I haven't been this enthralled by a book series since reading my childhood favorite series The Chronicles of Narnia. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis is my all-time favorite book. I've read the book more times than I can count and have seen the movie about 4 times. Too bad the Narnia movies aren't doing as well as the Twilight Saga. What's so great about this book series and movies? It's a love story involving vampires and werewolves. What more does a girl need? Being young adult, they're easy books to read which is good thing when the books reach the uppers of 700 pages, and having eye-candy on the screen in the form of Taylor Lautner, why wouldn't you want to watch these movies? I'm sure Stephenie Meyers had no idea what greatness was coming when Edward Cullen and Bella Swan came to her in that dream.
Twilight: The book grabs you the minute you decide if you are Team Edward or Team Jacob. Bella Swan is a nice heroine for young girls because she awkward and out of place. She's enduring to her father and has two men in love with her. Every girl's dream. The movie is my least favorite of them all. It was incredibly drab and boring. Kristen Stewart is a horrible actress and Robert Pattinson wasn't handsome enough for me to be Edward. I only suffered through it once. It tried again, but couldn't get through 10 minutes of it.
New Moon: This is my favorite book and movie. Bella's sadness is very real and jumps off the pages at you. I love how Stephenie expresses her longing in those pages that just has the months on them and nothing else. I thought that was brilliant and I loved how they portrayed it in the movie as well. We also get to see a lot of a shirtless Taylor Lautner in New Moon which is why I've seen this one more than all the rest. I'm definitely Team Edward in the books, but Team Jacob when watching the movies. Kristen Stewarts acting doesn't get any better and neither does her facial expressions. It's like her face is stuck on sullen. Dakota Fanning shows up in the movie as Jane and when she does, you think to yourself, she's perfect!
Eclipse: This one involves a lot more drama and excitement. The movie intertwines Eclipse with a short story by Stephenie Meyer, "The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner". This movie has to be my second favorite one, but the book was just ok to me. I enjoyed the short story more than Eclipse. The book started to feel like, oh I need to write another one because the first two were just so popular. Was it needed? Well, yes to get to an ending in Breaking Dawn, but did I really learn anything or did my opinions change about anyone in this book? Nope. This movie I felt was the closest to the books which is hard to do these days.
Breaking Dawn: I got this book at midnight when it came out. I've never been so eager to read a book ever in my life. Four years and 700+ pages later, I still ask myself was it worth it? I didn't love the book the first time I read it. Probably because I read it so fast and probably missed so much. It also left me feeling a little longing for a battle that never came. Some of us felt it should have ended differently. Maybe the Cullens become the new power coven or something like that. But, there was no fight, and the big bad guys, just turned around a went home. It was extremely disappointing. We didn't really get to see what all those super powers could do except Bella's. A huge let down. And let's not forget the horrible name of the half child/half vampire. Trying to get through the book having to read Renesmee over and over was like listening to sBut maybe the movie would give us what we were missing.
I enjoyed Part 1. I thought they did a good job with it even though I didn't get Bella's thoughts which is part of what makes these books so great. I really wanted to know what she was thinking during the movie; her thoughts on getting married, during the honeymoon, and while pregnant, but I didn't get that. I was satisfied after seeing it and was eager to see how part 2 would end. I left the theater today bewildered. I really didn't know how to express my feelings. As purist, I was upset that they added a huge part to the movie that wasn't in the book. As a fan, it felt like we got what we were missing from the book. I always want them to stay as close to the book as possible and this addition kind of upset me. They fixed it and put a band-aid on, but was it necessary? If you've never read the book then maybe it was. It needed the excitement, but the whole time it was happening I kept thinking this is not how it happened in the book. The audience was happy. Clearly they hadn't read Breaking Dawn. Even with that addition, it was a great ending to great run of movies even though Kristen Stewarts acting or facial expressions never improved.
Stephenie Meyer wrote another book which has a movie coming out called The Host. Of course I've read that too and hope for the movie next year. Then I have the Hunger Games Series to keep me busy, but I don't think I will love another series as much as I do Twilight. I was so invested in Bella, Jacob, and Edward, and now that it's ended the way that it did, I feel satisfied and ready for something new. There always is, but will it be as good? If only I had what Bella and Edward had to figure that out...FOREVER.
No comments:
Post a Comment