The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (Film)

When I found out that I’m getting two tickets for the Philippine premier of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 2, I get excited to see the film. But since there were only two tickets, it is difficult to choose who will I bring with me to watch, knowing that a lot of friends wants to go. I almost decided to ditch it and just giveaway the tickets to two of my blog followers. But since I still have to personally claim the tickets an hour before the showing, it will be a hassle for me to organized the giveaway in a little amount of time. So I end up going to the event and invite the most Twilight fanatic friend I know, Chai. We went to Greenbelt, Makati last Wednesday night with the other movie goers who are all excited to see the movie a night before the regular showing. There are some raffles and giveaways too before the film showing but I can feel that the crowd is more interested for the movie to start than the giveaways.

Breaking Dawn Part 2 picks up directly where the first part of Breaking Dawn Part 1 left off. Bella wakes up with her ruby eyes as a newborn vampire and adjust pretty fast to her newly acquired strength. As a vampire her senses become much stronger. She sees everything in remarkable details, she hear even the slightest sounds, smell even the farthest blood and move awkwardly fast. Her strength is not to be challenged, if you have doubt just ask Emmett. As as newborn basically Bella is what everyone around her expects her to be, except for one thing. She is so comfortable in her new self to the point of being too controlled which isn’t normal for a newborn. Part of her new life is being a vampire wife to Edward and a mother to their fast growing newborn daughter, Reneesme. Reneesme is a half-human and half-vampire who poses an unknown threat to vampire existence which makes her the target of the most powerful clan of vampires, the Volturi. But the Cullen coven is determine to keep Reneesme alive, thus begins the final adventure of this final installment to Stephanie Meyer’s vampire mythology.

If you’ve seen the first four films of this series, you may agree with me that the adaptation didn’t start great. The first installment (Twilight) isn’t much a great movie compare to other movies that was released that year. But this final installment erased all the bad memories of the previous films. It definitely salvaged the whole franchise adaptation by leaving a satisfying and entertaining ending.

Everything that happens on the first part of the film were pretty much the same with the book. The difference comes mostly on the last part where all the actions scenes is happening. Personally I like the changes they made from book to the film. It give so much room for surprises that even the hardcore Twilight fans will get shock and caught off guard. I give applause to the director and screenwriter for delivering a simple storytelling trick with cunning skills. I honestly didn’t see that twist coming which makes the changes effective and satisfying.

My emotions were high and my mind was boggling during the intense fighting scenes. If the emotional moment holds more time I might even end up releasing all those feelings into tears. But with the fast-pacing scenes all I can do is absorbed what is happening while questioning most of it. For someone who read the book before seeing the film adaptation, I can’t help but compare what I’m seeing on screen and what I’ve read few years ago. And seeing the differences just keeps me busy that I haven’t realized ahead of time the possible ending.

As much as I want to give more details and explain why this movie is the best of all Twilight Saga films I don’t want to give any spoilers. Because this movie won’t be as effective as it is if you watch it with spoilers. And for those who haven’t seen the previous installments, I think it is better if you watch the first four films before this one. The story wont make sense if you start this saga with this final installment. And some scenes may not be as powerful as it is if you are not invested to the characters like most fans of this series.

The movie also wrap the whole series in a classy note by showing every actor of twilight saga films a little screen time during the credits. Even those who aren’t part of the this final installment were there. It leaves me memories and flashbacks of the other previous films of this phenomenal series of Stephanie Meyer.

Again kudos to the film makers for finishing this movie adaptation with a heart and dignity. And thank you for leaving us a memorable movie experience.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

Amazon summary:

Fans of The Twilight Saga will be enthralled by the riveting story of Bree Tanner, a character introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits. In another irresistible combination of danger, mystery and romance, Stephenie Meyer tells the devastating story of Bree and the newborn army as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, following their encounter to its unforgettable conclusion.

Personal Thoughts:

I finally decided to pick up Stephanie Meyer’s The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner an Eclipse Novella. It’s an easy read book which can be finished in a couple of hours though nothing much really in it. Since we already know from Eclipse what will be Bree’s ending, this book is just a little sidenote of being a newborn vampire from Bree’s perspective. It’s nice to read part of the Twilight Saga world other than Bella’s point of view, and I especially want to hear the story from a vampire’s perspective. More likely the mind reader point of view. But since Midnight Sun is still hanging I have to settle first with Bree, a newborn vampire who doesn’t last long enough to give us more details of the vampire world. But for Bree’s credit, she is more straightforward compare to Bella, she doesn’t have angst, she’s pretty-logical and more objective. Her story give more justice to newborn vampires, they are not just soulless bloodsucking vampire after all.

