I don't know why I bothered to waste my money when I knew good and well what I was getting myself into.  "You have to complete the series," I thought.  "It has to be finished."  What's worse is that I didn't even have to be nagged by the thoughts longer than 30 seconds before I caved.  Fine, fine.  I'll buy the damn thing. It's on sale anyway.  Maybe it'll be good, seeing as how they brought Cary Ewles back into the picture.  Maybe they'll close this series good and proper like, since it's in dire need of it.  But boy was I ever wrong.  Just when I thought the movies couldn't get any worse, I was proven wrong.  And rather than just view the dang thing on Netflix or something, I go and waste 20 bucks on it because I just had to "complete the series," even when my liking of the films stopped after part III.  And though it was a BIT refreshing to finally get some closure on the fate of Dr. Gordon, it was not to sort of closure I was after.  Worse yet, it made no sense at all.  Sad to say that even Cary Ewles couldn't save the franchise, if it was even salvageable.  But alas, it wasn't.

It doesn't even merit a review, since it's the same crud dished out by all the previous films that DIDN'T have a living Jigsaw.  After the demise of the real villain, the films simply had nowhere to go but down.  They've mutated from "life lessons taught by a man at death's door" to "man who just likes to kill people for no reason at all."  In other words, the Saw franchise has sadly stooped to being just another horrific slasher flick that you can't even try in the slightest of ways to care about.  At least in the first 3 movies, you really feel for what Jigsaw's trying to "teach" his victims.  They're valuable life lessons combined with numerous unfortunate deaths.  Oh of course they're all gross and disgusting, but the lessons are still good ones.  But after the 3rd film, that crucial element began to slip away.  The Saw movies had to run on the fumes of grotesque gore without purpose, without the advantage of a villainous mastermind at the wheel.  It's a shame they had to kill off the real villain of the films, but I suppose there was no telling how successful the films would be before they were released.  I'm sure the creators are just kicking themselves.  Genius horror evolved to lowly gore.

And Dr. Gordon? Why, this latest and final addition to the franchise reveals him to be an accomplish of Jigsaw's too!  Yep.  He got to survive, get found by Jigsaw, and got nursed back to health by him.  And then, for some unknown reason, decides to grant Jigsaw's requested favor of looking out for Jill, Jigsaw's widow. Umm...okay?  As an added bonus, he got to help Jigsaw set up his future traps using his great doctor skills, such as sewing shut some eyelids, or surgically implanting a key into someone's skull.  Umm...WHAT?  So apparently, he had forgotten all about his reasons for escaping in the first place (his wife and daughter), and decides to team up with Jigsaw out of the goodness of his heart, even despite having sliced off his foot to escape the predicament that Jigsaw put him in.  I suppose we're supposed to believe that the process changed his mindset and caused him to side with Jigsaw's cause. He got to be in the conclusion of the movie, having locked the OTHER villain into the very bathroom grave from the first film to meet his own demise.  All in all, just so ridiculous. Too ridiculous.  Too many scattered deaths with no reason other than to gross you out and outdo each other.  And no life lessons.    

Just a waste of money, which I knew it would be.  I will likely just do away with most of the Saw movies, starting with part 4 or 5.  This is a franchise that didn't need to be completed, since the true "spirit," of the series died early in anyway.  That's the point they were completed, in my opinion. After that, it's just no need to finish it.  Bleh.

SPOILERS!

After 3 viewings and a few scattered review readings, I've finally come to the point where I can contribute my own thoughts on that latest Twilight movie.  Of course, like the other movies, there's good, bad, and ugly. But in this one's case, there's way too much good for the bad or ugly to have an effect on my opinion of the movie.  In fact, I'd dare to say there's some "fantastic-ness" in this one.  All in all, I was extremely satisfied.  Maybe a little TOO satisfied, because if I wasn't, this post would have been submitted no later than a day after my initial viewing of the movie.  Despite all the insurmountable mess of horrid reviews that would inevitably follow such a big movie, I was most pleased.  But let me put this out there that YES, I so wish there was more in the movie.  OF COURSE, I wish there was more. There was a lot missing that made no sense to leave out, especially seeing as how one book split into two movies, so there shouldn't be much excuse to leave much out.  Some of the facts in a few negative reviews I've read totally make sense, and I even agree with them. But as for me, just bearing in mind the feelings I had from the other 3 films as opposed to the feeling that THIS one left me with? There's no comparison.  This is definitley one that did it for me, one that made me really appreciate the franchise and my participation with it.  I didn't leave this movie being so pissed off at what was left out, or what wasn't. I left this one feeling fulfilled. 

And I will also say this much in regards to all the negative reviewers out there.  While everyone has a right to their opinions, the only people who have a right to voice that opinion as a contribution to the overall movie are those who've either seen all the films or read all the books.  Whether you loved them or hated them is irrelevant.  It's so obvious that many of the negative reviews are that much simply because they're being voiced by people who haven't the slightest idea what the hell's going on due to their lack of interest or participation in the franchise, or people who are only intent on hating what they see simply becase they're already not fans of the franchise.  It's downright laughable knowing that many of the reviews out there are being submitted by people who have only just begun to watch Twilight movies, starting with "Breaking Dawn," or are reviewers who pick on the movie for having certain elements when those elements are supposed to be there anyway, seeing as how this is derived from an already existing story IN A BOOK. It's a big duh.  It's like saying you hate Jacob for being a wolf, even though he's been a wolf since Stephenie Meyer wrote him that way.  To say you hate that element of the story if fine, but to hate a movie because it has that element is just a little ridiculous.  Are you kidding me?  And your opinion is supposed to be legitimate?  Shut up and get out of the way of those who have actually seen all the films or read all the books.  Only those people have opinions that matter in the end, whether they're for the movie or against it.   

That said, here's my general thoughts.  In my opinion, this one was the most loyal to the book.  Still, it's amazing how many different opinions there are of that. I can't tell you how many reviews I've read of those who claim they're huge Twilight fans who think it strays too far from the book.  At worst, it's not the book in entirety, which is unfortunate because...good grief, you're splitting the dang thing into TWO flippin' movies. Is it really so difficult to include EVERYTHING?  Make the dang thing more than 2 hours long. Heck, make it three. You'd be catering the most to the fans of the franchise, and you know they'll be contributing tons of money to its success anyway, so why not make them happy?  But to say it doesn't follow the book at all would be a blatant lie, I think. Because entirety or not, there's still soooooo much from the book found in the the movie this time around, from scenery to dialogue.  In fact, I'll even dare to say that a good chunk of the movie laid out the book's scenes almost accurately. What it has included is, in my best opinion, VERY geared towards the fans and readers of the books, even if there's a lot still missing.  Sucks to be a non-book fan, I guess, but whatever.  Read them!

 THE PERFECT:

THE WEDDING:  Event number one to NOT screw up when translating the book to screen.  Extremely perfect.  The pages were spilled out in very vivid detail right before my eyes.  From the panic on her face to the ooey, gooeyness of the new couple.  The anxiety and then relief and then the wallowing in the decision to marry him. It actually felt I was watching a real wedding.  It fit together so incredibly well.  The decorations, the ditziness of mom, the awkwardness of Charlie.  Perfect.  Eh, the dedication speeches during the reception were a bit lame, but still cute and funny.  And the altercation with Jacob outside? Is there a better word than "perfect?" Because I've already used it too many times. Jacob and Bella were practically lifted out of the pages it felt like.  And their interaction was so genuine and cute.  And my gosh, Kristen showed her first signs of emotion! Now after Jake got angry, it would have been better to see the wolves pushing him back in wolf form as in the books instead of the human forms in the movie, but it was forgivable.  The dialogue was there and that's what counts.

 THE HONEYMOON: Event number two to NOT screw up.  Again, the scene was laid out perfectly, almost page by page. I mean dang, they even remembered to include Jacob's wolf howl when Bella was leaving on her honeymoon with Edward. And everything else just fell so much into place.  Carrying her over the threshold, the ocean with a moonlit view, Bella's "human minutes" filled to the brim with more of her panic over the sharp change her life was about to take.  Even if her new husband wasn't a vampire, the entire scene was just so spot-on in portraying what a number of new virgin brides are bound to feel emotionally on their honeymoon night.  I just can't believe they included almost everything from this very pivotal scene. For a moment, I thought they had no intention to include a bruised Bella, seeing as how it was seemingly implied that she and Edward made love multiple times before they found bruises.  But after my second viewing, it became clear that, JUST LIKE THE BOOK, she was merely wallowing in the memory of making love for the first time. And like the book, the scene was merely Bella playing over and over again the moment her mind from how it began to how it ended.  She was letting the awe of her happiness be the most important fact on her mind before the bruises became a factor. Just as the book describes. I just can't believe I didn't notice it at first.  Too be THAT close to the book? Amazing. And of course the breaking of the headboard, which gave us a visual image of it occurring instead of it being an afterthought we had to imagine.  All in all, it was a very well-done honeymoon scene.  

THE PREGNANCY AND BIRTH:  Event number 3 to NOT screw up. Though a few scenes leading up to the discovery of her pregnancy (as well as her connection to the baby) felt a little rushed and off, the actual physical pregnancy itself was damn good.  What the scene got right was Bella's puking of chicken, her pensive moment over her unused tampons, and Edward's shock that she could be pregnant with his baby. What it got wrong was her not eating like crazy every morning. Minor, yeah, but I think it would have made it fit together more.  Back to the physical pregnancy though. Whoa.  That bruised up belly and Bella's concave face and bony body were make-up jobs so well done.  She was flippin' hideous. Craggled.  Just like book Bella.  Now the birth? Oh my.  Despite the underuse of blood, it was extremely good. I do understand the need to keep this movie PG-13, but come on, they couldn't use a LITTLE more blood?  I guess so.   Still, at least they got the bone crackings right.  It totally sounded like a human was being mangled to bits.  Having the birth from Bella's perspective worked for the most part, but moments were a little unclear because of it.  For example, non-book readers may be unaware that Edward was biting the baby out of Bella, seeing as only his teeth are able to penetrate the amniotic sack.  Eh, you get a glimpse through her eyes, but honestly, it almost looks like he took a few sips from her seeping blood.  I would have preferred for Jacob to stop Rosalie from feeding on Bella instead of Alice, because in the book, it gave him a bit of purpose for being there.  But I guess it's no big deal.  

JACOB: I feel like a broken record by now, but man. Perfect.  Even if I wasn't a "team Jacob" girl, I still think he's the most accurate of characters, along with Charlie. He's got so many lines from the book, it's almost ridiculous.  I can't even remember if any of his dialogue from the film ISN'T in the book.  Because damn near everything the boy says is straight from pages.  Okay, well...mostly everything.  There were a few changed lines that were very unsatisfying, but I'll get to that later on.

