Sunday, November 25, 2012

The Breaking Dawn Twist (spoilers!)


I admit it, I enjoyed the Twilight books.  It’s no coincidence I’m a paranormal romance author—it’s my favorite genre.  I happen to think Stephenie Meyer is a great storyteller.  However, I saw Breaking Dawn Part 2 this weekend (SPOILERS AHEAD), and I was shocked at the so-called “twist”.  Somehow I didn’t know about it beforehand, which is shocking in and of itself.  But as the battle broke out and main characters began dying, I thought, “Wow, they really went a different way than in the books”.  And I was a bit impressed, thinking the screenwriters had injected some sad and tragic events into the story to bring home the tension: this battle was so fierce; some of the beloved characters might die.  Even though I wasn’t worried about Bella or Edward dying (it is, after all, still a romance in need of a Happily Ever After ending for the hero and heroine), I suddenly realized the stakes were high for the rest of the Cullens and the wolf pack.

 

Then what seemed like a fairly long battle scene suddenly ends when we realize this is all just one of Alice’s visions, as related to the head of the Volturi.  Yes, I was glad Carlisle, Jasper, and the wolves especially were still OK.  But I’ve always thought (and read) that using “it was all a dream (or vision)” as a plot device was the ultimate cop out.  So what actually happened in this movie is that two armies of vampires convened from the corners of the earth, met for an epic battle, and then instead engaged in a mental war which ends peacefully.  While I remember the book being exciting to read, I guess that’s not the stuff good movies are made of. 

 

I won’t go into the acting (although I read one review that made me laugh when the reviewer said the best actors in the movie were the animated wolves), but I wasn’t all that impressed.  Nevertheless, I actually went to the movie theater and spent money to see this film, which for me is highly unusual.  I much prefer to read books for entertainment, and this movie helped remind me why.  When I heard there was a “twist” to the movie that wasn’t in the book, I was skeptical…the other films have followed the books closely.  So the vision scene made it exciting and entertaining and scary for me, for 27 minutes, but in the end I felt a bit cheated.  How did you feel about the twist?

4 comments:

  1. I agree! It was certainly a cop out. Seeing characters die was almost like a guilty pleasure, not because I wanted them to die, but just that I remember thinking at the end of the book, I was a little disappointed that everyone made it out alive ;-/

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  2. Yep, it made it more "real" for about a half hour...and I thought, wow, this is getting intense! And then...all a vision, almost a too happy ending. Ah well it was entertaining anyway :) Thanks for stopping by Rachel!

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  3. I love this series and am a bit addicted I have to admit. The first time I saw the latest movie I was shocked. My friend and I kept looking at each other and saying, "This is so horribly wrong." We wondered how Stephenie Meyer gave permission for the change, since she didn't want to lose anyone in the story. For me, I was glad to see it was all a vision. The audience kind of let out a collective sigh of relief and nervous laughter when it got to that part.

    DebraStJohn

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  4. Thanks for coming by Debra! Yes, when I saw Carlisle's head, my mouth dropped open. It never occured to me that it was just a vision, but I did think someone was going to be able to use powers to put him back together. That or someone was using powers to make people see what wasn't really true.

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