Bree’s description of Edward as “redheaded one” confused me that I have to check again eclipse to see who is she’s referring to as redheaded one. But then realizing that Bree is a newborn vampire, she can’t give much details with the other vampire’s around her because she is so much consumed with the thought of Bella’s sweet blood at that time. Compare to Bella who is in love with Edward, naturally Bella is more detailed on Edward appearance.

Other than the life of being a newborn vampire, this book also offers two interesting revelations. First. Jane and her entourage actually visit Victoria and give her five days to enact her battle plan before the Volturi would destroy the newborn army. Second, Bree manages to figure out that Edward reads minds and conveys to him that the Volturi weren’t entirely on the Cullens’ side. I just wish to know what Edward was thinking while Bree is dishing to him the dirty work of the Volturi. After reading the novella, I had this feeling that I’ve just finished reading a fan fiction, like what I usually read online for some of my favorite mangga stories.

If you haven’t already read Eclipse this novella won’t make sense. This book is for Twilight fans and not for someone who hasn’t read the saga.

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer

“Edward had always thought that he belonged to the world of horror stories. Of course, I’d known he was dead wrong. It was obvious that he belonged here. In a fairy tale.”
– Bella Swan, Breaking Dawn

Breaking Dawn is the fourth book of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. The story opens straight with the climax of twilight saga – Edward and Bella’s wedding. The first part of Breaking Dawn is quite narrated in a rush. It can be added to eclipse and make the series a trilogy. But still Breaking Dawn has its own story to narrate. It’s quite different to the first three books which tell the story of two young extraordinary individuals passionately in love with each other against all odds. Breaking Dawn push the next chapter of Edward & Bella’s story to a more mature level.

Bella’s character in Breaking Dawn is a lot different from the first three books. Of course I want her to get stronger & more independent but it seems that it lacks the transition stage. It happens too fast without much development details, she suddenly became a queen and heroin from being a pawn.

There are lots of characters from the other books that I missed. Surely they all exist in Breaking Dawn but they became different. I missed Emmett’s fun character, his few but fun remarks that makes me laugh or smile. Alice and Jasper are quite different too. I understand why Alice needs to leave the Cullen’s but getting it from Bella’s point of view doesn’t give much justice. Speaking of point of view, I think the book can be narrated without Jacob’s point of view. It can be more attached if Bella still do the narration in book two. After all it is Bella-Edward’s love story so why not instead of Jacob make Edward do the narration – I think that’s more interesting.

The vampire sunlight-sparkle was gone. I totally missed Edward – he still exists but I miss him so much. He suddenly became different in this book. After Alice left, he simply takes Bella’s justification as if he doesn’t know Alice for more than half a century. Yes, he knows that Alice is doing the right thing but he should justify it more than just believe Bella’s idea. What happen to the most brilliant person? He also planned to abort his own child just to save Bella. What happened to the lovable martyr in him? It’s so out of character for him. The plot is quite expected, nothing amazing at all. Jacob imprinted on Renesmee is not brilliant. I already guessed it even before I actually read it but I honestly assume Meyer will give more than that.

I have to say that the first three books were better in terms of characterization. Twilight/Midnight Sun is the best among the series. It is not that massive but it does pull you if you are at least a bit romantic. It got some charms that make the readers ask for more.

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

“The clouds I can handle. But I can’t fight with an eclipse.”

After a little disappointment with New Moon, I still continue reading Eclipse and Breaking dawn out of curiosity. Before I decided to read Eclipse, I did hope that this book will be better than New Moon. And I’m thankful it was quite good but I can’t say it is the best. Meyer makes monsters romantic again in this third installment of the Twilight series. I enjoy some of the characters development especially the vampires – Edward, Rosalie and Jasper. It discuss how Rosalie & Jasper became vampires. Their human life and other interesting detail that uncovered their own traits. It also discuss more about werewolve’s folklore. How they became werewolves and the legends they pass down.

Bella remains little more than a pawn in this book, trying to please everyone but herself. I expected Bella to get stronger and more independent. To find herself, I suppose. But she seemed to get more co-dependent and more self-serving. I didn’t like also the Edward-Bella-Jacob love triangle. It adds few inconsistency with the story. During the first part of the book Bella was so sure of herself that she didn’t love Jacob she even punched him when Jacob kissed her then suddenly at the end she realized that she loves him too. From the very beginning of Twilight, the author has made it exceedingly clear that Bella and Edward are soul-mates. What’s the point of love triangle? I don’t have anything against Jacob. I would have liked him to remain friends with Bella. But not Bella realizing she was “in love” with him.