THE IMPRINT:  It's a crucial moment in the book, though very quick.  Equally, it was a crucial moment in the movie and was executed flawlessly.  The visuals on baby Renesmee's face were almost freakishly real.  They got her eyes so right! And that magical glance over at Jacob, followed by the various snippets of an adult Renesmee taking all of Jacob's focus, as if it was erasing everything and anything else on his mind was just....I can't even find words anymore.  Just get used to reading "perfect."

THE GOOD:

DIALOGUE/SCENERY: As mentioned before, there were so many lines in the film that were lifted clean off the pages. I appreciated to actually hear the dialogue that I once read in my mind.  Scenery too. Bella's wedding, though not outdoors in the book, worked well on film.  The hanging flower garlands were beautiful (look at me fawning over wedding stuff. Blah, perhaps that girl in me is finally wanting marriage already).  Isle Esme, the island of their honeymoon, was awesome too. Invoked a very real feeling of...well, what?  Escapism?  Something along those lines.  

WOLF TELEPATHY:  I appreciated getting a taste of this, seeing as how a HUGE chunk of the book involves dialogue spoken by the wolves in their wolf form. Would I have been mad if I didn't experience that?  I can't say, but I liked it for being there.  However, there was something I DIDN'T like about it, but I'll get to that later.

BELLA:  Wow. Sharp transition.  I actually didn't hate her as much. Perhaps because she's dying?  That was suggested by a friend of mine lol, but nah, not because of that. Not really.  I just loved that she actually showed emotion this time around.  She freaking cried, man. CRIED!!  And even smiled more.  She made me believe that she cared about what was going on in her life and around it.  

THE BAD:

EDWARD: I hate to say it, but I don't think he was all that great this time around.  He started out okay, but then as the movie progressed...he was just wrong. What I mean is, he didn't translate very accurately on screen for some reason.  He didn't emote the pain I remember reading from the book.  Not that I wanted to see him in pain, but....I got a much better view of how desperately in love with Bella he was from the book that I didn't see too much of in the movie.  The perfect moment was when he first spoke with Jacob in which he fell to his knees in front of Jacob, something that really stood out in the book to me.  Pure submission to the connection he knew Jake shared with Bella.  I don't know who to blame for it, since Pattinson played Edward just fine before and is a very fine actor.  But something was off here.  He was just more robotic this time during the moments when I didn't want artificiality (like during Bella's pregnancy).  He was depicted more as angry, repulsed, rejected, and bitter.  Angry at Bella for wanting the baby, repulsed by the fact that the baby would kill her, rejected by Bella who wanted the baby more than him, and bitter over the fear of eventually losing her.  Yes, though much of those feelings are perfectly normal and definitely what he was feeling in the book, it's just not the way he was supposed to be expressive in the entire situation of her pregnancy. Despite his hatred of the situation, he never once was harsh towards her in the book, and that didn't show in the movie. Didn't like that.  

MISSING SCENES: I can chalk this to mere nitpickiness, but still. They have to be said.  The obvious is all the Jacob vs. Rosalie banter. I suppose translating those moments to screen weren't really necessary for the direction they decided to take the movie, but a little bit more couldn't have hurt. And I suppose also they weren't crucial for character development.  Doesn't mean they weren't missed though; their presence would have made the in-house pregnancy scenes a little more interesting.  Jacob's desperation to get over Bella was missing too. Again, not extremely crucial, but it would have definitely helped to add to his uncontrollable urge to imprint on just ANYONE just so he didn't have to think about her anymore.   The character developments of Seth and Leah were missing too, but mainly with Leah. We get to really understand her in the book, but not so much in the movie. Yeah, there were a few tastes of it, and she definitely had book lines in the movie, but it was too short.  Too rushed. Too uninvolved. But the movie's version of the plot was different from the book, and something had to be sacrificed to accomodate it.  

NEW VAMPIRES:  Meh.  Weird. Just thrown in the movie it felt like, and with freshly applied make-up. They should have been toned down a bit.  

FIGHTS: Uneventful. And obviously included to add some action to the otherwise actionless first half of the book. I guess it wouldn't have worked to have just talking and talking and more talking (the sort that would have developed the characters like in the aforementioned missing scenes).  The fact that they left out the Rose and Jacob banter as well as the Leah development meant that something else had to develop to fill in the movie, and in this case, it's a fued between the wolves and vampires to add to the tension.  I forgive the changes for that alone, but still.  They didn't have to make the fights so lame.  Everyone heals fast anyway...was it too much to have someone get wounded? Guess so.

The UGLY:

WOLF TELPATHY: Okay, yes, I loved that I got to see this in the movie, but I hated...I repeat...HATED how it was done.  The altered voices of the actors did NOT work, and made the scene a little TOO ridiculous. Corny. Lame. Fake.  There was no reason to alter their voices in the attempt to make them menacing.  I hated it. So, while I loved to see it happen, I hated how it was done.  I'm glad it was short-lived because of this.

A LINE:  This is gonna sound silly, but man, I really wanted to hear Jacob spit a "Throw it out the window!" in response to Edward trying to pass Renesmee to him after delivering her.  Totally nitpicky, but man, it sucked to have the actual scene RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF ME, and to here him utter something completely different.  Perhaps the window line may have sounded too silly, I guess, but still!

SCORE BITS:  Fortunately, SOME of the movie's music was great, even awesome.  But other parts of it, like the piano themes with just Edward and Bella?

HORRIFIC. Dowright distracting, invasive, and extremely unappealing.  I can't believe how much I hated the music for chunks of this movie.  As a result, the scenes that were supposed to be---well "sweet" I suppose---ended up being like something out of a lame soap opera.  Very amateurish feeling to them.  As I said, though, some music was great and saved the movie's score at least in some areas. 

THE RUSH THROUGH THE MOVIE:  This was very loyal to the book, in my opinion, but not as loyal as it could have been. It was rushed and moved too quickly when it should have taken its time.  Bella's connection to the baby, for instance.  I don't think there was much thought put into that.  Because of the pace of the movie, I didn't see a reason why she'd suddenly embrace her baby as this "miracle," as she says.  The pace says to me that the only logical reaction she should have is fear and uncertainty. Obviously she doesn't have this in the books, but because they didn't dwell enough on it and just sped through it, it didn't come off right to me.  The only thing that makes me forgive that is what was right in the movie, which was plenty.  But now I'm being repetitive again.  

VOLTURI:  Totally useless and added nothing, not even suspense.  They came across as slapstick and silly to me.  Just not a cool extra screen to end the movie at all. They were better off showing a teaser trailer to the second half of Breaking Dawn next year.

So all in all, despite my complaints, I love this movie above all the others.  It gives me extremely high hopes for the conclusion of the series and I think that's saying a lot.

So...I finally got to see the movie that stars one of my favorite creatures of all time.  I knew from the first trailer I saw, (the one I cried my eyes out watching), that I wanted to see it.  Normally I don't desperately seek out to watch an obvious "feel good" movie, but seeing as how this one stars a real dolphin with that very real problem, I was eager to be a part of it.  I wanted to know the story of winter on the big screen, at least for the most part.  But I forgot.  This is Hollywood.  And most of the time, Hollywood likes to take true stories and add things that aren't true.  I can expect that, of course. You have to make it appealing for the audience. I get that.  I even get creating your own story.  But what I don't get is creating a downright boring story that holds no weight on its own while forcing the main star of the movie to be some sort of background character.

All in all, I was disappointed.  Oh it wasn't dreadful work.  It was ooey and gooey and all soft inside...most definitely designed to cater to children.  I was just expecting a little less fabrication and a little more truth. The story was very unoriginal and weak. Extremely weak.  So weak, that yes, I found too much of the movie boring whenever the dolphin wasn't in the shot, which unfortunately is a good portion of the movie.  I just didn't care about anything else going on in the world outside of Winter's tank.  And I'm not even saying that because I love dolphins so much. I'm saying that because the story is so thin and corny, that unless I see a dolphin in the scene picture, I'm bored out of my skull because the human counterparts are rather pathetic.  The cast, even Morgan Freeman, was just...ugh...so bad.  So bad in getting me to care about them, or getting me to believe they care themselves.  So unbelievable.  And the kids? My gawd the kids. They were more just nuisances than anything.  Horrible acting and just plain...pestersome. I've seen great child actors, both old and new, and these don't fit the bill.  And if Hollywood wants to use the OVERLY used plot device of kids befriending animals and somehow magically transforming them into a better version of themselves, then the least they can do is provide me a kid who can make me believe it.  These two did NOT.  Fire them.

To put it worse, the movie is just infected with useless scenes that contribute nothing, I mean NOTHING at all to the movie or to Winter's story.  No, they're only there as filler, fluffy and fattening.  Except instead of being sweet, they're just tasteless.  And I can tell all they were trying to do is give the story a sense of drama and tension, but they just felt forced and...without real purpose.  What I wanted was a movie about Winter the dolphin.  I wanted to see her rescue. I wanted to see her progression.  I wanted to see her struggles and her successions.  But most important of all, I wanted to see all the interactions between herself and the numerous amputees who opened their hearts to her.  I wanted to see the real story, or at least most of it.  I wanted to see the deepest part of her story and I barely got a crumb of that. If Hollywood must fabricate their own story into the mix, no matter how lame, then I wanted at least most of Winter's story intricately weaved into it somehow.  But that wasn't there, not to me.  This was yet another "boy and his pet" type of movie that I see all the freaking time (Free Willy, E.T., Black Beauty, The Black Stallion, etc.). It just didn't do anything for me, and that's a shame.  That's why I wish Hollywood would just leave the cutesy kid part out of where it doesn't belong and give me the true, gritty stuff.  

Needless to say, the only time I felt the urge to cry was at the end, when they were showing real footage of Winter's rescue, rehabilitation, and finally her interaction with various amputees.  It's the real story I loved and craved, not that kiddy nonsense, even though I was expecting that in small measures.  But not THIS bad.  I guess I just wish this movie were a documentary instead of what it was. But I suppose in the end, the most important thing to be revealed and shared here is awareness of Winter and her aquarium home, as well as awareness about the environment.  So all in all, that makes it all worthwhile.  

Ugh, I still can't over how overly long that title is.  They'd have been better off calling it, "Rise of the Apes," though that one doesn't hint a connection to any of the previous movies at all, which is probably what they weren't going for.  Bleh. Whatever.  At any rate, what an excellent, EXCELLENT movie.  I don't even really know where to begin.  I just loved it.  This isn't really going to be a review, however, since I'm still out of practice with movie reviews.  But if it turns into one, so be it.  

