The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

[baumer]

I can answer all of those questions. But I'll pass thanks.

[Gopher]

No reason to pass. Some of them are actually serious questions.

[baumer]

Naaa...you're jaded towards the series. I'll let you have your fun with it. No point in wasting my fingers and thoughts to explain something that you really have no interest in knowing. I'm glad you saw it at least.

[Gopher]

Sure. I wouldn't say jaded, though... more like 'open-minded.' Unlike you, I'm not basing my experience of watching this one off of the fondness I have for the previous films.Thus, this was me for the entirety of its running time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OKBbor54oo8

[baumer]

Well, I'm glad you saw it and enjoyed some of it.

[Phil in the Blank]

Baumer won't answer those questions because there ARE no answers to those questions.It's just to someone who is in love with that world those 'nitpicks' don't mean anything.I agree with you though Gopher, Michael Douglas is a GOD for getting away with how he acted in that movie.

[baumer]

As I said, I'm not going to waste my breath on answering questions that are just asked to poke fun at the film.And it was Michael Sheen, not Douglas.

[rockNrollaDIM]

Michael Sheen makes the film. He's been a bright spot in past installments but he really saves this movie. He's brilliant.

[baumer]

I loved the way he said Bella's name, like he either wanted to devour her right there (kill her) or eat her up, like a mouthwatering steak.

Edited December 17, 2012 by baumer

[Webslinger]

Well then, here be some answers to those burning questions.

"How come when someone enters a room the characters already inside the room are just standing around doing nothing? What were they doing before?"

Because Bella is the center of the Twilight universe. They all just stand there frozen until she requires something of them.

"I understand why Jacob fell in love with the CGI baby, but... why?"

So that Stephenie Meyer could find a way to make up for the complete character assassination she performed on Jacob after she and at least half of the readers/viewers realized that Jacob - while a far cry from perfect - was a far more sensible match for Bella than Edward. I get that Meyer had good intentions with the imprinting concept, but it's still just icky in its implications. Okay, so Jacob's calling to Whatsherface is like a father/daughter bond when she's a child, but that bond is inevitably going to turn sexual and he knows it, and neither he nor Whatsherface has any choice in the matter.

"Why did they use a CGI baby that looked dead for half of its screentime?"

Because technology is awesome? (Honestly, I can't even come up with a decent snarky response here.)

"How come the basic plot of the two hour film is a goofy misunderstanding (''The child is evil!'' ''No it's not!'') worthy of a 70s sitcom?"

The 2-hour part of the question can be answered in all of one word: Money. Well, money and the need to stay faithful to the text, as such to please the fans who appreciate these movies on a genuine level. But why the final conflict in the franchise is something so trivial remains a mystery. It's something that would have made much more sense if the child had some great destructive power and Bella and company would have to convince the Volturi that they would find a way to help her channel her powers for good (not unlike in Looper), but instead Meyer just makes her into The Unfathomably Perfect Child whose only powers are completely benign.

"Why do the vampires now have X-Menish mutant powers? Was this always in the books?"

Yes. This point is covered more in the intervening sequels (particularly the third movie), but each vampire has an X-Menish power. (Holy crap, I just gave a straight answer with no hint of snark! Well, until now, at least.)

"Why did Taylor Lautner strip in front of Bella's dad?"

Because both his contract and the desire of much of the target audience to see his abs dictate that he must be shirtless in at least one scene of each movie. In all seriousness, though, I think Jacob wanted to get the message across that weird things were going down without explicitly revealing that Bella was now a vampire (because then the Volturi would have to kill him since no humans are ever supposed to know about vampires... except for the humans who work for them, but whatever; it doesn't affect Bella directly, so therefore Meyer doesn't care and we're not supposed to either). But otherwise, it's kind of random since it gets dropped immediately thereafter. He doesn't shoot Jacob any weird glances when the two are onscreen together again later in the movie, which is really really really odd considering that the son of one of his best friends, who he has presumably known for many years, stripped to his undies and transformed into a werewolf right in front of his eyes. He also asks precisely zero questions about how his daughter's, er, "adopted" daughter suddenly aged so many years in such little time - or for that matter, why she was mysteriously "adopted" around the same time that Bella was deathly sick with some vague disease just days after getting married. Come to think of it, he's not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed, so maybe Jacob figured he wouldn't get the basic message of "weird shit's going down" unless he spelled it out. But I doubt that semi-brilliance in character development was intentional on anyone's part. Taylor Lautner's just gotta take that shirt off.

