Christine Horner, copy editor
While my girlfriend and I were looking for a show to watch together last weekend, we scrolled past the “Twilight” movies. I mentioned that I had never seen the final two films in the franchise — “Breaking Dawn Part I” and “Breaking Dawn Part II”— and she insisted we watch them. This was a mistake.
Many of us are familiar with the premise of the “Twilight” saga: teenage Bella Swan moves to rural Washington to live with her dad, where she meets and falls in love with 117-year-old Edward Cullen, a sparkly vegetarian vampire. He competes for her love with resident werewolf Jacob Black, but Bella and Edward marry in the final installment of the book series, “Breaking Dawn.” This is certainly an odd-sounding story, but author Stephenie Meyer made it make sense — at least to me.
These books had me in a chokehold when I was a teen. I would have given anything to swap my dull teenage life of homework and a bedtime with Bella’s exciting adventures filled with romance and danger. I wasn’t the only kid to feel this way. Everywhere I went, whether it was school, the mall or the grocery store, other teenagers wore “Twilight” shirts, or shirts that said “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob.” I certainly wasn’t the only kid reading the books, so I can’t be the only person disappointed by the films, right?
I’ll admit, the books aren’t the absolute best I’ve ever read. I honestly don’t think they’re particularly well-written. But that doesn’t mean that the movies have to be even worse. For starters, the lighting throughout “Breaking Dawn Part I” and “Part II” is inconsistent and there doesn’t seem to be any reason behind it. Some scenes have cool-toned lighting while others have warm-toned lighting and I have no idea why.
I’ll admit, the books aren’t the absolute best I’ve ever read. I honestly don’t think they’re particularly well-written. But that doesn’t mean that the movies have to be even worse.
christine Horner
What’s even worse is Edward and Bella’s child, Renesmee. If you’ve ever seen a CGI baby, don’t. Even more horrifying is the fact that the CGI Renesmee is a revised version of the original puppet the filmmakers created — that’s right, they went from puppet to CGI and it’s still horrendous. Not to mention the pointless battle scene in “Part II” where multiple crucial characters died that turned out to be JUST a VISION that Alice Cullen showed Aro, leader of the Volturi, as a warning if he didn’t let Renesmee live despite the Volturi’s laws about vampire children. The acting was also bad. Sorry, but it’s true.
I had the same frustrated feeling watching the “Breaking Dawn” movies on my girlfriend’s couch that I did when I was in the movie theater as a kid seeing “Twilight” for the first time. The only difference is that this time I didn’t have to pretend to like the films. I had been such a devoted fan — and even though I’m not a fan anymore, I’m still disappointed in the movies.