*SPOILERS*

Whether or not this is meant to be a prequel to Burton's ape movie, the original Heston movie a few decades ago, or a prequel all its own for a new franchise altogether, it was a successful accomplishment nevertheless.  We discussed it rather vigorously when it was all over, and came up with some rather interesting conclusions.  In fact, I'd say it's safe to say that based on our discussions, I have a pretty good idea of where the movie will go in upcoming sequels, thanks to the the various clues scattered throughout the movie.  But I'll get to that later.  

The movie itself was definitely a success in my book.  The realism of the story was just so effective; it actually made the possibility of such a situation to be very believable.  It wasn't a ridiculous notion at all, and it played out smoothly.  I can't pick a point where there was even a loose, forgotten end to tie.  It was just so well put together, this movie.  Though the premise reminded me of the plot for "Deep Blue Sea," which was a TINY downside, it was definitely forgivable.  Instead of sharks being rounded up for their brains as a cure to Alzheimer's, we've got Apes being given a biological serum that acts as the cure itself.  In both movies, the creatures got smarter as a side effect. That's the only similarity. But a premise as close to home as the very real disease of Alzheimer's is one that you can't really get mad at.  Finding a cure for that is more than likely a very real mission in the world, no doubt.  And that's why this movie worked. You'd almost believe that apes are being used as test subjects because it's so perfectly portrayed in the movie.  

Needless to say, the smartness being boosted in the apes is where things get quite interesting.  The star is Caesar, a nicely done CG chimpanzee who was birthed by his mother before she was killed after going on a rampage to protect him.  Gotta love that Andy Serkis for contributing his skills yet again to bringing alive the star of the movie.  The only thing I wasn't convinced of was the actual size of the full-grown Caesar.  Being at the same height as James Franco, and already too human-looking, was...eh...not believable.  But that doesn't cheapen his character at all, really.  It was only noticeable for a couple of scenes with the two of them standing side-by-side, so definitely able to be overlooked.  It's amazing the mannerisms and facial expressions that was pulled off in this movie.  ILM has certainly got its work cut out for it with competition like THAT starting to skyrocket. As far as Caesar goes, only when things start to go horribly wrong do they suddenly go oh so right for him.  Sure he bit off a man's finger after pummeling him a few times which thus got him thrown into an ape jail and having to mingle with "lesser" apes who aren't as smart as him as well as the jerk of a human in charge of "caring" for the apes, but still.  If none of that happened, he wouldn't have singlehandedly brought on this ape revolution.   

I loved the progression of the film. It was a little slow, yes, but it had to be.  If you want to cheer on the apes, you have to spend some time on the apes, get to know them, get attached to them. You have to feel Caesar's struggle to be what he feels he is supposed to be as his intelligence, awareness, and emotions start to sprout beyond all human control until he becomes more...well...human.  You have to feel bad for him and the remaining apes, and then start to resent the fact that you're the same species as the "bad guys" in the film.  Well, so to speak.  They had to make the humans less appealing than the apes in the movie for it to work, and I definitely feel like that was pulled off rather nicely.  You find yourself really looking forward to the time when the apes get to shine and make fools of the humans.  Caesar's ability to remember, plan, and initiate the revolution was pretty fun to witness, from stealing a knife to pick the lock, or teaching the apes to share and be respectful of one another, or swiping more of the "smart serum" to spread to the other apes.  Caesar was FUN. And also tragic. But in a good way.

And oh the cleverness.  As I said, I can't tell if this movie is meant to tie with either of the previous films or not, but it was still clever in its preparations for being a prequel.  The mars mission that eventually became "lost in space." Obviously, this is a means of saying that the crew will likely find their way back to a planet ruled by the apes that thrived on what ravaged the human population.  Is that meant to be Charlton's ship? Or Walhlberg's ship? Or perhaps it's meant to be neither of their ships, and this is just the smart start to a franchise all its own? I'm leaning on the latter.  But I totally think it could work tying either of those movies to itself. So genius.  I think that's also what makes this movie so great; it was careful not to leave loose ends, at least loose ends that have the likelihood of effecting where the franchise is going.  Sure, there were the minor things I had problems with, like how Caesar looked a little TOO human when he became an adult. He was too upright and it was a tad distracting. However, on the other hand, it was also helpful to help me accept the fact that the apes are a dominant force to be reckoned with, which is the point.  And oh when Caesar first spoke?? WOW. I was not expecting that, and was pleasantly surprised. I had forgotten that the apes are supposed to be talking, and man oh man, was that exciting to witness.  And it wasn't like this crystal clear voice that sounded like it was used to being used. No, it was raspy and rough, as if it was only just being broken in.  SMART!

I don't know what else I can really say about this movie, but damn, so awesome.  

127 Hours

Definitely a little tougher to stomach the second time around.  But I'm willing to bet that the fact that I was forced to see it on bootleg for my first viewing of it likely cheapened the visual quality, and thus stripped it of having the realism that it was meant to have.  What's a girl to do? They didn't release the film in my area for a very long time, and I wanted to see it.  At the time, bootleg was the only answer.  Fortunately, I did like the movie, so I still paid my dues by purchasing it on Blu-Ray the other day (heh, that still feels funny to say Blu-Ray. At least it has less syllables than DVD).  Anyway, it was that second viewing that was....yeah....much more difficult to watch without writhing a little.  Fortunately the likes of the Saw movies desensitized me a BIT, so the gruesome nature of the infamous "arm amputation" was bearable.  I totally get that some people still passed out, however.  It was so horrendous, especially that white...whatever it was that gave the most trouble to cut through.  Nerve or tendon of some sort?  CRINGE.

My biggest thoughts are not on that movie, though, but on this one....

Buried (PLOT SPOILERS!)

I never got to see this one in theaters, since it too was nowhere to be found in my town, or barely any other town for that matter.  It would have joined my collection if there was more reason for it to exist, however.  I loved the concept of it, the creepy stuffiness of it.  It was so ingenious and it certainly kept me at the edge of my seat for the entire viewing of it.  I was tense, eager, and anxious, no doubt feeling that way thanks to the genuine fear that Ryan Reynolds was able to portray nicely for me through the character Paul.  But in the end, when it was all supposed to matter for some important reason, it fell to shambles.  There wasn't a happy ending, nor was there any purpose to its unhappy ending.  I'm not opposed to movies that star a doomed main character, but that character's fate must have some sort of meaning for me.  There was no meaning here.  He was kidnapped by an insurgent with a chip on his shoulder about how much Americans suck, gets locked up in this coffin with minimal supplies, and forced to conjure up ransom money for his release.  The FBI, State Department, and the many other powers that be are summoned at any opportunity Paul can muster to try to find him before it's too late, all while he tries to contact his wife, save his co-worker, and make ransom videos.  To top it off, he communicates with a "rescuer" of sorts, who then decides to lie to him about having saved someone else when he really didn't. Sure, perhaps such a lie was necessary to give our star hope and to buy his trust, but that surely didn't help when it truly mattered in the end.  When it all comes full-circle, this poor man gets contacted by his employer, who in turn decides to tell him that his family will not be compensated after his impending doom because they tricked and manipulated him into confessing that he violated some term of agreement.  

Then, his supposed rescuer claims that he has been found, that they're close, that he'll be saved. He calls his wife to say he's coming home, only to find out the rescuer found the very man he claimed to have rescued already, someone completely different, and located somewhere else.  Oh the rescuer was extremely apologetic for feeding Paul false hope, of course.  But that is where the aforementioned lie cuts down into the deepest crevices of a soul that knows it's slipping away.  I can imagine the last floods of thoughts going through Paul's mind, the sheer panic he must have felt in his last literal handfuls of breath, how this man lied to him about ever rescuing anyone, how he himself lied to his wife about coming home (even inadvertently), how his family won't be taken care of in the wake of his expected death. Needless to say, Paul does indeed die in the coffin, suffocating not from lack of air, but by the downpour of sand that cruelly rushed to seal his fate. The horrible irony is that the inundation of sand was set off by an explosion on the surface which was caused by his company attacking exactly where they suspected he was buried.  And that is where the movie ends.  There is no solution to the tragedy, no hero to be had.  There is no justification for anyone's bad choices, except our star's.  A regular schmo of a man dies for no good reason whatsoever, and there was no explanation for it.  

I know that sort of stuff happens every day in real life, but in a movie like this, with such intricacies and potential to be something else other than the advertisement of the cruelty of people with a lust for money, there should have been more.  There are only the victories of the abductor and Paul's evil employers. There must be a reason for it.  Shouldn't there be?  But there is none.  The only reason I can fathom of it not having any sort of satisfying conclusion is this: The point of the movie had nothing at all to do with the character's demise, nothing at all to do with he himself being buried alive to die. Perhaps what really is "buried" in this movie is not some innocent man trying to make a change in his life, but the burial of the corrupt and greedy scheming of wealthy corporations, who would rather manipulate a "lesser" person desperate for his very breath to save their own hides from any would-be loss of money.   Perhaps it's to "bury" what actually is important, or at least should be important.  Perhaps it's to hide away from the world what is meant to be seen, and fought against.  But now that's it's buried away, it's lost forever, and no one will ever know.  That's the only explanation I can think of for a movie such as this.  And that's okay too if somehow, someway, something good can come from it.  But no good came, and seriously, why would I want to see a corporation get away with that?  Why would I want them to succeed at whatever expense they were willing to make? Because that's all that happens here in this movie, in my opinion.  The bad guys get away with it, and they're not even cool bad guys.  It's just....well....very disheartening.

[SPOILERS IMMINENT]

The first movie of the year I was amped to see has now finally been seen.  My verdict?  

Meh. Decent, but overall a little disappointing.  Maybe 2.5 out of 5 stars at best. Once there comes a point in a movie where I find myself a little bored with what's going on due to repetitive activity, then that's when it begins to fail in my eyes.  Dirtiness, shooting, explosions.  Sometimes that's enough for me, but not from an alien movie.  And because the concept of the movie is a very purposefully implemented and straightforwardly simple plot of soldiers battling on the ground for their own survival as well as the survival of their rescued civilians, development into something more interesting never really happened.  It was as it was and nothing more.  It was a battle alright, but nothing too different from your typical battle on the soil, nothing too fantastically eventful that made you go "Oh WOW, this is definitely an intergalactic battle!" Nah, it was more of just...well guns and ships and explosions, stuff you see in movies everywhere, even the non-alien ones. Much of the goodness is visible in the previews, which I guess I should have expected. Sometimes when trailers show too MUCH awesomeness, that should be the first clue that they will leave nothing else in the actual movie to be visually spectacular. Thus, it was a bit of a let down to me. 

