Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2009)

My Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 50%

surprisingly, if some things about the twilight films weren't still there in this movie, i'd almost, honestly give it a 60%. i mean when i say same things, i mean paterson and stewart and so on having no big expressions and not really putting in what twilight really is and things like that. but truly, they did manage to making it at least a little bit nice. it was better than the first two combined.

okay the beginning. it actually starts good considering the usual. if you don't want me to spoil the beginning, i'm going to tell you right now to wait until after you've seen the movie to continue reading my review. but it starts with one guy getting attacked so that he becomes a vampire, before he gets the final bite, he gets attacked left and right while the actor is actually having a scared face, like he is terrified, and with the camera and the cuts and maybe even the music too (can't remember), they are actually bringing some suspense to what is going on. i mean one thing that is wrong which the whole franchise outside of that scene is they just put what happens as it is making it truly just for the ones who read it. they don't really try to make things suspenseful or exciting or making you wonder what is going to happen for those who haven't read the books so they can find it interesting. i mean, plenty of movies based off of books have actually tried that for their movies like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Narnia. the Twilight franchise however made it just for the amazement for the people who read the books. nothing to be amazed at or discover with the characters outside of what the readers already knew: a teenager moves to this small town feeling all 'whatever' about life with her father that she rarely sees until now, and the people she begins to know. then she falls in love with a guy that turns out to be a vampire known as Edward Cullen, then another guy the begins to befriend turns out to be a werewolf. stuff happens from there but it's all the same, bella and edward are in love and continue to be together through it all no matter what they faced. they all around continue to do a poor job at telling the story in a way that not only keeps it from being interesting for those who don't read the books, but even keeps readers that are not teenage girls or forty-year-old women being disappointed with what they get. the beginning of this movie is a small exception, but one that is there all the same, because it has some sort of story telling that cause the suspense they actually needed for the scene in a way that could make it interesting.

now acting (outside of the beginning and some points for patterson and stweart.) SUCKS!!! i have some other exceptions...in a sense when i get to the comedy section, but it still was always the same. Stewart acts with a more or less like Sofia Coppola, Patterson still acts like he's mixed with 15% trying to be Edward Cullen using method acting in a sense, and 85% actually being half asleep, and Lautner...really just has a stone face and tries communicating emotionally just by the tone of his voice. i mean if i wasn't so tired and was more interested, i'd think of a description with all the other cullens and high school friends, and werewolves. but as far as acting, it's just the same dang thing.

now here's the thing for action: THERE WAS ACTUAL ACTION!!!! YOU EVEN WATCH VAMPIRES GET KILLED MOSTLY BY GETTING THEIR HEAD SMASHED!!!! seriously. first movie, just see james and edward smashing each other into walls and even the floor like they are flying terminators, then you see some short shots afterwords of the cullens taking james apart and then that's it. second movie, you have Laurent facing werewolves for not even ten seconds and then he flees, next time we see him he's attacked by the wolves and there's a slow motion thing that just says 'you get the point, he's gone.' then you have edward fighting that volturi guy which was more like the effects from the movie Jumper. but now you have an actual battle with vampires and werewolves and you can actually see what is going on the whole time and you actually like this compared to before. all around, there is action to begin with unlike the first two and i for one am happy with that.

now for the comedy. there actually was some rather cute comedy through the movie. most of it had Charlie. unlike the first two movies, they actually got charlie to shine a little with the comedy they had for him. there wasn't much acting or even facial expressions in them but they made it all around cute with what expressions and likeness he had. the acting even without just charlie was just the same as before, but they still manage to make things cute with things like bella punching jacob and breaking her hand or even with the little sexual-ish jokes that were around during the scene were bella, jacob and edward were in that tent. even if that got the girls crazy. i mean jacob was shirtless as usual and with the sexual-ish jokes in that scene, that just made them outrageous. i mean if i don't get kinda deaf in life because i use to listen to my music pretty loud on my mp3, i'm sure girls all hot for edward or jacob that go that crazy will make be permanently deaf before i'm 26.

now i will honestly say, that in the scene where they have their graduation, i thought whoever the character that was valedictorian, actually had a good speech. not too cheesy or hollywood-like, just as sort of speech i think some of us, especially in this type of world today, need to learn from for the most part.

i will also put out how ridiculous it is how Bryce Dallas Howard was Victoria, mainly on how she has been in half minor, half major roles since after Lady in the Water and The Village. I mean she was Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man 3, which for the most part was a character that was just there and really should not have been there in the first place. then she's Kate in Terminator Salvation were while it makes sense that while Kate is pregnant, does not have much to do outside of being a surgeon, the fact remains that it's still a half minor, half major role for Howard. and we have Eclipse were there's nuthun much but start an army, acting like she's in love with her second command, and in the end, fight Edward and end up dead. all i'm saying here is that I'm no Howard fan, and i don't know much about her career and such, but i think she should try to up her game with having not much done recently.

so there you have it. comedy was nice, story telling was as bland and for just readers of the books as ever, acting was terrible, action was actual action, and through ti all, this ended up the best out of the films so far. i kinda love it as far as how they have told the story better for the most part.

and that's my review for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse