogging about how people are "comparing the Hunger Games to Twilight" and how it is "unacceptable." Okay, those aren't actual quotes from real blogs, but that's what they're saying. And as a teenager who has a book blog, I feel it my duty to write about this incredible controversial topic. Here we go.
Note: To all Twilight or Hunger Games haters or lovers, this is an unbiased account of The Hunger Games vs. Twilight. It may contain *spoiler alerts.* Enjoy.
  And so we begin...I will first state the differences of these two series. It's pretty easy: Bella doesn't do anything until the end of the last book; Katniss kicks butt until  the end of the last book (she's completely crazy by then.) Peeta is a very likable baker boy who doesn't have a thirst for Katniss's blood; Edward is really creepy and a creeper, though he seems to have a sensitive side once he falls in love with her (after he dumps her in the woods, of course.) Jacob is just a hot werewolf who comforts Bella; Gale is just a hot rebel best friend who comforts Katniss. (Okay, that one was kind of similar.)
  Onto the similarities (and I assure you, there are many.) First similarity: the writing. No need to gasp, I will explain. This writing is the level of what a fourteen-year-old could write (no offense to writing fourteen-year-olds, of course. Rock on! Or--write on!) Anyway, it sounds like basic writing because Stephanie Meyer states Bella's every thought and movement, while Suzanne Collins is just lazy. Examples:
  I walk into the cafeteria. I get lunch. Yum, yum: mac-and-cheese! I sit next to Edward. He looks super hot today. So, so, hot. He flashes me my favorite smile of his and I almost sigh. God, what a hot vampire. Alice sits down. She looks pretty today. She wears a black tank top and jeans.
  "Hey Bella," she says. I reply, "hi Alice." She smiles. "I knew you'd  say that." Vampires rock!
  Peeta hands me some flowers and I look at them confusedly.
  "What are these for?" I ask, rather confused. Peeta can be extremely odd sometimes.
  "They're for you, " he says.  Why would Peeta give me flowers?? We're in the hunger games! I'm going to have to kill him! Then I remember: the fake romance we've created must go on.
  "Thank you!" I say, and pretend to be super excited. He smiles, and it looks so convincing! Peeta is such a good actor. I could never be that good. I hate my life. 
  You can probably guess which example was for which book. (Hint: the one in bold was told from the point of view from Katniss Everdeen.) Meyers lacks basic sentence structure and describes everything in way too much detail. In my example, I was trying too hard to point out the fact that I'M SITTING AT A LUNCH TABLE WITH EDWARD AND ALICE CULLEN! It kind of screams what I'm trying to point out. Collins, however, changes Katniss's tone too much during the book. Sometimes she sounds extremely depressed, sometimes she sounds like she's on drugs, sometimes she even sounds English! (As you saw in my example.) In my example, she goes from very oblivious to very English to oblivious again to adoring to depressed. Also, I used confused twice in one paragraph. That is BASIC LAZINESS! No good author uses the same word in a paragraph, much less a chapter! Especially an adjective or adverb, like confused and confusedly. The second huge similarity with these two series: by the end of the book, you end up disliking (or hating) the heroine. (If Bella Swan can even be called a heroine, that is.) I didn't like Bella by the end of the series because she DIDN'T do anything (until the end!) She's like: I'm so happy. I'm a teenage vampire, I'm a eternally beautiful, and I have an immortal daughter who I birthed at age eighteen! Nice message, Stephanie Meyers. I didn't like Katniss by the end because she tried to commit suicide at least three times and was totally okay with being ditched by Gale. Collins actually had the opposite problem with her ending then Meyers; Breaking Dawn's ending was much too happy and Mockingjay's ending was much too sad. *Major spoiler alert* DID PRIM REALLY HAVE TO DIE? DID SHE, Suzanne Collins?! No! DID NO ONE REALLY HAVE TO DIE IN YOUR BOOK, STEPHANIE MEYERS? I honestly think one of the vampire should've somehow died. A death (or deaths) bring a sense of ending to series. But no, Twilight had to have a fairytale ending where no one died! And the Hunger Games had to have an ending where everyone died! The last reason The Hunger Games trilogy and the Twilight "saga" are similar is because of a huge mistake that both authors made: they tried to make a broken character, and seriously failed at it. Definition of a broken character: a character who is sad and/or lonely and/or depressed because something horrible happened to them. i.e: Gaia Stone is a broken character because she's watched her love interest be beaten, her mother die in childbirth, and because her little sister was taken away from her. Congratulations, Caragh O'Brien. With Stephanie Meyers, she tried to make Bella broken when Edward ditched her.Instead, she looked pitiful and sad by lying down in the woods and waiting for someone to rescue. (Just a note: there's a hilarious Bella vs. Katniss spoof on youtube--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHd1wdHakIc) With Katniss, Collins tries to make her look broken because in Mockingjay, Peeta goes crazy and her mom and Gale ditch her and her sister dies. Really happy ending, right? Anyways, she ends up looking crazy, bipolar, and suicidal rather than broken.
  In conclusion, The Hunger Games and the Twilight Saga both have HUGE flaws. I think you got that. But they still are two great stories, so read them! Most people aren't as critical as me, so you'll get so enthralled in the story that you won't notice the bad writing!
  Also: I think that if JK Rowling helped out Meyers and Collins with their writing and Meyers helped Collins with her final ending and Collins helped Meyers with her final ending, the books would be a lot better. Over and out.