The aliens weren't even really aliens to me.  Aside from their crafts, which I think were pretty cool, the aliens didn't really strut anything terribly original or threatening. I appreciated the fact that they were given some bit of purpose (harvesting water), but even that concept seemed desperately implemented to satisfy the droves of alien movie fans, such as myself, who always seek out a movie that contains aliens with purpose.  But it didn't hold much water to me, no pun intended.  They come to earth to use water as fuel so, okay.  But what does that have to do with destroying humanity? If they wanted water, they can just take it. To me, there was no point to come onto land when the earth is over 70 percent water anyway.  In the movie, it was implied that they intended to colonize the earthling's, but that's not what was going down.  Sure, they were wiping them out, but seriously, is that even necessary?  They didn't even look alien from afar. It was almost as if the creators didn't want to put much effort into detailing them too much; they came across as lazily put together.  Even up close, they were just...piles of mush with legs.  Something out of "District 9" meets "Transformers," and that's putting it nicely.  They were merely soldiers that got around and shot everything up much like human soldiers, which didn't make them too alien to me.  Heck, even their heads looked like the helmets of the soldiers. Their machinery and weapons also looked pretty human to me, able to be destroyed like human technology just as well.  All in all, it was truly like watching a mere war movie. I know it was supposed to be a battle and all, but it was still too human a battle, a sort of "been there, done that" vibe peppered throughout.  We as the audience had to follow the starring platoon as they embarked on a journey to save a few civilians while fighting off humanoid aliens in just constant shoot-outs, shoot-outs, and just to change things up a bit, even more shoot-outs.  

Oh it wasn't absolutely horrible.  Unoriginal or not, there's nothing bad about seeing heroism in movies like these.  There was even an emotional scene that of course got to me, but what else can you expect when you have a child on screen expressing sadness?  That's hard not to mirror sometimes.  I appreciated the lack of desire for soldiers to give up on each other, and their appreciation for their brothers in arms.  It's not unheard of, however, and those touching notions aren't what I was after when I went to see this movie.  If I wanted a soldier's war drama, no matter the subject matter, I probably would have been pleased.  But that's not what I wanted this time around, not from this movie.  I wanted some alien action, to put it simply.  I wanted an alien movie.  I wanted some intergalactic mayhem, even if it DID take place on our planet.  Give me something alien and otherworldly.  I didn't want a war movie with lots and lots of clichès and scenes that you've seen before. I didn't want serious drama that tried to squeeze itself into an alien movie.  It was very awkward and did drag out.  Still, compared to "Skyline," it was far more sophisticated and mature a movie.  In other words, far better. Though "Skyline,"I must admit, had the edge of being more original with its plot, albeit stilll a stupid plot.  But compared to "Independence Day," my favorite alien movie to this day, it severely lacked.  Soldiers risking their lives to save humanity, even a small bundle of them, is a fantastic thing to portray.  But it's been portrayed before.  "Saving Private Ryan" and "Black Hawk Down" came to mind frequently while watching the movie. The aliens were just the enemy in this case, instead of other humans. But as I said, the fact that they were just as bipedal as humans without much attentiveness to their structural detail didn't really draw me into their world.  They had cool ships, (the drone ships to be more specific) but um...yeah, that was about it. Aside from their squishy looks, nothing else about them was very alien. Oh well.

Forgettable, sadly.  Don't think it'll make it to my movie collection, just like Skyline, a very saddening fact.  Bleh.  Moving on to "Cowboys and Aliens" and "Super 8."  Hopefully those will fare better.

...well, it wasn't SO so bad, but I do get why people are saying it is.  It just wasn't outspoken.  It didn't stand out as its own epic alien movie.  Spoilers imminent.

There's no meat. No substance.  It tried hard to be something to be taken seriously, but it tried to do that without the addition of anyone interesting to attach yourself to.  It ended up becoming something even a little comical simply because the very dull characters didn't seem to have a clue on how to react to something, so they'd just go for overacting or underacting.  The acting was just meh, and the characters were a drag. You sorta don't even care what happens to them since they're not at all appealing.  None of them were really believable and were more just a nuisance I didn't mind seeing killed off whenever the time would come.  This movie was simply trying to be something it's just not, and that's where it goes wrong, which is what brings on the poor reviews.

What does it try to be?  It tries to be the Starship Troopers of the Matrix in a War of the Worlds on Independence Day in Cloverfield.  It had bits and pieces from all of those movies combined, so it didn't really feel original in the terms of overall look.  The brain snatching from Starship Troopers, the flying machines in Matrix, the snooping tentacles in War of the Worlds, the mini ships from the massive mother ships having aerial battles from Independence Day, and the gargantuan monster stampeding the city in Cloverfield, all of which can be found in Skyline. The aliens were cool in their way, don't get me wrong. The hypnotic glows they emitted to envelope their would-be victims was very cool.  The tentacled ones were my favorite; they were like Octopus walking on land with multiple glowing eyes like spiders. And the regeneration aspects were pretty neat, as well as unexpected. 

Still, as cool as the visuals were and even some bits of the score, it very much missed the mark.  It had this great potential to be something beyond a copycat of everyone else.  But the plot was watery and thin.  You never get an answer as to why the aliens wanted human brains, other than helping them regenerate themselves.  But given that the end of the movie depicts a character's brain still having the mind of the human it came from, then what's the point?  The movie is mostly told from the perspective of the handful of boring characters (something else it likely tries to use off of "Cloverfield") and thus we don't know what's going on beyond what they're looking at.  The only other people that existed were the ones being abducted way out far in the distance that you only see over the span of, oh 30 seconds, so you feel a little starved of some serious casualties.  They don't even fully satisfy your curiosity as to why the exposure to the alien's light leaves you stronger.  They made it seem like any person who gazes at the light is "infected" with something, but they don't pursue that idea.  Too much was just left up in the air.

So eh...I enjoyed it for what it was, but didn't enjoy it for what it could've been.  It's gonna feel odd to say this, but I don't really see it becoming a part of my DVD collection.  It just didn't have that memorability about it.  In other words, definitely forgettable.

So yes..."Inception." After much delay, I finally got my hands on some "Inception" the other night.  Well okay, not my hands, but you get me.  Everyone is raving about it; I've yet to hear a negative review.  ARE there any negative reviews?  I'm too lazy to check.  I'm not one to listen to reviews, positive or negative, but the sheer volume of positive reviews had its role in luring and feeding my curiosity. The lack of a guaranteed movie date makes trips to the movies rather cumbersome, though.  I'm not as bothered to go by myself as I used to be, but that still doesn't make it my preference.  My work schedule doesn't help either. As a result, unless I purposely request days off, the odds of me seeing a movie I'm dying to see on opening weekend is pretty slim nowadays.  Such was the case with "Inception."But alas, I finally, FINALLY managed to scrounge up some company to tag along with me.  After everyone around me, friends and family alike, all got to see it, I literally became the last one, so I felt a little left out.  Fortunately for me, a co-worker of mine also was horribly delayed in seeing it, and after we both of us discovered this, we decided to see it together with another friend of hers who hasn't seen it either. The three last losers on earth to partake this event, it felt like.

Spoilers imminent. 

Unfortunately, "Inception" is one of those movies that's far too complex for me to properly review after only one viewing.  I tried so hard to stay with it but eh...I missed some stuff.  I need to see it again and again to truly understand it.  Yes, it did lose me here and there, as mind movies tend to do.  I didn't lose the general gist, though; I understood what was happening, just not HOW it was happening.  In all my focus on trying to keep up, I ended up having it all backfire on me when my mind slipped even once.  Pretty much all the talk of time frames and all the mathematics of it all (time being slow and fast and whatnot) sorta had me jumbled as anything involving excess numbers usually does.  But it was truly an awesome movie, one of the best, if not THE best movie this year by far.  It incorporates the world of dreams and tosses them into a real world situation, and vice versa.  It's reality tossed into dreams.  Not only dreams, but also memories, longing, and love.  All the sort of nonsense that goes on in someone's brain on a daily basis rolled into one big, complicated, yet enticing movie.  I don't even know how in the world the writers and director ever managed to keep any of it straight.  The whole point of it was to go into people's dreams during their unconscious states to steal things they'd never suspect they were hiding, and then turns around into the opposite:  PUTTING things into their minds they'd have no way of realizing that it was never theirs in the first place.  Were their complications to that?  I'm not sure I remember, hence my having to see it again.

It's all so messy, but in a neat way.  Subconsciousness, dreams, memories, projections, reality, falseness.  Messiness.  But oh such beautiful messes.  It's so easy to relate to as well, since we ALL dream and we all experience those dreams at times mistaking them as reality.  We all dream on our memories, sometimes letting those memories become our dreams when in reality they're really our nightmares.  Oh what a brainy mess, but oh so brilliant.  As far as the end, how cool was that?  And yet, how wrong!  Though I totally think it stayed spinning, simply because it was too happy an ending otherwise.  And well...that's what makes it all the more fun to discuss.  Fortunately, no one was angry at my our utterances of what may happen.  As soon as he spun the top, people started squabbling amongst each other as to whether or not it will fall, and I feel I was the one to start it.  The man next to me seemed highly amused at my expectations.  Many voices in the theater predicted in unison what they thought would happen.  "It's so gonna keep going," I said, while my co-worker was like, "No! It's so going to fall!"  And we continued that for the whole of the scene until it blacked out.  And that's when everyone was like, "Noooo!" Heh, groaning in displeasure, though also equally satisfied at the surprise of it.  I uttered pretty loudly, "Ohhh man that is so WRONG!" while my co-worker spoke the same. And everyone around us were all just laughing in their own reactions.  It was rather fun to speculate on the way out of the theater.  "It so fell!" or "He was totally still dreaming."

I know I likely didn't do the movie justice in my lack of a decent review, but that's because it was just so....intricate.  Too intricate.  Too good.

I'd imagine most people (except maybe 3 or 4) won't read this because of its length, but no matter.  It's still fun to throw out there.

I still can't quite grasp how I feel about the latest addition to the Twilight Saga. The fact that my opinion isn't strong either way says something.  It says that this movie failed in being what it should have been: the best.  It should have, at the very least, made me go..."Wow. Too awesome."  Instead I was like, "Wow.  Too....okay."  But I do know that I neither truly loved it or truly hated it.  I was good.  Not great. Not horrible.  Just good.  It ought to have been more than what it was, but sadly, it wasn't.  It is what it is. That is, until some many more years down the line someone tries it again. Hopefully I'll be alive to see it if that's the case!

