Less Than The Sum Of Its Parts, The Twilight Saga Holds Together Poorly.

| | | The Good: Moments of concept, Portrayal of young love, Cinematography
The Bad: Underdeveloped characters, Melodrama, Stiff acting, Belabored plot
The Basics: The Twilight Saga starts as a charming tale of love between a mortal and an undead individual and drags out a dismal series of conflicts for multiple movies.


There are few movie series’ that have been produced in recent memory that have both such loyal fans and such rabid detractors as The Twilight Saga. Based upon a tremendously popular book series that pretty much defined the contemporary teen paranormal romance genre, the cinematic Twilight Saga was one of the smartest bets by the studios in recent memory. It came with a build-in audience, had a sufficient franchise to draw out and had the potential for mass appeal. And it worked: the success of the first two films made household names of Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner, as well as launched the career of a number of the secondary performers in the films, and inspired the studio to split the final film into two to milk the fan base for additional money and keep the “phenomenon” alive.

But the same things that made the series seem initially strong also gave so much for the detractors to rant about: the films, which feature vampire and werewolf characters, were remarkably bloodless and for a great romance epic, the main couple was shockingly sexless. The acting was mixed and the fact that the film could not keep a consistent director to maintain a singular vision for the films may have worked against it (especially on the press circuit). For my part, I look at what is directly in front of me. Having sat down and rewatched the entire cinematic rendition of The Twilight Saga, there are several things that stand out to me now, looking at the work as a whole. As it will inevitably be viewed as a solid Saga (shocking that when Breaking Dawn, Part 2 was announced for DVD and Blu-Ray, no collector’s series set was announced simultaneously!), it behooves one to consider the entire work.

The Twilight Saga is a rare example where the parts, when put together, make something significantly less than the films on their own. Allow me to explain.

First, The Twilight Saga consists of the films:
Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn, Part I
Breaking Dawn, Part 2

For those unfamiliar with The Twilight Saga, the five films follow the exploits of Bella Swan, innocent, pale klutzy high school student who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington when her mother wants to travel more with her new boyfriend. Forks, a mist-covered rural community, is where Bella’s father lives and works as a sheriff. There, Bella meets the mysterious Edward Cullen. Edward, she quickly learns, is a vampire, but a friendly one. Bella and Edward begin a romance, which puts them in danger when a roving trio of vampires comes through and starts killing humans and attacks Bella.

On Bella’s eighteenth birthday, there is an incident and Edward abandons her, ostensibly for her own safety. At that point, Bella rekindles her friendship with Jacob Black, a local who she slowly learns is a werewolf. Jacob’s protective instinct kicks in and while Bella prevents Edward from killing himself so he is no longer tormented by his love for Bella, the attempt draws the attention of the powerful Italian vampires, the Volturi. The Volturi come to Forks shortly thereafter when the villainous Victoria raises an army of vampires to destroy the Cullens and the werewolves and vampires work together to protect Bella and put down the threat of the rogue vampire clan.

After Bella graduates high school, she and Edward get married and during their honeymoon, the unthinkable happens: Bella gets pregnant from Edward and the spawn is something no one quite understands.

What struck me most about rewatching The Twilight Saga all together was what a weak link New Moon (which I rather enjoyed when it originally was released) was and just what a forced sense of conflict the Saga possesses. The initial villains are dispatched fairly quickly and make way for a far less sensible group of villains. The Volturi are visually menacing and creepy beyond belief, but they are basically superpower vampires who claim to be working to preserve the vampires and keep them off the humans’ radar while being the most obtrusive group of vampires: while the Cullens and the other vampires seen in the Saga generally blend in, the Volturi look like out-of-date elves who kill humans with startling regularity.

The love triangle (a term I loathe because it seldom is actually true – and is not in The Twilight Saga, as there is no emotional connection between Edward and Jacob) between Bella and Edward and Bella and Jacob seems increasingly forced as the film series goes on. In fact, outside of most of New Moon, it is painfully clear to everyone save Jacob that Bella has chosen Edward as her love interest. Even more than any problems with Kristen Stewart’s (who plays Bella) acting, Bella becomes a problematic character for the way she makes her choice, yet keeps stringing Jacob along.

