Breaking Dawn

This weekend I saw both Skyfall and Breaking Dawn Part 2! Both movies were awesome in different ways, and I felt compelled to say something about the latter.

I’ll admit that I loved Twilight in the beginning. I’ve read all the books at least twice (and saw the first movie three times on its opening weekend). Then I went through a phase when, for various reasons, I stayed far away from the whole thing. Now I’ve come back around to thoroughly enjoying the franchise for what it is – a totally unrealistic but compelling cheesefest. I was particularly excited about this movie because, while my first reading of Breaking Dawn left me stunned and confused (I felt like I was reading fanfic instead of the real thing), I do love the key elements of Breaking Dawn Part 2. General story spoilers ahead!

I see Bella’s story in Part 2 as a satisfying example of the meek inheriting the earth, an undervalued woman coming into her own. Bella spends three and a half looong books as a helpless pawn, unable to protect herself, let alone her loved ones. Her experiences as the human girlfriend of a perfect immortal go right along with her lifelong feelings of inadequacy and even uselessness. But when she becomes a vampire, she becomes fully herself for the first time. As many of the characters observe, the innate traits that were obstacles to her in her human life are the very things that make her an ideal vampire. As a human, she felt that Edward’s inability to hear her thoughts was more evidence that something was wrong with her; as a vampire, she discovers that this “shielding” ability goes beyond a gift to serve as a powerful weapon, uniquely equipping her for the fight to save her family. Better yet, it’s a weapon the enemy doesn’t expect. So, in addition to irrevocably getting what she always wanted (Edward) and what she didn’t know she wanted (a child), Bella finds her true role and purpose. Helpless no longer, she rises up, kicks ass, and takes names. She learns that everything she needed for the life she was meant for was with her all along. I LOVE THAT.

The movie conveyed all of this pretty well. I had heard that the movie ending would be a little different from the book ending, and let’s just say my mouth was hanging open for a full five minutes. Well played, Bill Condon, well played.

Okay that’s all.