Anyway, Eclipse is my favorite book of the whole series, followed closely by New Moon.  Why do I have a fondness for Eclipse? A lot of things came into the light in this one, which is kinda ironic considering the title, but whatever.  It's my favorite.  I loved the development of the love triangle, the playfulness and scuffles of Bella and Jacob, the onslaught of new vampires, the alliance of the wolves with vampires, the action, just....everything.  Now the movie?  Sadly, the movie was missing a LOT of the juicy stuff from the book. A lot of stuff that, to me, was crucial in getting across the main point of the story at that level of the series.  This was an extension of New Moon, or at least it should have been.  It was the presentation of Bella realizing deep love for another man other than Edward.  

Was this as bad as Twilight? Maybe not quite so much, but pretty damn close.  There was just way too much missing that made it feel like Eclipse the book in movie form.  I don't mind a few changes, and I expect lots to be left out, but come on...leaving important details out that contribute to the story?  Not a fan of that, even if the scenes that WERE kept were well executed (for the most part).

So okay, the GOOD:

*SCORE*
Some people likely won't care about this part, but I'm gonna say it anyway.  I totally loved the music in the movie this time around.  Not the songs, the MUSIC. Twilight's score was great, but New Moon's was eh.  And this time, it's great again in Eclipse. Thankfully, the composer from Lord of the Rings, Howard Shore, was involved with this one.  It took me the two viewings of the movie to pay more attention to the music, since the first time around I was more focused on the characters, but once I started listening more carefully, I totally was falling for it.  It has an ominous feel to it at the right points in the right amounts to make the movie feel a little more darker and more mature than its predecessors.  Yes, the score junky that I am has discovered a new, desirable movie score to add to my collection.  And it turns out my favorite music bit, which is sprinkled all throughout the movie in different forms, coincidentally is called "Jacob Black."  I totally didn't know that until I started listening to the tracks, so I was pleasantly surprised.  And that leads me to the next good thing about the movie...

*JACOB BLACK*
Being the team Jacob person that I am, it's fairly obvious that I would continue to love him to death in these movies.  But I will keep saying it until I'm blue in the face.  He's quite simply the most perfect character on screen.  And I would imagine I'd feel the same if I wasn't a fan of him.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, Taylor Lautner is still, in my opinion, the ONLY one who is putting all the effort he can into portraying the Jacob Black I read in the books.  It is so obvious.  His facial expressions and tone of voice, being perfect for the scenes he's present for.  He freaking IS Jacob Black.  I can't find one smidgen of anything that isn't right about him, other than certain lines and crucial scenes that are missing, which of course isn't Taylor's fault.  But the missing dialog and scenes will be discussed later on in this blog.  Oh what I wouldn't give to hear him say, "Sure, sure" as he always did in the book, but alas, that line looks like it'll never see the light of day in the movies.  But everything about him is SO RIGHT.  I've even forgiven his lack of height thing.  You almost forget he's technically supposed to be way taller than Bella and even Edward, but Taylor certainly pulls off his character so well that you don't even care about that anymore. He's witty and funny (he had some of the best lines in the movie) stubborn and childish, walks around without his shirt, and even his wolf form is perfect, especially when he interacts with Bella a little bit to have her pet his head.  Just....PERFECT.  

*THE PROPOSAL*
Well executed I think, in which Edward finally officially proposes to Bella and she says yes. Now my memory sucks, but I'm not sure exactly WHEN that scene should have happened, and whether or not it was placed correctly in the movie, but still.  I thought it went pretty well.  But I gotta be honest...one of the main reasons I thought it was good is because I wanted to gag at the sappiness of it lol.  So to speak.  If it wasn't good or believable, I wouldn't roll my eyes in disgust at the result. I would have just watched it and been like, "Alrighty."  But yeah, it was so beyond mushy and vomit-worthy so you know it had to be good to get that reaction out of me. And there you have it.

*THE FLASHBACKS*
Very appreciated.  Eh, okay, there is also badness about Rosalie's flashback scene, but I'll get to that later.  I was actually surprised that they were even in the movie. So it was definitely cool to see the histories of Jasper, Rosalie, and the wolves onscreen.  I don't really have much to say on them, but they did their part and didn't bother me.

*THE PUNCH*
Quite perfect.  That is, the punch from Bella after Jacob forcibly kisses her.  I loved seeing that twit wince.  Now the scene was totally shorter than it should have been, as well as lacked the line that would have been awesome to hear from Jacob Black afterwards in which he says, "Come on...that had to be better than kissing a rock."  So it absolutely SUCKED not hearing any dialog after the punch.  The main meat of the interaction was there, however.  It would have been interesting to see the forced kiss to play out as it was described in the book, in which Bella tries to fight him off unsuccessfully and just stands there while he kisses her, but without kissing back.  After she asks if he's done, that's when she punches him.  But eh...I guess I could understand why they tweaked it a little.  I think it makes it a little more dramatic to have her successfully push him off of her and then punch him, rather than draw it out longer as in the book.  The punch was still there, as well as the pain she got.  I'll tolerate it being a sprain instead of a cracked knuckle as in the book, since that's kinda minor and unimportant. It would have been great if she just dropped dead from it cuz she sucks anyway, but alright...that's just me dreaming.

*THE KISS* 
That is, between Bella and Jacob.  Pretty damn close to what I visualized in the book, right down to the intensity of it and even the movements of the characters.  Now in the book, that huge kiss between those two was like 4 pages long, and practically every little detail was described, right down to hands and even the ears. Yes, the ears.  It made all of the kisses with Edward pale in comparison, which was supposed to be the point.  In the book, it was the defining moment that snapped Bella out of her denial of being in love with Jacob too.  So their kiss had to play out perfectly with just the right amount of passion that would scream to Bella that she loves Jacob. And I believe this played out well on the big screen.  I mean sure, there were other parts missing that I believe made it even more intense in the book, but it probably wouldn't have worked in movie form.  Like, at first, Bella wasn't really into it, and that's when Jake was all, "Are you sure "Are you sure you want me to come back; or do you really want me to die?"  Bella gets mad, blah, blah, blah, but eventually...she started kissing him back like....INTENSELY.  That stuff worked in the book, which is probably why it was a few pages long, but in the movie, I would imagine it would have been frustrating to see so many "interruptions" to the BIG moment of having their first real kiss.  So eh, I was able to deal. And as I mentioned earlier, there was still that little moment where Jacob gave her one more peck before walking away, which was just as sweet as described in the book. It was an awesome kiss, and I actually did like Bella's reaction afterward. Kristen very much sucks at being Bella, but she did manage to pull off the whole, "Oh my God...I love him" look when the kiss was over.  Probably because it only involves staring blankly into space, which she does perfectly anyway.

*CHARLIE AND RENEE*
Any scene with Charlie was priceless.  Almost TOO good. I just wish he was in the movie a lot more.  Loved, loved, LOVED the "virgin talk" scene. In fact, that was probably the best acting I've seen Kristen do.  She made it believable and was even, dare I say, a little funny. "Okay Dad? I'm a virgin," and then...thumbs up! Hehe it was funny and just as awkward a moment on-screen as it was in the book.  A very much human moment and so very cute.  Renèe's scene as well was actually very endearing.  I forget the actress who plays Renèe, but she's actually very good at bringing Bella's mom to life. She so....mom-like during her scene with Bella and personally, I found it to be absolutely flawless.  You really start believing the reality of the situation, of Renèe being so oblivious to what will befall her daughter. The only gripe I had was Bella's lack of tears.  What the hell does Kristen have against squeezing out some liquid out of those eyes of hers?  I mean damn.

*WOLVES (human and animal)*
I don't feel they were maximized as much as I wanted them to be, but their presence and fight scenes were satisfactory.  Their human forms were fun too, but again....too minimally used.  Leah was just as bitterly angry as in the book.  PERFECT.  I can't wait to see her expand her role.  But their small scenes were still well executed. I loved when they picked on Jacob about Bella.  It sorta was like the icing on the cake in seeing them interact like siblings.  Very cute.  I would have loved to see them do that whole "sniffing the Cullens" thing to get used to their scent just for the sake of interactions, but that's pretty minor.  They had great scenes, great visuals, great sound effects, etc.  I loved Jacob standing nearby Bella so she can pat his head.  That seemed to really invoke what they had (or at least should have had) with each other, even when he was in wolf form.  And Seth was unbelievably adorable, human and wolf alike.  ADORABLE, I say.  I want a pet Seth wolf of my own.  Like now.

*THE CULLENS*
But ONLY in the sense of seeing them be more of who they are.  I like seeing them expand as characters, at least most of them. Some of them, their overall look was major fail, but some parts still worked.  I thought the contacts looked better for some reason.  Rosalie had a better wig, but omg, what happened to her face?  Too much makeup and she looked a little ridiculous. But her bratty attitude was still intact, which was great. Esme's hair was yuck. Change it back. Jasper's hair always annoyed me since the beginning, so whatever. I liked Alice's vision stuff, seeing it from her perspective.  Everyone's characters were very well done.  

*EMMETT*
Perfecto!  He deserves an honorable mention all his own.  Pretty much the best Cullen with the best lines, such as, "Trying to chew gum and walk at the same time again, Bella?"  Totally different line than from the book, which was something along the lines of, "Fall down again, Bella?"  But that was very much acceptable because it was still so hilarious.   His brawn was perfect too.  Emmett, along with Jacob, were pretty much the most spot-on main characters. 

*RILEY'S GANG*
It was good ONLY in the sense that it brought Bree's book to life somewhat, and sorta introduced us to her so we can get somewhat attached to her innocence. It made me want to see her interaction with Diego, Fred, and others.  However...HOWEVER!! What should have been done is to give Bree her own little mini movie as an extra disc (or special feature) on the dvd/blu-ray release, and not include it in this movie, at least at the expense of what was missing that truly was in "Eclipse." It wasn't horrible, but alas, seeing as how this movie focused too MUCH on Riley's army of newborns instead of what was REALLY in the book, then it was bad. Very bad. I will vent on that later.  I felt it deserved a mention, though.

*THE FIGHT*
It was a little fast for my taste, but as I ponder the book's version, you don't get to "see" ANY of that battle, other than whatever Edward said.  So I did like that they showed us, the audience, what was going on, while at the same time having Edward relay it.  That worked for me.  Can't say I'm crazy about the weird glass sound effects as vampire parts got ripped off, but it's nothing major.  I was one of people who actually loved the blur effects from "New Moon," so I really missing seeing that in "Eclipse," but oh well.  And the wolves looked amazing.  The scene, though short-lived, was impressive to watch.

*BREE*
Very cute.  Dunno who the actress is, but I'd say she personified Bree's childlike innocence pretty good.  However, her character's impact was brutally butchered down.  More on that in the bad list.  I did, however, like that it was Esme to try and defend Bree instead of Edward.  Very motherly to do, and honestly, I would have expected her to say it more than Edward anyway. So I thought it worked better than it would have if Edward had said it as in the book.