Ironically, Eclipse, which might be the least-respected of the films, is a stronger link in the storytelling. With a compelling villain, a cool effect (the battles in this film are bigger and actually have significance) and a real test for the Edward/Bella relationship where Edward’s solution is not simply to run away, Eclipse actually stands up as a solid and engaging film. It is, when viewed as a whole Saga, also the high water mark of the films.

The final two films seem like much more of a coda comparatively. They seem like a necessary evil to the story, as opposed to a vital chapter, a simple fleshing out of the promise at the climax of Eclipse as opposed to an engaging end to the story. Here is why: the wedding is an inevitable, obvious plot point that was pretty much foreseeable the moment Edward returned to Bella in New Moon. The incident with the Volturi is a forced plot point – in a perfect world with the seemingly endless financial resources of the Cullens and the fact that the Volturi are in Italy, Bella and Edward could have easily avoided them for all eternity – and the conception of Renesmee seems an artful dodge for an audience obviously not prepared for an actual adult relationship. In other words, the first year of most real marriages is, frankly, hell (after the Honeymoon period wears off). It takes a real love and patience to survive the first year of a marriage as two people give up doing everything their own way and figure out how to do things “the Us way.” That, however, is not what the audience who wants to gush over an immortal love between a hundred plus year-old man and an eighteen year-old woman wants to watch. So, the writers and directors provide a much more literal hell (and a less-than-subtle admonishment about the dangers of sexuality!) when Bella’s first lovemaking produces a monstrous pregnancy that (among other things) shatters Bella’s spine and leaves her with becoming a vampire as her only viable chance of survival. Instead of taking the fantasy of immortal love and making it seem more real, The Twilight Saga makes love seem more preposterous and uncomfortable and dangerous.

The Twilight Saga has somewhat inconsistent direction but, oddly enough, a consistent sense of spectacle and quality of cinematography that makes the movies eminently watchable. The pacing for the Saga is off and the acting is inconsistent. However, while Kristen Stewart gets the awkward nature of Bella Swan right in Twilight, it is not until the Breaking Dawn movies that she is given more room to express range, so she goes through most of the Saga stiff and portraying boredom over passion. In rewatching the Saga, it is actually Robert Pattinson who stands out for the poor acting. Whereas Taylor Lautner portrays Jacob Black as an invested, interesting, and passionate guy, Pattinson’s role seems to be simply to show up. Edward Cullen is cold, passionless, and frightfully dull and Pattinson does not make the role any warmer. Instead, he is stiff, gives Stewart almost nothing to play off of and yet, when he smiles, that is supposed to substitute for actual personality.

It, alas, does not.

Ultimately, any one of the Twilight films is fine, but when viewed together as the complete Twilight Saga, it becomes tiresome and more of a mess than it ought to. Fans and moviegoers deserve quite a bit more.

For other film sagas, please check out my reviews of:
The Dark Knight Trilogy
The Harry Potter Saga
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy

5/10

For other film reviews, please check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Eh, On The Action-Adventure Front: Mr. And Mrs. Smith Fizzles.

The Good: Everything looks good
The Bad: Lack of convincing characters or acting, Predictable plot twists
The Basics: Unfit for consumption by clever individuals, Mr. And Mrs. Smith is simply another Hollywood action-adventure with nothing truly to recommend it.


Sometimes we sit down to watch a movie with the hope, the barest hope, that it will not be as terrible as we suspect it can be. Mr. And Mrs. Smith, if you want the short answer, is just as terrible as you might expect of a big-budget Hollywood, action adventure movie staring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Unlike the far better Jersey Girl, which suffered because of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's relationship off-camera, this piece of cinematic garbage apparently benefited from Jolie and Pitt's off-camera whatever.

John Smith and Jane Smith are bored with their marriage and in counseling to work on their problems. There, they recount what led them to counseling; they both learned that the other was lying to them about the same thing, in fact. Both John and Jane are hired assassins working for different companies. When one of Jane's missions is blown by John, he becomes her target and the two set out destroying just about everything in order to get to one another.

Along the way, they learn how much of their relationship was built on lies and how much genuine feeling they have for one another. And it all resolves itself in a feel-good Hallmark movie-of-the-week type way.