"How did the vampires from around the world get to Forks so fast? From what they've shown us of vampires running, they don't run thatfast. It would have reasonably taken them a week."

Maybe sparkling in sunlight speeds them up? Honestly, I'm guessing they didn't get there that fast. The movie isn't clear at all about its timeline.

"Why were the foreign vampires so stereotypical? The Scottish vampires had the fishermen's caps, the Native American vampires had loin cloths. Did they travel like that? Did Michael Sheen travel all that way in that hoodie of his?"

You forgot about the Irish ones, who have great difficulty controlling their thirst... for blood, of course. And I'm guessing that they all took a page from The Muppets and traveled by map, since that's so much faster and they wouldn't have to worry about getting dressed and undressed out of their conveniently culture-specific garb. Honestly, they introduce so many new characters that not resorting to some cheap stereotype would make it near-impossible to tell them apart.

"How did Michael Sheen get away with this performance? It was self-aware camp perfection."

Because Aro is already such a non-threatening villain that there was really no other way to go. That, and I'm guessing Bill Condon is awesome and wanted something fun to break up the overly serious tone.

"Why did they gather all of those witnesses if they knew the Volturi wouldn't listen to them?"

Yeah, it was for the fight that didn't actually happen. At least they all seem to get that the fight is going to happen. What I wonder is why, if Alice could just show them a future in which the kid is not a threat at all (which we are never told goes beyond her abilities), they decide that gathering any witnesses is necessary - or, for that matter, that the Volturi won't believe them. It's also a gaping plot hole since Alice did show them something from the future in the second movie (namely, Bella cheesily frolicking in the woods with Edward as a vampire), and that was perfectly sufficient for them to back off then. Between that and producing the hybrid human/vamp from South America (also conveniently dressed in culture-specific garb!), they had a favorable outcome in the bag, so I don't get why they went to the trouble of amassing a small army of witnesses, either. I guess that logic just slipped their minds, and so an army was necessary to participate in the inevitable fight with the Volturi... which Alice then prevented from actually happening. I swear, she should have been renamed Deus Ex Machina, or just Deus for short.

"How come nothing of consequence actually happened in the film?"

Because nothing of consequence happened in the book, either. I guess one could make the argument that Meyer's focus is on Bella and her love for her husband and her daughter, and ensuring their future security is of the greatest consequence to her. But while that can make for good drama on a personal level, it isn't satisfying enough on the scope Meyer tries to set it on. If you set up a big battle, have the big battle. If characters' lives are in danger, really put them in danger. If there are going to be consequences for other characters that will weigh heavily on Bella's conscience, make those consequences happen. But Meyer has none of that despite setting it up, and it becomes really hard to care as much as she wants her audience to care if they're not already invested in Bella. She gets her happy ending, and we get a hand wave.

[Gopher]

I imagined during that scene before the fight that Condon and the producers were giggling behind the camera, in disbelief that they were getting away with this. I think he fully recognized how stupid the source material was and decided to have some fun with that final battle.

[Gopher]

And I'm guessing that they all took a page from The Muppets and traveled by map, since that's so much faster and they wouldn't have to worry about getting dressed and undressed out of their conveniently culture-specific garb.

[Squaremaster316]

DUD out of *****A fitting end for an absolutely atrocious series of films. Easily the most fundamentally flawed movies ever made.Detestable protagonists with the biggest Sue/Stu complex ever seen, atrocious acting from all involved, exceedingly dull atmosphere, laughable special effects, and the BIGGEST COPOUT TWIST EVER.No consequences, no growing as characters, just awful from start to finish.

[Squaremaster316]

[baumer]

Something tells me Squaremaster hasn't seen it.

[Michael Gary Scott]

Thought it was alright but clearly these movies arent made for me 2.5/5.

[phillip]

Only just saw this movie and... its absolute shiiiiiitttttteeee, one of the dullest, crappiest movies of 2012, acting was standard twilight acting, cgi was terrible, the baby was horrifying, the end was a massive cop out. Worst in the series and one of the worst of last year

Twilight - C-

New Moon D+

Eclipse - C

Breaking Dawn Part 1 - D

Breaking Dawn Part 2 - D-

[Claire of Themyscira]

I liked it. Oh well.

[baumer]

BD2 is the 2nd best one in the series imo, just behind Eclipse.  

[Claire of Themyscira]

BD2 is the 2nd best one in the series imo, just behind Eclipse.  

I agree. I haven't seen Eclipse since I saw it in theaters, but I still remember it. Ugh, I loved it.