*FUNNY LINES*
At least the ones that made it into the movie, anyway, were freaking hilarious.  The most obvious that even Team Edward people can appreciate was Jacob's "Let's face it; I am hotter than you."  Because you know it's true!  In at least one sense.  Oh it was perfect.  I cheered aloud in the theater along with other Team Jacob fans scattered around when I heard that line.  And he says it so...so casually like he, Edward, and the viewing audience knows that what he says is FACT lol. Edward had his moment too which his, "Doesn't he own a shirt?" line, which was pretty fitting I'd say hehe.  I'm certain plenty of Team Edwardians wondered the same thing.  Though you can't deny Jacob looks great without his shirt.  

And now for the BAD.  

*ROSALIE'S FLASHBACK*
Okay, it was great seeing it, but to have Bella go to Rosalie to learn this story is...blah. It just wasn't right.  In the book, it was Rosalie who goes to Bella to tell her story.  Why is it a big deal?  Because to me, it was the one perfect moment that showed a different side to Rosalie, a somewhat more tender side than what we've gotten accustomed to.  Oh sure, her shell still sorta cracked a little, but the effect of it just wasn't the same.  It was Rosalie's willingness to explain herself to someone as minor as Bella, which she was always seemingly so opposed to, that gave the scene that much more impact in the book.  It was somewhat of a "shocker" and you immediately wonder why Rosalie would be willing to have an actual conversation with the likes of trivial Bella. You think, "Hmmm....Rosalie WANTS to talk to Bella? Since when? Interesting!"  But having Bella go to Rosalie was so....just eh.  It came off as Bella making the effort in fixing things between the two when it was really Rosalie.  

*BELLA*
Oh...my...GAWD.  Somebody please gauge my eyes out so I don't have to witness this travesty on the screen.  What an absolute disgrace.  I would still like to just....smack her.  She wasn't all that bad in "New Moon." Though I still hated that she doesn't shed a tear for anything.  I didn't think it could get worse than that.  But alas, it does.  Kristen managed to make me crave the Bella of the book, and I HATE book Bella.  But good grief, can I get someone who can properly EMOTE when the scene doesn't call for loud, sporadic outbursts?  At least book Bella--despite her AWFUL tendency to overly whine and pout--still gives me the impression that she gives a damn about stuff.  But Kristen's Bella is a horrible at emoting, at least during the calmer, less stressful scenes. You don't feel like she cares about anything way too often.  How is she so fantastic as people say?  I get the whole loner, weirdo thing.  And to have this lone, weirdo be the ultimate magnet to very loyal guys who love her despite her obscurities, well...that's just fine.  What girl wouldn't want that?  But to not have a personality to go along with it?  Kristin's Bella does not have this.  What in the WORLD does ANYONE see in this version of Bella?  Edward, Jacob, and heck...even MIKE NEWTON?  I just don't see it.  She's not even interesting.  Making Bella this sort of girl, this loner without a slight taste of being just a little bit feminine (in the emotional way), destroys the spirit of the book later on when it's depicted in these movies.  It's a horrible thing watching all these scenes in which she's supposed to be tearing up, hurting, or showing some deep-set emotion just fizzle into meaninglessness because Kristen can't express them properly. She has the exact same expression in almost every scene. I can only take so much jaw-gaping and mindless staring.  Give me something else because that doesn't work for me anymore (if it ever did).  I'm not saying give me the crybaby Bella from the book, but something in between would be GREAT.

Not only are her expression similar, but many things she says sound exactly the same as everything else.  There are a number of shining moments that Kristin's a master at pulling off, but Bella is supposed to be more than that.  This time around, nothing seems to faze or affect her.  During one scene, Edward tells her rather callously, as in the book, that everyone she knows will be dead in a few decades and her problem is solved.  So what does movie Bella do?  Cringe?  Cry a little? Maybe sighs in discontentment? Of course not! This is Kristin Stewart's girl-power Bella. Stuff like that doesn't bother her.  She just brushed that off and continued on talking like he didn't say anything that stung her a little. Book Bella at least flinched at his words, something Edward picked up on and apologized for it being harsh.  She should have sighed and hesitantly agreed.  In the movie, NONE OF THAT.  Another time is when Charlie asks if she recalls his reason for grounding her, and all I get is a very somber, yawn-worthy, "Yeah I put you through hell."  Like she's bored or maybe secretly going la-dee-da in her head. Was it so difficult to have her...oh I don't know, give a long drawn out sigh while saying something like, "Yeah...I just...*sigh* well, I put you through hell."  Because at least then it might SEEM that she feels just a tad bit bad.  She has this whole, "Well whatever" attitude throughout a good portion of this movie, that it's actually extremely irritating. I almost wonder if something was just wrong with Kristin the entire time.   She's so monotone most of the time, lacking dimensional depth. What it seems like they were going for is to make Bella this stronger, semi-independent, mini feminist of sorts who doesn't let her emotions govern her sometimes, AS BELLA SHOULD BE. Scenes where she's supposed to be vulnerable and a victim of her imperfections are now scenes of her seemingly proudly emanating how oh so strong she is despite them.  The scene when Jacob overhears Edward and Bella speak of marriage was very wrong for many reasons, one of which is because when Edward tries to pull her back from going to him, she snaps a curt "Don't!" to him and flashes him a pissed off look.  Bella would never fathom talking down to Edward.  She was all about beating herself up more than beating Edward up.  Oh, but wait, this is strong and feisty Bella, so let's not have her feel bad about anything because...you guessed it, GIRL POWER!!  Why have her feel hurt over hurting the men in her life?  Why have her cry?   She's Feministawoman! With bad hair.  That wig was disgusting.  UGHHHHHH.

*JACOB AND BELLA*
Remember Edward's overprotective, controlling efforts that totally turned him into...well...somewhat of a jerk?  Or the "kidnapping?" Remember all the sneaking around by Bella and Jacob? Or Bella hanging out with Jacob against Edward's wishes or all the phone calls between the two, or basically all the moments when their friendship grows to an unstoppable level, one in which their LOVE can be more believable, more solidified between the two?  Remember pretty much EVERYTHING that happened between the ridiculous transitions of all the scenes from the film?  Hah, well in the movie, NONEXISTENT.  If you haven't read the book, let me enlighten you.  At the end of New Moon, the book, Bella says goodbye to Jacob, turning around just in time to see his face "crumple in pain." And then at the beginning of Eclipse, you get sight of a letter written by Jacob commenting on Bella's futile attempts to contact him again.  Charlie informs her of Jacob going through a hard time, which triggers Bella's desire to fix things.  She wants to visit Jacob, but Edward continually stops her, citing the danger of the wolves. And he sticks with this mindset for a great deal of time, which causes rebellion from Bella, so to speak.  She does whatever she can to see her friend, making you believe that she really does love him in her way.  But in the movie, you're like...oh, they're still best friends? Well you'd be lucky to realize this.  Why?  Because they don't explore it.  After what they had Bella say to him at the end of "New Moon," (lines that still piss me off..."I love you, but don't make me choose, because it's Edward and it's always been Edward, which means you NEVER stood a chance") you can't imagine why he'd want to still try.  Perhaps that's what they were going for this time around, except...it doesn't work! It ruins the flow of where the series is supposed to go.  So perhaps if these movie makers, oh I don't know...SHOW THEM SPENDING TIME TOGETHER, it might have helped me believe that he's truly the other corner on this supposed love triangle.  I might have believed that Jacob's heavy interest in her and Bella's heavy insistence of being around him could have sprouted a true threat to the relationship between Bella and Edward.  If only they didn't shy away from this.  Yes, this was more explored in "New Moon," the friendship angle, but "Eclipse" was meant to explore something beyond friendship into the realm of love.  But you never believe the love part.

The two of them ought to have been holding hands, joking, laughing.  Jacob ought to have been misbehaving, and Bella complaining.  There ought to have been more squabbling between the two, some sort of comfort level that could help materialize their own love.  There ought to have been Jacob screwing up badly, and apologizing profusely later on, not IN THE SAME SCENE like with him and Bella in his garage.  I suppose they tried to hurry things along, but what the heck for?  These movies can be 4 hours long and I GUARANTEE you, they'll still make a killing.  Anyway, they both were supposed to be ever so stubborn towards each other, prodding each other, yet forgiving each other....overlooking whatever problems arise between them.  Sadly, the movie didn't have much of this, if any.  Oh...she's supposed to be pushy about spending time with him when Edward was even pushier about NOT letting that happen?  I had no idea! Why is that?  Ah...cuz Edward didn't stop her beyond the one minor time of messing up her truck.  After that small attempt, Bella had a remarkably easy time seeing Jacob, almost as if it was a casual, uninterrupted desire, something Edward wasn't even trying to stop for whatever reason.  So she got to see him with no problem like it's...well, not a problem, and still not showing emotion at all!   Yay!  I totally believe that Jacob's someone she loves!  UGH. Seriously, there is no life between Bella and her supposed best friend Jacob. They're in love?  REALLY?  That wasn't just sort of obligatory mimicry of friendship they had?  Because that's what it looked like on the screen to me.  It seemed that Jacob was stubbornly infatuated with a stone cold boring statue.  Yes, he's stubborn in the book, but that's his character.  He's SUPPOSED to be stubborn and immature.  But without Bella emoting in any fashion towards him in return, save for one or two tiny moments, you don't get the feeling that she cares about him, not even in the friendship sort of way.  She almost seems annoyed by him.  So you find yourself shaking your head at Jacob, wondering why he doesn't get that this girl isn't that into him.  And that's NOT the way you're supposed to be feeling towards Jacob or towards the two of them; I don't care how team Edward you are.  You're supposed to FEEL their relationship, how it's not a minor thing.  In the book, Bella makes every effort she can in seeing her friend, no matter the price.  In the movie, it's all..."yeah whatever."  Jacob is supposed to sneak to her school to "kidnap" Bella from Alice's presence, since Alice cannot see his future, and that's when Bella should have ridden off with him on his bike.  She is supposed to "rebel" against Edward, still loving him, but loving Jacob too.  I SEE NONE OF THAT IN THIS MOVIE.  Oh she rode off with Jacob alright, but in the presence of Edward?  That was a blatant slap to his face, which I hate to say this...is so NOT Bella, but it IS this movie version of girl-power Bella.  I really missed the interactions between Bella and Jacob in this movie.  I truly did.  They really screwed up this time.  

