OT: I Finally Saw "Eclipse"
Feb. 13th, 2011 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lazypadawanI know, I'm late to the party on this one.
Have to say, it was the best of the bunch thus far. Maybe I've become accustomed to the "Vampire 90210" plot complete with an Edward who reminds me of an undead Luke Perry, maybe it's because K Stew has a few more facial expressions, maybe because it had some genuinely entertaining parts. Not to say it's great cinema but I did like it more than the last Transformers flick.
Bella and Edward are all in looooove but Edward still wants to marry her, while she still wants to become a vampire. Bella is hedging on the marriage part, and as a child of divorce that's understandable. What's not understandable is the vampirism part, but I've discussed that before. We find out Bella is miraculously graduating from high school despite spending a year in the last movie stuck in her room. She plans on attending the University of Alaska-Roslyn where she intends to major in studying permafrost; of course we know it's because her sweet baboo would love the six months of darkness. I guess Edward can hunt caribou and bear too. Still, Edward survives just fine in the Florida sun on an impromptu visit to see Bella's mom. *Shrug.*
However, Victoria, the surviving member of the Black Eyed Peas band of vampires from the first "Twilight" flick, is putting together an army of undead hipsters in Seattle to take on the Cullens and go after Bella. Wuh-oh! She finds a patsy by turning some guy named Riley.
I think the parts I liked best were some of the origin scenes. The Native American wolfmen explain their whole war with the Cold Ones, who attacked their people a few centuries back. The White Man kill the buffalo, steal the land, AND bring their damn vampires! Still, those flashback scenes were B-movie fun and the spirit wife sacrificing herself by drawing blood to distract a vampire from killing her husband nicely foreshadows Bella cutting herself to save Edward. (By the way, have you noticed Bella gets injured a lot in these things? Broken legs, bad cuts, a broken hand from punching Jacob, etc..) Jasper's story mirrors Victoria using her wussy vamp boy Riley. Rosalie explains to Bella her story and why she isn't crazy about the idea of Bella giving up her mortality, since Rosalie's life was stolen from her (though I liked the revenge scene on her boyfriend/murderer).
If Rosalie's story wasn't enough to make Bella think twice, I wonder why the Volturi's heartless murder of a frightened teenage "newborn" didn't make her bat an eye. Jane (Dakota Fanning) and the rest of the Volturi Board of Directors--guys with Bieber haircuts--act like they'd got dragged out from corporate HQ and need to make it to golf game, so quickly get it done. The Cullens were ready to take in the kid, but once Jane orders her death, they just go, "Oh well." And these are the nice vampires.
Now there are still some lulz. An important subplot in the movie is the long peeing contest between Jacob and Edward. Remember what a jerk Edward was in New Moon? It's Jacob's turn to be the jerk this time, forcing himself on Bella and telling her over and over, "You don't really love him! You really love meeee!" Well, why is Bella spending all of those romantic scenes with Edward, then? You don't see her asking you to turn her into a werewolf, do you Jacob? Given that I know what eventually happens with Jacob and Bella's daughter, Jakey's obsession is a tad bit creepy. Edward still pulls his "I know what's best for you" crap on Bella, disabling her truck at one point to keep her "safe." Bella though doesn't help things by suddenly asking Jacob to kiss her. It's just red meat for the Team Jacob fangirls, just like the silly line to Edward "I'm hotter than you" when Jacob cuddles with a freezing Bella or Taylor Lautner's lack of a shirt virtually the entire film.
Team Edward fangirls get more sparkling, more angst, and narrowly-missed vampire nookie when Bella tries to get horizontal with Edward. You can just hear the moans of disappointment when Edward puts on the brakes. But then he whips out an engagement ring (which you can buy for up to $2000!) and Bella finally agrees to marry him. Yay!
The effects are still as cheesy as ever, with the still-fake-looking wolves and the even faker mangled/decapitated vampires looking like CGI plaster.
The Dan Ackroyd-lookalike Dad still does the best job in these movies. There wasn't as much for Ashley Greene to do, unfortunately, and she's stuck with a cheesy wig. Anna Kendricks had a nice moment at the graduation scene; she totally stole "Up In The Air." Good luck, Anna, you might have a future. Fanning nicely combined malevolence and a jaded hey-I-got-better-things-to-do attitude. They replaced the previous Victoria with Bryce Dallas Howard, which was kind of a waste since Victoria's killed off.
I guess I get to look forward to the Wedding Of The Century and the infamous pillow-biting wedding night in "Breaking Dawn Part Un." Woo hoo!
Have to say, it was the best of the bunch thus far. Maybe I've become accustomed to the "Vampire 90210" plot complete with an Edward who reminds me of an undead Luke Perry, maybe it's because K Stew has a few more facial expressions, maybe because it had some genuinely entertaining parts. Not to say it's great cinema but I did like it more than the last Transformers flick.
