And truth to be told, I am one of those romantic hopeless, tearing up over little heroic acts and big, creative, moving lines. And that's exactly what Breaking Dawn is TRYING to be. If you've read one of my previous posts on Moonlight, I said something along the lines of, that film was attempting to be something it's not capable of. And I'll have to copy and paste that remark for this installment.
But thankfully, there weren't many nugatory happenings to the build-up, unlike the previous ones. In fact, they jumped right to the readers' favourite and audience's hyped about scene - D wedding. The wedding dress was different than what one would have expected and I shall not comment on that. I have my own fantasies about the best-looking wedding dresses. On a solemn note though, that formality was job well done. It was as if it was done by ticking off every component on the list of must-haves for a perfect wedding - parents presenting family's treasured heirloom to the bride, check; mom tearing up, check; dad's lukewarm treatment towards his son-in-law, check; never-before-seen kindred, check; the bossy bridesmaid, check; the cheeky bridesmaid, check; a little bit of the family feud in between, check; some man (or in this case, a werewolf), baulking with the news of the marriage, oh so check; a wide-ranging genre of toasts - some were farcical, some were felicitous, and some were frivolous, check; and of course, how can we miss the very touching lines enunciated by both the bride and groom, that one not so check. There was nothing I found creative neither was it moving. Oh, there was one and it couldn't even be classified as a novelty. It was just a recital of the stale we-will-remain-married-for-better-for-worse-for-richer-for-poorer-in-sickness-in-health-blah blah blah wedding vows.
Damn, couldn't comment on the highlight of the film - the bed scene! It didn't get pass our censor. Too bad. I thought, if there's one thing which will receive credit from me, that would be their bed scene.
But there really is something worth some credit. Bella's father! He was good. Good as an actor and as a father. In fact, he nearly stole the spotlight in the wedding. Tears welled up when he bid her daughter goodbye and quipped that there's always a home for Bella to return to if she's not happy with the Cullens.
I have a serious complaint to file in the dialogue department - Why can't you just say that Edward will kill Bella if they were to have sex?! Why the purposeful bereavement of the word, sex or first night or intercourse?! Is it because it's going to take the literary element out of the dialogue? Or is it that it'll make Americans sound smarter? I took a wholesome 9 seconds to figure what Jacob was mad about when he found out Bella wouldn't be 'transformed' on the night of the wedding. Or maybe it's just that I'm dumb. And that would give you a rough idea of how the entire script was written. They were talking about some things without mentioning that something in their conversation. That's not cool. I'm not saying the audience wouldn't be smart enough to figure it out but the dialogue was very contrived. Like, the characters want themselves or the scriptwriter or the author want the characters to sound smart which didn't come across as such to me.
Phew, that's only on the first half of the film. The remaining of the film, was the same old story. The continuation of the battle between the dogs and the bats. The battle scene wasn't even epic to begin with. We already knew what was coming - the vampires will be lose the fight but win the battle.
Huge spoiler ahead!
Bella turning into vampire. Really? It will then defeat the whole theme weaving ubiquitously - the romance between an immortal and a mortal. So now we're heading to another instalment of the same film but with a different theme?
The whole film was better than what I had expected. I'm dead serious here! - despite the impression elicited in the above paragraphs. I walked into the theatre watching Twilight, expecting something different but was pleasantly surprised. That paved a higher expectation for the second one and it was downright imploded. And then the third one was less annoying. So, I told myself to not expect ANYTHING from Breaking Dawn and I was once again, just like the first time, pleasantly surprised. See, the trick is the mental strategy you set yourself for. But for a film which has grossed so much and garnered so much hype for, it was simply not good enough. And it certainly is nowhere near the bar set by Harry Potter. Sorry for being so mean. When my brother asked why am I still willing to pay to watch it, I told him, "Oh, I'm just as shallow as any of the girls out there". And I bet I will still portray that sort of willingness when the finale comes out next year.