*SCENE TRANSITIONS*
Fast and randomly placed.  Even boring.  Some of them are way too jumpy from scene to scene, leaving no believable fluidity.  Most seemed like such cop-outs.  One major chunk of movie with too-quick scenes stemmed out from the whole Riley in Bella's house scene.  One minute he's in the house snooping, staring down Billy, and the next...in walks Bella and Billy's awake and walking around talking about dinnertime!  Then suddenly Edward is at the door, picks up on the scent, then it's jump straight to the Cullen house. Then poof, it's daytime and Jacob's coming out of her house critiquing the scent too. They have a mini alliance to guard Bella, and night quickly comes and goes.  Poof to the daytime, and the one and only moment when Edward dropped Bella off to Jacob, Jacob asks, "What do you wanna do?" followed by a short list of suggestions.  With no response from Bella (surprise, surprise!), Jacob says they're going to a party that night, and then POOF!!  On to the nighttime "party" scene. It was all a total of maybe 6 minutes long. In fact, I'm willing to bet it's 6 minutes if not less.  Let me time it.....

Yep. Literally 5 minutes, from Riley's snooping scene to Jake and Bella walking to the bonfire scene.  Five freaking minutes.  Adding even another mere 5 more minutes could have made all the difference. I do not understand the freaking rush.

Where's all the interactions that lead up to this scene?  Stuff like that could have contributed to the Bella/Edward and Jacob/Bella relationships.  Now in the book, everything is pretty much the same, just more drawn out, and we have the convenience of having a bloody scene to make things interesting.  BLOOD!  But noooo, there's no place for that in the movie.  Oyy.  Now what should have happened was after Riley's snooping they go to the Cullen's to discuss the matter, and Bella even nearly begs for them to change her to a vampire then, so as not to put Charlie in danger from the mysterious visitor again.  This fails, of course, and the NEXT DAY, they decide to call Jacob over to analyze the scent himself.  And during his visit, he complains of smell, he jokes with Bella, etc.  Then he accidentally stabs himself with a knife after finding out Bella's planned graduation transformation.  (Nope, he didn't hear of this in the garage as the movie shows).  Anyway, he gets blood all over the place because the gash is DEEP, and this is when Bella witnesses his rapid healing first-hand. I would've loved to see that too. Eventually, he politely asks if Bella can come to his side of town for that "party" scene, which took place on a mountain top, not in their backyard.  And he didn't just throw her right into the party scene as they had him do in the movie.  There was just so much more thought that should have been placed in the movie's translation of these scenes, even if they WERE shortened for timing's sake.  And the thought just wasn't there. 

*RILEY'S GANG/NEWBORNS*
They so should NOT have had the focus in this movie.  I've covered the good of them, but there's more bad than good here.  I can appreciate seeing things from a non-Bella perspective, especially seeing as how she's an uninteresting wooden board anyway, but not at the expense of what was truly in the book.  The previously mentioned stuff I just talked about is the perfect example of what suffered just so these scenes can exist.  If they wanted to keep Riley and his newborns in this movie, fine, but do NOT take away from the book's TRUE scenes, scenes that could have added to the core of the story on the big screen.  Add in another half hour to the movie, keep Riley AND most of the crucial book scenes, and then EVERYONE can be happy.  But unfortunately, to accommodate his side of the story, which wasn't in the book, stuff had to be sacrificed.  I don't care about focusing on what Victoria's trying to do to kill Bella.  I liked not knowing.  Hell, even I want to kill her.  But what I DO and would have LOVED to care about was everything else BESIDES the newborns.  I loved them, don't get me wrong, but I loved the other stuff more.  In the book, there was more mystery about the Seattle killings, and I liked that.  But in the movie, it's immediately thrown in your face Riley's transformation.  It was a great scene, but blah, it just didn't belong there.  Not at the beginning of the movie, at least.  It was even odd to see Victoria interacting with him.  I just liked it being mysterious.

*MISSING DIALOGUE*
Nothing major here, just my own little pouting preference.  One line I would have loved to hear was from Edward.  "If I'd never left, you wouldn't feel the need to go risk your life to comfort a dog."  He says it to deter Bella from visiting Jacob, and it somewhat upsets her. It was a line that depicts a little bit of Edward's cold side (emotionally speaking).  Even Jacob's, "Does my being half-naked bother you?" line would have been great to hear, but that's probably because I remember an interview with Taylor Lautner when he said he would love to say that line.  But alas, there are three big screw-ups when it comes to dialog, or lack thereof.  

*VICTORIA*
Eh....yes, I missed the original actress.  I thought Bryce did a good job in her way, but I'm too accustomed to the other Victoria.  People have been saying it everywhere, but Bryce is just way too cutesy and soft to portray an enraged, vengeful vampire.  The psychotic nature of her was so well done in the first two films. This one left me wanting more.  I love Bryce to death, but come on.  Couldn't the creators of this film just get over themselves and keep the original actress? They should have known the fans wouldn't like a change.  I suppose Victoria was always meant to be very Bryce-like, by the book's description (her voice was alwyas meant to be high-strung and angelic, after all) which is fine if that's what we had since the beginning, but that wasn't the case.  And I would imagine all of her scenes would have been 10 times better if it was the same Victoria from the first two films.  Oh, and her hair was atrocious.  Bryce is a natural redhead; it could not have been that difficult to utilize this without a nasty-looking wig.

*COLD BELLA/TENT SCENE*
Minor yes, but still.  Horrible!  Well not in totality, but they couldn't make her lips blue or give her a little bit of ice breath?  I wasn't convinced she was cold at all.  It just looked like exaggerating acting to me.  As I said, so very minor, but come on.  It couldn't have been hard to pull off.  They could have even had Jacob's stubborn line of, "You're lips are still blue; want me to take of that for you too? You only have to ask."  

*THE END*
By far the most disappointing.  Bear with me as I give out my final spew. 

• Conclusion of the fight scene between Victoria and Edward.  It was actually pretty well done for the most part, but I didn't care for anyone's reactions after it was all said and done.  Bella never cut herself in the book, but I can understand why they did it in the movie.  It was forgivable, I suppose, but it sorta cheapened the weight of the scene.  Seth was supposed to have faked being hurt, which caused Bella to seriously ponder stabbing herself, but Edward and Seth still managed to finish the fight.  After Edward decapitated Victoria, he approaches Bella very cautiously because he took note of her holding the sharp object very tightly.  He thought she was fearful of him because she was frozen in place, and wonders why she wasn't bothered about the decapitation and dismemberment.  The fight was meant to FEEL over until Edward gasps and starts speaking as one of the wolves.  Bella was never meant to see Jacob getting hurt, but was supposed to have that relayed to her via Edward.  I can forgive that.  It added a dose of drama to have her view Jacob getting hurt, instead of just hearing about it, though her lack of tears totally didn't help the situation.  What I truly hated was not seeing Edward and Seth gathering vampire chunks and giving each other a sort of "high five," nose to fist as the book depicts.  Edward saying "Nice teamwork" would have helped too, seeing as how their camaraderie is only just beginning.  So it sucked not to see more closeness between them.  I'm guessing it wasn't done because it was too "friendly."  Bah!
   
• Dialog before Bella and Jacob's big kiss.  In the book, she does indeed practically beg him to stay.  But one important factor that was missing was Bella giving in to expressing the love she had for him, even if he was being manipulative to get her to confess.  In the book, she apologizes profusely for hurting him, telling him she wished she didn't meet him just so didn't have to keep hurting him.  She literally begs him to stay, telling him that they can compromise, that maybe she'll change her mind, that she'll give him anything he wants.  In a sort of pouty way, Jacob slips out another "I love you" to her.  And that's when she finally, FINALLY, tells him the same.  He then says, "I know that better than you do."  I WOULD HAVE SO LOVED TO HEAR THAT.  Fast-forward a bit and they finally kiss, a kiss that sealed the deal for Bella, a kiss that proved to her what she was feeling all along.  I mean, the entire scene was so important a moment that helped Bella realize what she truly felt, and of course, it was breezed right through in the movie.  She doesn't say anything about not wanting to lose him, or that he's too important, as the movie depicts.  What they could have had her say that would have been more true to the scene was "Because I love you" when Jacob asked why he should stay  I could have forgiven that.  But there wasn't anything!  Nothing about her loving him. But because they didn't pursue this, I don't feel like her decision will sway at all, or that she's somewhat torn over him.  In fact, it feels like she's just trying to get a kiss out of him before he goes to die.  I don't understand why this scene had to be missing that element.  It was all meant to make the final moment between them at the end of the movie make more sense.  Why?  When Jacob was lying there on the bed, he claims he got her to admit her feelings to him.  And unless you read the book, you might find yourself thinking, "Um, when was that?" I personally don't see HOW one could agree that she admitted her feelings in the movie's version of it all.  There was just a little bit of begging on Bella's part without any utterance of love, and then there was the kiss.  A perfect kiss, yes, but still.  A passionate "goodbye" kiss isn't enough in my book.  And during that kiss, there wasn't even the vivid imagery of what her life could be if she chooses Jacob, as in the book. They couldn't do something similar to flashbacks, but instead, flashforwards?  They couldn't show the two of them happy?  Sigh.
   
• The other scene was the entire interaction between a tore-up Jacob and a hovering Bella at the end of the movie.  Entirely UNbelievable.  I felt nothing during that scene. There wasn't even tender affection from Bella towards him, or vice versa. There wasn't her hand to his face, or him holding her close, or her utterance of, "How can we be friends when we love each other like this?" which I thought was pretty heart-wrenching in the book.  There wasn't anything that lead me to believe she was in love with him too like book Bella would have been.  To me, all she emanated was pity for the boy.  And it sucks that the true meaning of the scene was lost in translation. Not much of a deep conversation either. Just Jacob trickling out his last ounces of desperation to keep her, met by her lack of even slightly wanting him back.  None of that. It was just sloppily thrown together with a tiny thimble-sized amount of the lines from the whole scene.  Jacob just seemed very pathetic and clueless.  He was all alone in his pain while his supposed best friend crouched there to pity him, and it shouldn't have felt that way.  If only Bella had the longing she was supposed to have for him.  If only he spoke of finally accepting Edward as essential in her life, calling him her drug, but referring to himself as her air and sun, someone healthier.  She could have agreed as in the book, saying how he broke up the clouds for her for being "his own sun" (as she spoke of him in "New Moon), and he could have said the famous, "The clouds I can handle. But I can't fight with an eclipse" line.  My gosh, she doesn't even lean in and kiss his cheek like in the book.  Is that really so difficult to pull off?  They couldn't have her speak of loving him one more time, when he could have said, "Love you more" before she leaves?  If only she had the imagery of her future with him when they kissed, and spoken about it to him, declaring it to be the worst part of not being together.  Her movie line of, "I only fought them (her feelings) because I knew they wouldn't change anything," was alright, still from the book in a tweaked way, but it was said in such a factual manner.  It's like she's saying, "DUH Jake. THIS is why I didn't tell you I love you."  But in the book, she speaks of how she so badly wants to be with him in every way before telling him why she was fighting him so hard.  Ugh, dang, even the nice little humorous moment of Jacob saying he'd still take her when her heart stops beating, but it depends on how much she stinks.  BLASTED.  It was just so wrong.  In the movie, it's just fact. But in the book, it's a regrettable fact.  Big difference. 
   