Eclipse is fast-paced, full of action and romance which makes it a bit exciting. It is also pretty humorous with some cute moments that made me smile. But it has a lot of angst & drama as if it is a soap opera. Nonetheless, it is still a good book, far greater than New Moon but not the best.

SYNOPSIS OF ECLIPSE

Edward and Bella are back together. She’s going to become a vampire after her high school graduation and she wants Edward to be the one to do the job. His only condition for this is that she marries him. Will she say yes and risk disappointing her family?

In the meantime, Seattle is being ravaged by a “serial killer” that is really an army of newborn vampires that are unable to control their bloodthirsty urges. These newborns are being created by Victoria, who wanted to kill Bella in revenge of James death. It is up to vampire Edward and werewolf Jacob to unite the good vampires and werewolves in order to save Bella’s life.

In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

“Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars–points of light and reason… And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything.“

– Edward Cullen, New Moon

After reading Twilight – the prequel of New Moon, I am interested in what will be the next story for the new Romeo & Juliet of my imagination. I’ve already read few reviews of this book and most of them are not good, so I tried not to expect too much from it. I’ve finished reading the book more than a week ago. That time, I’m not sure if I still want to write a review for it.

When reading New Moon, I tried to convince myself that the book has its own journey. I know that it is a placeholder to the other books so I need to read it in order to understand more the next book. As I start reading I thought it was good, but after few chapters, it became dull to read for me. I thought it became boring because Edward Cullen is absent in the story, but then I realized it’s not that. There are just some scene that I think is unnecessary in the whole story. That it could have written with more fun and it would have been much more enjoyable to read.

There are some inconsistency with the story and characters too. Like when Bella gets a paper cut while opening a gift from Edward & Alice, and it makes Jasper crazy with the scent of her blood and he tries to attack Bella, but Edward stops him, and of course Bella falls over and ended wounded from a bunch of glass and bleeds a lot, and suddenly none of Edward’s family can handle it aside from Carlisle, and the others all have to leave the room. While few months prior (at the end of the first book – twilight) they were in the ballet studio where Bella cracked the back of her skull open and was bleeding all over the place, but they didn’t try to eat her then. So why this spilling of Bella’s blood would make nearly everyone of the Cullen’s family lose their complete control? And Bella said that she was not a suicidal but she always act like one, trying to be reckless and throwing herself to a cliff just because of some sort of hallucination that she wants to hear.

One of the reason I like Twilight is the new concept of vampires that Meyer created in the book. She made a non-traditional image of vampire clan living in today’s world. I didn’t get much of that new concept thing in New Moon. “Hero runs away to protect heroine from his dangerous lifestyle” is a overly used in fictional stories and it is a bit annoying for me. But then after reading the draft of “Midnight Sun” , I understand more why Edward needs to leave. Silly as it may seems but this story is really getting in my nerve. If you’ll ask me a week ago how I will rate this book, I may give you a dissatisfaction rating. I’m a bit disappointed with the book even If I tried not to expect too much from it. But after reading Midnight Sun, I’ve learned to understand and appreciate New Moon than the first time I read it.

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

“My life was unending, unchanging midnight. It must be, by necessity, always be midnight for me. So how was it possible that the sun is rising now, in the middle of my midnight?”
– Edward Cullen, Midnight Sun

Midnight Sun is the expected companion novel of the book Twilight. Stephanie Meyer wrote the first chapter of Twilight from Edward’s perspective as an exercise in character development. From this exercise sprang the idea of Midnight Sun – Twilight narrated from Edward Cullen’s point of view. Meyer initially made that original exercise available on her website and later started drafting the whole book. Unfortunately, one of the drafts was leaked on the internet, apparently ruining the project for her. She then reluctantly released a draft of it online for the fans.

I found this book more interesting than the other two books of the series that I have read (Twilight & New Moon). And maybe, even more good than Eclipse & Breaking Dawn which I plan to read soon. This book is not yet finished but I still like it, and I really love to see the other part of it after the book is finally published and released to market.

Midnight Sun is more revealing than Twilight since Edward’s character can see more than what Bella’s character can. He can read minds, which means he knows more than what Bella know. So he can narrate more than just how the first book is narrated. The story opens the mysteries behind Edward Cullen’s and his vampire family. What they are thinking, how they feel and other sort of revelation on their characters. Secrets and explanations from Twilight are revealed in this book.

Midnight Sun is good. While reading the draft I’ve felt the characters are alive. I can see the passion of the writer behind it. The depth and complexity of the story was there. I hope the author can still continue the remaining part of the story with the same depth and passion after the leakage happens.

…I feel that Bella should read Midnight Sun. Bella has missed so much about Edward she has a right to know all of it.