Non-spoiler thoughts:
Saw the last Twilight. OK, I'll admit it. That was a good one. Not surprised, seeing as that was my favorite half of the book and favorite whole part of the series. Great way to go out! And Nessie is nothing like Annabelle. Guess I was being silly, getting worried and all.
I own the books. I own the movies. I'm not a Twihard but I do have my favorite characters. I feel this movie did a wonderful job of portraying everything in the last book. This was the one I was looking forward to.
Years ago, back when I was fixing my first manuscript (what is now Dark Birth) and meeting other authors, I met Aprilynne Pike. She's the author of Wings. While helping guide me to prepare a better book, she mentioned her friend Stephenie Meyers and her Twilight books. I think the first two Twilight books were published and the third one was coming out. Aprilynne suggested I read them.
Now I'll be the first to admit different stroke for different folks. I'm not a "romance guy". I want more action and thrills. I could not identify with Bella or Edward either. I did however enjoy the Cullens, thew wolf pack and the Volturi. I read all four books but really didn't get super excited until Bella became a vampire. From that point on I enjoyed everything.
After four movies we're finally to the part of the series that I like. And after seeing it I feel they've treated it perfectly.
Bigger Spoilerific thoughts:
so beware
Serious. Want to be spoiled? Read on.
Bella's senses becoming heightened? Perfect! We zoom into sights, sounds and smells and can experience everything she can. In the book this gave me new insight on what Annabelle and Roland would feel. We see this on the big screen with great effect.
Bella getting mad at Jacob? Bella's arm wrestling with Emmett? Jacob's joke about the Romanian vampires? All of it and the other funny parts from the book were all delivered expertly.
We get to see Jacob showing Charlie what he is. We get to see the Cullen's recruiting the others. It's wonderful to see these scenes that we couldn't see in the book.
Ever since I read the book I was completely engrossed in the new vampires. My favs? Garret the Revolutionary vampire. He's wonderful in the film complete with his fledgling relationship with Kate is cute. Benjamin from the Egypt coven. The actor from Night at the Museum did a great job of capturing Benjamin's wide eyed curiosity. The Romanian vampires. Let's face facts. They're both Dracula and this is clear here. The actors play them perfectly and they even get some fun with the new fledgling werewolves. We got the Amazonian ones, the Irish ones and so on. All the new vampires and the various relationships were dead on.
When I met Renesmee in the book I was instantly conflicted. I love her character and she became my favorite but she scared me. I was still working on Annabelle's first book. My own vampire child was hunting deer in the woods and acting older than her physical appearance, behaving like any innocent yet immortal night child. I was worried after she got on the big screen, people would read my Ann and think "Oh, this is just Nessie." I shouldn't have worried.
Nessie starts out as computer animated because no baby could pull it off. We see her grow and fly to catch a snow flake but no speed or hunting or anything like that. Nothing remotely like Annabelle.
The more important thing, however, is that Mackenzie Foy plays her tenderly.
At the end of the film we see all the actors/characters from the entire series and many wonderful tributes to the fact that this came from a book series. Kinda wish the Potter films did that.
Now for the real spoiler. One more thing that will really spoil the film. I read this spoiler so I was prepared. I waited for the change from the book to happen and then watched the scene and my freaked out daughters (who have read all the books) at the same time so I'm going to have to re watch this scene again. This is different than the book so if you want to feel the shock and awe, don't read below this next pic...
Alice realises she cant convince Aro. She's about to be killed. Carlisle tries to rescue her. He's beheaded. The heroes attack, everyone gets all funky with full on battle. Jane kills Jasper. Edward (I think) kills Alec. Jane kills Seth. Alice drags Jane to Sam who kills her. And so on and so on. Beloved characters die left and right and the theatre was freaking out! My daughters were rocking back and forth mumbling about how wrong it all was.
And then we discover it was Alice's vision and when Aro bites it by the tag team effort of Bella and Edward, well let's just say he's OK not to press matters. So no one died after all! The audience cheers and laughed and the movie finished accurately complete with a vision showing grown up Nessie with Jacob and Bella and Edward. Happy ending.
So this was a great way to end it! Worth every penny.