Bella and Edward are all in looooove but Edward still wants to marry her, while she still wants to become a vampire. Bella is hedging on the marriage part, and as a child of divorce that's understandable. What's not understandable is the vampirism part, but I've discussed that before. We find out Bella is miraculously graduating from high school despite spending a year in the last movie stuck in her room. She plans on attending the University of Alaska-Roslyn where she intends to major in studying permafrost; of course we know it's because her sweet baboo would love the six months of darkness. I guess Edward can hunt caribou and bear too. Still, Edward survives just fine in the Florida sun on an impromptu visit to see Bella's mom. *Shrug.*
However, Victoria, the surviving member of the Black Eyed Peas band of vampires from the first "Twilight" flick, is putting together an army of undead hipsters in Seattle to take on the Cullens and go after Bella. Wuh-oh! She finds a patsy by turning some guy named Riley.
I think the parts I liked best were some of the origin scenes. The Native American wolfmen explain their whole war with the Cold Ones, who attacked their people a few centuries back. The White Man kill the buffalo, steal the land, AND bring their damn vampires! Still, those flashback scenes were B-movie fun and the spirit wife sacrificing herself by drawing blood to distract a vampire from killing her husband nicely foreshadows Bella cutting herself to save Edward. (By the way, have you noticed Bella gets injured a lot in these things? Broken legs, bad cuts, a broken hand from punching Jacob, etc..) Jasper's story mirrors Victoria using her wussy vamp boy Riley. Rosalie explains to Bella her story and why she isn't crazy about the idea of Bella giving up her mortality, since Rosalie's life was stolen from her (though I liked the revenge scene on her boyfriend/murderer).
If Rosalie's story wasn't enough to make Bella think twice, I wonder why the Volturi's heartless murder of a frightened teenage "newborn" didn't make her bat an eye. Jane (Dakota Fanning) and the rest of the Volturi Board of Directors--guys with Bieber haircuts--act like they'd got dragged out from corporate HQ and need to make it to golf game, so quickly get it done. The Cullens were ready to take in the kid, but once Jane orders her death, they just go, "Oh well." And these are the nice vampires.
Now there are still some lulz. An important subplot in the movie is the long peeing contest between Jacob and Edward. Remember what a jerk Edward was in New Moon? It's Jacob's turn to be the jerk this time, forcing himself on Bella and telling her over and over, "You don't really love him! You really love meeee!" Well, why is Bella spending all of those romantic scenes with Edward, then? You don't see her asking you to turn her into a werewolf, do you Jacob? Given that I know what eventually happens with Jacob and Bella's daughter, Jakey's obsession is a tad bit creepy. Edward still pulls his "I know what's best for you" crap on Bella, disabling her truck at one point to keep her "safe." Bella though doesn't help things by suddenly asking Jacob to kiss her. It's just red meat for the Team Jacob fangirls, just like the silly line to Edward "I'm hotter than you" when Jacob cuddles with a freezing Bella or Taylor Lautner's lack of a shirt virtually the entire film.
Team Edward fangirls get more sparkling, more angst, and narrowly-missed vampire nookie when Bella tries to get horizontal with Edward. You can just hear the moans of disappointment when Edward puts on the brakes. But then he whips out an engagement ring (which you can buy for up to $2000!) and Bella finally agrees to marry him. Yay!
The effects are still as cheesy as ever, with the still-fake-looking wolves and the even faker mangled/decapitated vampires looking like CGI plaster.
The Dan Ackroyd-lookalike Dad still does the best job in these movies. There wasn't as much for Ashley Greene to do, unfortunately, and she's stuck with a cheesy wig. Anna Kendricks had a nice moment at the graduation scene; she totally stole "Up In The Air." Good luck, Anna, you might have a future. Fanning nicely combined malevolence and a jaded hey-I-got-better-things-to-do attitude. They replaced the previous Victoria with Bryce Dallas Howard, which was kind of a waste since Victoria's killed off.
I guess I get to look forward to the Wedding Of The Century and the infamous pillow-biting wedding night in "Breaking Dawn Part Un." Woo hoo!
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Date: 2011-02-14 03:31 am (UTC)Dakota Fanning was in that movie? Seriously?
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Date: 2011-02-14 03:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 04:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 04:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 04:05 am (UTC)They really toned down the crazy Edward/crazy Jacob thing for the movie, which was a good thing, imo. The disabling the truck was just the tip of the iceberg in the book (that was originally cut from the movie too). At one point Bella discovers how to beat Alice's gift and sneaks over the line, and when she returns, Edward tail gates Bella on the road. Later he is forced to go hunting with Carlisle and his brothers, so he has Alice kidnap Bella and hold her hostage. When Edward returns, he does offer a genuine apology and admits his behavior has been out of line, and says he'll no longer stop Bella from seeing Jacob.
Book Jacob was far more forceful when he kissed her against her will (he's also 7 feet tall in the book, which made the whole thing far more scary) and on the mountain top, he tells Bella he's going to get himself killed in the battle so she doesn't have to worry about him interfering any more. Bella begs him not too, but eventually, in desperation, she asks him to kiss her. Then later Bella finds out that Jacob was just faking his whole suicidal moment-it was just another mind game to get Bella to admit her feelings for him. Jacob isn't the least bit apologetic about it, either.
The Cullens were in a difficult position with Bree. Given Alec and Jane's powers, they could never win a fight with them, even with seven on four. It would have been a noble sacrifice, but a difficult one to make ... sacrificing your family for a vampire you'd just met. In the book, Bree didn't want to live, as Victoria had tortured her boyfriend to death.
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Date: 2011-02-20 01:53 am (UTC)