It's just crap. Save yourself the time and money. Better yet, watch a decent action adventure, one with brains. Spend a little more and get the first season of Alias on DVD. That's a vastly better use of your time and money. And I can say that without even knowing you. You can do better than this.

The best thing about Mr. And Mrs. Smith is that it looks good. The people are unnaturally attractive, their hair doesn't get messed up or singed off when giant explosions go off near them, and the explosions themselves look great on the DVD. This is a movie where things look good and Doug Liman, the director, hopes that will be enough.

He's wrong. First off, Simon Kinberg, the writer of this movie, should be forced to turn in his WGA card and spend the next five years selling ice cream. There was not a line of redeeming dialogue in this entire movie. The characters are utterly flat and it makes no sense whatsoever that they would spend minute after minute recounting all of the lies between them and then conclude that they should be together. This is stupid even for Hollywood fare.

The acting is all-around terrible as well. Brad Pitt supports the notion that he is simply good looking and can't act. There is none of his brilliance from 12 Monkeys (reviewed here!), none of his humor or charm from his guest appearance on Friends, nothing but a guy in a suit playing a part Keeanu Reeves could have covered just as insightfully. Angelina Jolie and Vince Vaughn (Pitt's sidekick and best friend in the movie) are dull and cringeworthy unfunny, respectively. Vaughn's appearances on screen are enough to make the viewer grab the remote to fast forward through his banal, predictable jokes and phrases.

The plot is predictable and all of the reversals that are executed, we've seen before in better works. I should try to say more that's bad about this film, but that's it. That's all there is. You have a terrible script with an inane plot, lousy dialogue delivered by actors who either can't or aren't performing and you have a lousy movie. This is it.

For other works with Michelle Monaghan, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Source Code
Mission: Impossible III
Constantine

2.5/10

For other film reviews, please be sure to visit my Movie Review Index Page for a complete, organized list of my movie reviews!

© 2012, 2006 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Surprisingly Decent Hugh Grant (Who Would Have Guessed?). It’s About A Boy!

The Good: Funny, Good acting, Interesting characters
The Bad: Predictable plot and message
The Basics: In a clever film that puts Hugh Grant in a rather unlikable role, Will must help Marcus deal with his crazy mother.


I am not, traditionally, a fan of Hugh Grant. In fact, in the past, I have found his supposed boyish good looks to be a cheap excuse for his lack of genuine acting talent. He seems to be cast in a great number of things based on his sparkling blue eyes and casual demeanor. About A Boy changes that. Finally, Hugh Grant has been cast in a way that denies all of the preconceptions of who the actor is.

Will is a bachelor and a pretty self-centered one at that. He has little to worry about, living off the royalties from a song his father wrote. When Will stumbles on a plan to get easy, low-maintenance dates, he discovers single moms. Convinced he will seem like less of a jerk than men who leave them with their kids, Will joins a single parent's group. It is through that group that he meets Marcus, the twelve year old son of a crazy hippy. Will realizes early that Marcus needs help and can use a decent, reliable human being in his life. He decides to be that person.

What works terribly well is Hugh Grant's acting. From a distinctly different posture to the utter lack of a sparkle in the eye, Hugh Grant proves that he can act in About A Boy. Grant plays Will as utterly charmless and he does it surprisingly well. While most actors or actresses who hinge on natural charm will at some point allow their persona to slip and they reveal themselves, Grant does not do that at any point in this film. Indeed, one of the very last scenes where Will joins Marcus on stage, it seems like there would be an opportunity for him to be more Hugh Grant, but instead, the actor manages to disguise himself. He works out perfectly in this role.

And Will is an unlikable character. He is self-centered, crabby, and honest in all of the wrong ways about all of the worst things. He grows throughout the film, but not at a pace that makes us fail to believe that he has been in an egotistical rut the past thirty years of his life. Indeed, if there is any real fault in About A Boy, it is that it betrays its origins of a miserable character for a fairly easy answer with Will's progression into normal human being.