• Then came an entire scene that was flat-out MISSING that should have been there.  It angers me that it wasn't.  I guess since the movie's version of the two big scenes I mentioned were void of Bella's love for someone else, they felt it necessary to leave this one out.  But nope, I still hated it.  This was a scene between Bella and Edward AFTER the aforementioned moment of her speaking with the wounded Jacob.  Of course, this scene would have required some major tears on Kristin's part, which is perhaps another reason why they left it out since she can't seem to have the skill in making herself cry, but enough of that.  Anyways, after her visit with Jake, Bella drives away, but pulls off to the side of the road to weep.  Literally weep.  It was one of the few scenes I appreciated a weepy, tearful Bella. Because it helped prove to me that she really did love that broken Jacob.  It showed me that leaving him was the hardest thing in the world for her at that point in time.  Of course Edward swoops in and holds her as she cries over her departure from Jacob.  It still would have been awesome to see some strong, sadness in response to "breaking up" with Jacob.  I personally found it to be the best depiction of what she was feeling about the whole thing. Even Edward, I remember, was very concerned, asking if she's sure she made the right decision.  Ugh, I'm looking at the book right now, and damn, it would've been sweet to hear his line of, "If it hurts you so much, how can it possibly be the right thing for you?"  It totally peeves me that none of this interaction was in the movie.  It would have totally put the whole love triangle thing to a final close.  A tearful Bella with hints of regret, but also surety that she is making the right choice.  None of that in this movie.  Gone, gone, GONE.

• It was disappointing not to see Alice in the final scenes being all giddy for Bella's wedding, but I guess it's not too major a scene. I'm sure the team Edward fans hated not seeing Edward climb all over Bella either. I personally found that scene sorta awkward, probably because I'm not accustomed to Edward being the one to try to "get it on" with Bella in the meadow as he did in the book. I forgave the absence, but I would have been fine if they kept it. What really got to me was Bella's whole stupid speech at the end about her choice not being between Jacob and Edward, and that it was truly a choice between who she should be and who she is. She then rambles on about how strong she is in his world so that's why she feels she belongs there, blah freaking blah. In the book, she never mentions Jacob to him at all, nor does she mention either one of them being her choices. In fact, she speaks nothing of choices. None of that hogwash was in the book. All throughout the whole dang series, as much as it pains me to admit it, Bella declares nothing short of Edward being her whole world. Her love for him is what motivates her to choose to be with him, to make this decision to become a vampire just to stay with him forever. And to have her spew out this nonsense about it being all about herself and nothing at all to do with him was unfitting for how she's supposed to be: Desperately and foolishly in love with EDWARD, not his world because of the strength she feels. I get what they're trying to do, but please. As if leaving things OUT of the book isn't bad enough, now I gotta deal with the stupid stuff they choose to add in for absolutely nothing.

I've already gotten over all of my complaints of this movie.  I'm certain I didn't even put all my complaints on here.  No matter how many things I've hated, I'll come to terms with it, because quite simply, it is what it is.  I'm still getting it on DVD and will likely still watch it over and over.  I can't change it.  I can only spew about it and move on hehe.  I apologize for the length, but no one put a gun to your head or anything to read this!  

Ta-ta.

...not as epic as I expected or wanted it to be. It was good.  But then....not so much.  I saw this one in 3D and was very excited about it.  But then I hear from more than one person how the movie was just "alright" and then I was like, "Ugh, but why?"  Is this not supposed to be a vastly superior movie than its predecessor, which was extremely overdo for a remake?  The original "Clash" was in dire need of a touch-up. Surely that's not possible to screw up.....right?  Eh. 

But honestly, though, I don't really remember the original all that well.  I know I've seen it, and I know I likely loved it, but wow....my memory of the experience of it is quite shot.  I just don't remember the damn thing.  Only a few scenes and only a few characters is all that graces my brain's memories of it.  So guess what I'll be buying from Amazon now?  Hmmm....on second thought, I'll just download it off of YouTube. I heard the DVDs aren't that great in quality anyway, so might as well get it for free.  I saw a few scenes from the original on YouTube, though, just to reminisce what it looked like and I thought for sure it would be so easy to redo by the effects alone.

• The effects, of course, were vastly improved.  As I said on a friend's blog, Pegasus kicked all sorts of ass.  The winged horse was as awesome as I expected him to be, though I wish he had more screen time.  His visual look is one that worked extremely well for me and when you think about it, we none of us have ever seen a modern Pegasus that looks convincing.  Even Tri-Star's cartoon-winged Pegasus, the one that would run from a distance and leap over the logo, had NOTHING on these modern ones.
• The scorpions were of course great, but in the modern era where movies such as these are typically CGI heavy and we see them all the time, they got old kind fast.  I'm looking for newness, and it's gonna be hard for Hollywood to deliver that since we've seen it all before.  Or maybe it was the fact that I just saw Starship Troopers the other day so now it's like these huge scorpions are sorta of bleh now. I still appreciated them though, however, because after all, they were in the original.  But...BUT!!! Riding them all piggy-back style into the desert?  Now they're tame scorpions? Lameness.  Way to make some typically fearsome arachnids to be rendered impotent in their ferocity, movie remakers.  Thanks alot!
• Hades' visuals were pretty neat. I liked the smokey effects.  Too bad I didn't get to see some other gods more in depth, like Poseidon. But yeah, okay....nothing else to add...
• I actually LOVED the look of Olympus.  The palace on the mountain top was cool, but seeing the gods situated in their throne room as if they were walking along the sky of the earth was even cooler. I loved that effect.  Very "godlike." 
• The Kraken was cool and very well-done.  Yeah, he was a bit like the bastard lovechild of the Cloverfield monster and Godzilla, but it still worked.  He was huge, huge, HUGE and it was pretty convincing that he was.  Unfortunately, he didn't wreak enough havoc to satisfy my appetite for the destruction a beast that size should be causing.  Way too underused like lots of other movie villains.  Darth Maul anyone?
• Medusa. Oyyy....Medusa. What can I say about Medusa?  Is she supposed to be beautiful or ugly? It seems there are two version of her out there.  This current "Titans" seems to want to embrace her as being very beautiful.  Just snake hair and body.  But I don't know....I find the gross ugly version of her to be a little more interesting.  From what I learned from watching a few scenes on YouTube, she was the main magnet of a character in the original.  She had an impact in the older film.  She had an essential role. Everything led up to her presence.  She had the key to defeat the very monster that was a threat to mankind.  Not to mention, of course, her unmatched ability of turning men to stone.  If it was one thing that this new "Clash" needed to get right, at least in my opinion, it was Medusa.  I watched the old one's scene with my modern eyes and was like, "Yeah, look how fake she looks.  The new one will definitely look better. Still freaky, but way more real."  Um.  No. This assessment was not to be.  Not only was this new Medusa very NON-menacing, she was also quite....well....attractive? I was sorta looking forward to her creepy menace, but there was none of that to be found.  Her lair was a little too open, yes. I called it "her playground" when I saw it. But that was forgiveable.  Then I saw her face, and I'm like...."Drats." Her CG was quite bad.  Like VERY.  She was way too pretty.  Gone was the aura of mystery about her.  I didn't care at all for her laughing either.  It not only made her a little too human, but also a lot less scary, if she was already any bit of scary to begin with, which she wasn't.  To me, she was just like an overly proud, pretty, popular girl taunting those were "beneath" her, and that just strips away the tragedy of her story.  So all in all, it was just stupid.  I thought it would have been more effective just hearing her slither around with no silly laughing, just so she can be at least a LITTLE bit creepy.  But what I really, REALLY hated was her incredibly ridiculous fang face. It was awfully stupid and annoyingly cliche.  Not everything that's supposed to be threatening has to have freaking fake cartoon fangs growing out of their mouth.  We've seen it a dozen times in different movies, including cartoons, and to add that aspect to her was completely unnecessary and made her even more silly.  Now I loved the stone transformations, though.  Thank goodness for THAT aspect. But everything else?  It was just....not right. 

But enough about the effects.  How about the plot?  Rushed. Way too rushed.  I feel like I wasn't given much of an opportunity to get to know or love the characters like....at all.  They were just useless extras to me, men who have no names, there only to make the numerous action scenes a little more interesting because they get to die some.  Was it like that in the original? I'm not sure.  Once I see it again, I'll be more certain of that.  And what about that beastly, ugly red man with the horns?  No, not Darth Maul. I know what you're thinking and it's not funny!  Nah, there's that creature with a tail, earrings, and two horns.  He was like some sort of hobgoblin prehistoric demon or something.  What about him?  Oh yeah, he's been reduced to some jacked up mutant man with anger issues.  He doesn't even seem intelligent.  He's just a....rabid crazy thing.  I can see that this wasn't supposed to be a remake per se, but in my opinion, if a movie's not supposed to be a remake, then why call it the same name?  If something's supposed to be a reimagining or an alternate version, then call it something else.  Otherwise, just call it a remake, then say you screwed it up. 

This new "Clash" is a screwed up remake (from what I can tell so far....can't really say for sure until I watch the old one again), but as a reimagined, newer version, it was decent.  It was fun.  It was enjoyable.  And hello? Sam Worthington's hot.  But that's about it.  Sure, he's been playing the same sort of character in his handful of movies, but oh well.  He's got a sexy as all hell voice and as long as I get to listen to it, I'm all good.  The one thing this movie succeeded in doing was getting me to desperately want to see the original again.  For me not to remember one bloomin' thing, it just shows me that I haven't seen it since I was a kid, in the literal sense.  Hell, I'm downloading it now as I type, glancing at a few scenes and it just hit me:  WHERE THE HELL WAS CYBARUS THIS TIME AROUND?? I just KNEW there was something missing.  And that big vulture? I didn't even realize there was a big vulture in the older version.  What the hell was the significance of the big vulture?  I wanna know!  I can't wait to see the old one again just for the sake of picking out all the stuff that wasn't in the new version.

Well anyway...I know this isn't really a review, but a spew, as much of my movie opinions tend to be.  But oh well.  It's my blog space and I'll type what I want to. :-p