My Review: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (4/10)

¨No measure of time with you will be long enough. But we'll start with forever. ¨

The biggest winners of the Twilight Saga are definitely going to be the producers since they managed to stretch the last book of the series into two separate films; which means a lot more money in the box office. The problem is that this first part feels so stretched out that nothing really seems to be happening. The two hour movie could have been only half an hour long, but in order to make more money the producers decided to give us an extended wedding and honeymoon scene. To be honest I really enjoyed the first two Twilight films, I felt the third was a little repetitive, but this latest film is by far the worst in the series. There are some scenes which are just ridiculous and laughable (the mind reading scenes between the wolves for example), although there are a couple that worked really well and were the highlight of the film (the bloody birth scene reminiscent of a famous Pulp Fiction scene). I`ve never read Stephenie Meyer`s novels so I didn`t know what to expect, unlike most of the fans of the franchise who have already read the novels and know what is going to happen. The first two movies surprised me, but then the fantasy wore out and the love triangle got boring. It`s gone downhill for me since, and this latest film directed by Oscar winner Bill Condon is one of the worst films of the year in my opinion. All I can hope for is that the second part will work and end the franchise decently with a little more action or at least a decent plot. A scene after the end credits with the Volturi`s gave me a little hope. Micheal Sheen is the best actor in this series and it`s a shame he barely got any screen time.

As for the plot goes, nothing really seems to be happening that we haven`t seen before. The staring contest continues between Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart), and more tension ensues between Edward and Jacob (Taylor Lautner). The wolves continue to growl and run all over the woods while disputing with the Cullen`s. The Volturi`s are the ones that are left out of the film in this first part (until the credits that is). This fourth part begins with the wedding that is about to take place between Edward and Bella. Bella`s best friend, Alice (Ashley Greene) is doing her makeup and helping her out with the fashion while the guests are arriving to the ceremony. The wedding is beautiful, everyone there looks great, and the toast after the ceremony is perhaps one of the funniest scenes of the film where we have several of the characters give some funny speeches like Bella`s dad, Charlie (Billy Burke), who warns Edward that he knows how to use a gun if any harm is done to his daughter. Then there is also Bella`s mom, Renee (Sarah Clarke), who sings a lullaby she used to sing for her, and Edward`s parents, Dr. Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) and Esme (Elizabeth Reaser), who welcome Bella into their family. Edward`s vampire brothers (played by Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, and Jackson Rathbone) are also present at the wedding and everyone is happy. Then it`s time for Edward and Bella to go off on their honeymoon to Rio and finally consume the act. Edward doesn`t want to convert Bella into a vampire until they have sex so he is going to wait after the honeymoon. The problem is that Bella gets pregnant with this vampire baby exceedingly fast and her health is threatened.

The entire film seems as sort of an introduction to the final film, there is little going on really in the movie. I wonder if Twilight fans will sincerely enjoy this movie. To be honest I really liked the Twilight series at first, but it has grown repetitive and old, and the dialogue continues to get worse. The script was never the highlight of the franchise, it was about the characters and the fantasy world which was created, but instead of getting better the script continues to get cheesier and dumber by the minute. There is no reasonable way anyone would actually enjoy this film over the others. I think this was a weak effort and the material was never meant to be split into two films. The problem is that fans of the series are going to go see it anyways and the producers will be the ultimate winners. I expect most girls will enjoy this movie however in a similar way as they enjoyed staying up late to watch Kate and William`s wedding. I don`t think many guys will actually enjoy this film, and many will probably be dragged by their girlfriends.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/

My Review: Red Riding Hood (2/10)

¨ If you love her, you'll let her go.¨

We`ve all heard the fairytale before about little red riding hood and her visit to her grandma`s house, but this film takes a much darker spin on the familiar story; unfortunately it takes one for the worse. The story is so ridiculous that I think this will probably be the frontrunner for the worst film of the year. It`s too bad they couldn’t make a better film considering the director and the great cast that was involved in this project. In the first place you had director Catherine Hardwicke who has directed several interesting projects like Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown. Her most notorious movie, however, was Twilight and I know she got a lot of critiques for that, but even I enjoyed that film. Red Riding Hood is by far her worst film and doesn’t live up to her early work although she also missed the mark with The Nativity Story. The magnificent cast is also wasted in this film: Amanda Seyfried is an interesting actress but there was nothing she could do with the script she had to work with. Then there is the always dependable Gary Oldman, but I couldn’t help but think his role in this film was one I already had seen before. The great talents of Virginia Madsen and Julie Christie were also put to no good. David Johnson is the man responsible for massacring the story and his screenplay is probably the worst thing about this film since the dialogue is beyond ridiculous.

The story takes place somewhere during medieval times in a small village that is tormented by some sort of werewolf. The villagers have made a truce with the wolf by offering some sort of animal sacrifice every full moon as long as the beast stays away from them. Valerie (Amanda Seyfried) is one of the local girls that is very much in love with a woodcutter named Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), the only problem is that her parents, Cesaire (Billy Burke) and Suzette (Virginia Madsen), want her to marry the wealthy Henry (Max Irons). Valerie and Peter decide to secretly run away together when all of a sudden a bell rings which serves as an alarm for a wolf attack. The beast has slaughtered Valerie`s older sister and the whole town is outraged. They decide to hunt the wolf in order to get their revenge. They also hire a famous werewolf hunter named Solomon (Gary Oldman) to help them with the hunt. Solomon brings along his guards and claims the wolf could be anyone from the village so he keeps a firm hand on all the villagers and his methods are rather harsh. The wolf proves to be a difficult match for Solomon and many more people begin to disappear. At the meantime Valerie has to decide who she can trust, Peter her longtime love, or Henry her soon to be husband. Anyone could be the werewolf and not even her grandmother (Julie Christie) is off the hook.

It would be hard to avoid comparisons between this movie and Twilight since the same director was involved in both projects and we have the whole love triangle deal, and yes even a werewolf. The difference in my opinion is that Twilight had a far better story and an unbelievably strong chemistry between the lead characters. The characters in Twilight are much better developed, and in this film they just seemed out of place in such wonderful scenery. Not even the beautiful white snow seemed real as the characters wore light clothes and no mist came out of their mouths. It was as if it were snowing at 80 degrees. Frozen is another film I watched this year which I hated and even that film at least captured the cold and freezing sensation. This movie wasn’t able to transmit any emotion at all. I didn’t feel entertained, scared, or amused by anything that was going on. The only highlight of the movie was perhaps the scenery, but that was it. The suspense doesn’t exist, and the ending is rather ridiculous. I completely hated this movie and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone at all. It was a waste of some talented people. I didn’t have a problem with the performances as much as I did with the story.

http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/