On the other end of the spectrum is Marcus. Marcus is almost equally self-absorbed. Still, he is able to recognize in Will all of the faults of the older man and he's not afraid to call him on his b.s. Marcus is a kid with an agenda and he sees the ability in Will to have a back-up plan should his wacky mother Fiona actually go off the deep end. And there is evidence that Fiona is headed in that direction; the first day Marcus and Will meet, Fiona has an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

I'm not so big on child actors. Frankly, most of them could not act their way out of a paper bag. This is simply the nature of the beast; children have not experienced a huge array of emotions yet, so they cannot be expected to portray them on camera. But Nicholas Hoult, who plays Marcus, is genuinely good. Hoult is in command of his body language and tone. He does an excellent job of portraying a child who is both cunning and naive. Hoult makes us believe in a character who can be both clever and hurt, wanting desperately to be healed and having only the most basic ideas of how to get it.

The cast is rounded out by Toni Collette, who plays the hippy Fiona. Collette manages the difficult job of playing someone who we may believe is a parent and yet is a complete flake. She sells us quite convincingly on the idea of being both self-absorbed and oblivious to Marcus' needs while still managing to get out several difficult and long sets of lines where she has to emote in character. She does it amazingly with a strong balance of miserable facial expressions and a huge array of emotive tones.

About A Boy, was a film I had heard decent things about, but nothing prepared me for how good it was. It was actually funny. In the end, I laughed at this film more than any piece in recent memory. It was well-acted and had good characters and in the end, it was funny.

Sometimes, that's the best we can ask for, even if it does have a somewhat predictable plot arc.

For other works with Nicholas Hoult, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
X-Men: First Class
Clash Of The Titans

8/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2012, 2003 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Something To Gush About: New Moon Has Decent Romance And Conflict.

The Good: Good character work, Decent special effects, General plot, General acting
The Bad: Plot changes up rather abruptly, A few acting wrinkles.
The Basics: Tugging on the heartstrings before becoming a pretty intense action movie, New Moon progresses the Twilight Saga well.

When New Moon came out, it was a pretty good week for my wife and I. Star Trek hit Blu-Ray (and became the first one in our permanent collection) and the release of New Moon theatrically, which was her favorite book in the Twilight Saga, we were both very happy. Given how the first movie I took her to was Twilight (check out my review by clicking here), I was quite excited to be able to share our first viewing of New Moon together by going out to a midnight showing. Since then, we’ve seen the movie a couple of times and even picked up some of the merchandise, like the Bella and Edward Hallmark ornament.

While my wife is a big fan of the Twilight Saga, I have not read any of the books. As a result, this is a very pure review of the film alone. That said, my partner and I were psyched about seeing the next installment in the Twilight Saga and from the sheer number of hand squeezes and excited glances I received from my wife, I am fairly sure readers of the books will enjoy the film. But for those who might not have liked the teen melodrama of Twilight, New Moon offers a bit more and despite the fact that it treads in some pretty familiar ways, New Moon is surprisingly engaging, even to those who might not be predisposed toward the Twilight Saga.

After a nightmare wherein Bella Swan realizes just how profound her aging will be when compared to the immortal nature of her vampire lover, Edward, she begins her Senior year of high school at Forks. On her eighteenth birthday, she tries to keep the event quiet, but is invited to the Cullen’s (local good vampires in Forks, WA) house for a small party. While opening a gift, she gets a papercut and the least stable of the brood, Jacob, makes to harm her. Between this and the fact that locals have begun to notice Dr. Carlisle Cullen not quite looking the right age, Edward and the Cullens leave Forks and abandon Bella. As the months go by, Bella is plagued with loneliness and night terrors, missing both Edward and his “sister,” Alice, whom she had become friends with. After a few stupid decisions which put her in danger, Bella turns to her friend Jacob for companionship.

Over the course of reconstructing two motorcycles together, Bella and Jacob become closer and Bella begins to realize Jacob makes her feel better about Edward’s absence. But Jacob is feeling stress about something within his tribe and he, too, soon flees from Bella. When that happens, Bella becomes proactive and discovers exactly what Jacob’s secret is; he has become a werewolf, like many of the Quileute tribe. The Quileute aid Bella and police chief Swan in dispatching Laurent and hunting Victoria. But during the hunt for Victoria, Bella takes a rash action which causes Alice to have a vision, which changes everything.

At that point, the movie changes from a compellingly moody character study into more of an action-adventure film and even with the format change. Director Chris Weitz does a decent job of maintaining the feel of Twilight while evolving the look in New Moon. If the color palate was blue-washed for much of Twilight, New Moon is simply dark in many of the key moments. It is only in the climax of the film that the colors seem so rich and real that the viewer feels like they are immersed within the story.

Beyond that, New Moon is a very different film from Twilight. Whereas Twilight was preoccupied with building up a passion between Bella and Edward, New Moon quickly becomes a film that is fleshing out the mythos of the Twilight universe. Unfortunately, it is remarkably similar to the mythos of virtually every other fantasy-horror series in recent years. Most closely mimicking the backstory of Underworld, New Moon establishes a now familiar long history of animosity between vampires and werewolves which was only alluded to in Twilight. The thing is, because viewers have seen so much of this in recent years, it is a harder sell and Stephanie Meyer and scriptwriter Melissa Rosenberg have little to offer. Vampires hate werewolves, werewolves hate vampires, humans get caught in the middle. We get it. New Moon, unfortunately, offers no new twists on that old dichotomy.

What the film and the writing deserve credit for is creating a mythos that has some plausible sense of history to it. By fleshing out the Quileute tribe and the Volturi, New Moon does have a sense of being larger than Bella, Edward and Jacob, which is something the first Twilight Saga film did not have. As well, the development of the story is remarkably well done. So, for example, each vampire has a skill and in the first film this was mentioned more in passing and not every character had their talent revealed. Early on, it is revealed that Jasper “pushes” emotions onto others and so when he becomes crazed at the sight of Bella’s blood, the scatter that results has a reality to it that would have been lacking, if not for the seed planted earlier. Similarly, Jacob’s sense of unrest with what is going on with the Quileutes is developed slowly without any quick answers. The movie has a sense of being big and deep, which is a nice change from Twilight.

At the same time, New Moon is surprisingly intimate in its focus on Bella. While Jacob gets a lot more screentime and the werewolf Quileute are made more explicit than in the first film, Bella is the obvious subject of most of the film. Isolated from her one true love, she does what virtually any young woman would do; she checks out the other options available to her. But before that, Weitz and the writers flesh the time and loneliness out with one of the least campy time-lapse sequences in recent years. Bella’s night terrors are difficult to watch – we do not see her nightmares, but rather their effect – and her hallucinations of Edward often are unsettling. In short, while the budding romance between Bella and Jacob is delivered with realistic pace, far more interesting is the simple and direct character study of the young woman and her emotional struggle to let go of the man who has promised never to see her again.

But this leads to the biggest acting nit in New Moon. New Moon has some pretty solid acting, especially for such a young cast. Robert Pattinson does a decent job of being realistically moody and trying to restrain himself as Edward. Taylor Lautner actually shows some serious acting chops as Jacob by having the greatest emotional range in the film. Lautner deserves a lot of credit because Jacob is not just some conflicted guy trying not to love, he has moments where he is happy and Jacob is emotionally aware enough to suspect that he is just a placebo for the absent Edward. Lautner plays the moments of bliss, anger and surprising emotional articulation equally well.

But Kristen Stewart is given an acting challenge she does not quite rise to well enough and it is what holds the film back from reaching higher. Bella Swan is tormented by night terrors that leave her body writhing in agony and screaming . . . but never, strangely, sweating. She is hallucinating Edward at dangerous moments, but when the moment passes, she seems generally all right. Here’s a woman who is not sleeping and doing dangerously stupid things, yet Stewart carries her as surprisingly awake and alert at virtually every moment of the film. It doesn’t quite jive. Those with a real attention for detail will find this most problematic at the climax of the film when Bella is surprisingly energetic.

On DVD, New Moon comes with commentary tracks, featurettes on the making of the movie and previews for this film and the next installment. Having since seen Eclipse and read The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner, the films are worth seeing and the bonus features are pretty pleasing for the fans.

That said, New Moon does exactly what it sets out to do and it does it surprisingly well. There is good chemistry between the principle actors and the special effects are wonderful. As well, the soundtrack is unobtrusive and the story has enough going for it to draw viewers back for the next installment. Anyone who likes fantasy romance or even action-adventure films with character will likely enjoy New Moon.

For other fantasy or science fiction films, please check out my reviews of:
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Land Of The Lost
Dark City

7/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.





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