I'll have you know right up from the start, I didn't want to set any expectations for it being a sequel, and I watched it with a state of open-mindedness one should supposedly have to enjoy movies with sequels. Even more after reading all four books, anything that comes on the big screen is almost always never exactly portrayed word for word, which is quite a bummer, which is yet to include the Nothing-Better-To-Do-ness of the Censorship Board, cutting off every single suggestive part of the movie that may seem to be unsuitable for ALL viewers apparently. Yes cut off a kiss or two because its for the good of people who squirm at lovey-dovey parts will you now, or some words that are not suitable for kids below a certain age, or whatever funny reasons they can come up with.. Weird!
Ah Bella Swan~ *drools* nah thats not like me I'm not that big of a fan. Though I'll say that Kristen Stewart wonderfully fits the part perfectly *I'm sure a few other candidates might be up to par with her or even better if they had any possible chance for the role but.. Too Bad~* and to me she really does give Bella the kind of existence every fan would ever wish for as close as it could get to being in real life; the movies. Its like even before the cast was chosen, she's already been the one and only rightful Bella I've had in my imaginary mind while reading the books! Though she is the lead actress in the Twilight Saga movies, there's this one other gorgeous beauty I could never stop to look out for..
Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen! Gosh she would really be something to drool over! Then again, no I'm not one to be a howling 'wolf' about stunning gorgeous females. She really, really stands out far more than the rest of the female cast *to me lah... alright fine I'm very much fascinated by her* and scene after scene I keep wanting for her to appear again and again. I question one thing which is, why did they decide on giving her the role of Alice instead *yup she auditioned for Bella at first* and after awhile of figuring out the answer, my guess is that its because she is more naturally err.. good-looking than Kristen to look the part of a fragile, human like Bella, and that decision was nothing short of a brilliant one. Ashley freakin' rocks as Alice Cullen and she is one huge reason why I would want to get back for another round of all four books! Alice Cullen in the books now has a face. Woohoo!
I'm not going to take sides with anyone and go all out to say that no matter how dreadful most of you may or may not think he is at playing the part of Edward, in my opinion he's done a quite OK job at it, for if the movie had some other well known actor/heart-throb/hunk/dream guy cast for the role, it would probably end up as some typical Hollywood action thriller romantic 'thing' which is well, just typically wow awesome and everything. However, you'd probably remember those guys more than the movie itself, which I don't think is and ever will be the main intention of it. The main focus is more about making the movie experience as similar as possible to the way it was written. So for that matter, sadly there's too much stuff taken off from the original storyline which no matter how small its significance in the plot, still plays an important part in how it should have been originally told.
Yup nothing much about Robert Pattinson @ Rpattz to be said by me for this movie sequel. Charming as he was in the first movie Twilight, none of it was given a chance to be shown.With him popping up every once in awhile, the strong steel chains that usually dragged in hordes and hordes of fan-girls were never properly bound. Giving the next guy one heck of a chance at the ladies attention this time around.
From the beginning of the movie, the scenes made it feel as if it was only all shades of black and white, cold and grey. Now when he starts to appear in the movie it totally changes the whole feel of it into an entire spectrum of warm, comforting colours! I'm not saying that i think he's like HOT or anything though you Taylor Lautner fans would whack me in the head for insisting on that and just stampede over me, going crazy over him and especially with his new buffed up, short hair look in New Moon. Catching up a little with the behind-the-scenes of the movie, I find it kind of idiotic to even have the mere thought of recasting some one else for the part of Jacob Black. He even already has that facial structure that will make you imagine he could already secretly turn into some animal of sorts in real life, specifically, into a huge, beastly, grand looking wolf!
Okay back to that colour thing, in the movie we see him going through the changes from human to gaining the ability to change into his wolf form, as you should know already to say they're all werewolves in the story would mean you're wrong as they're are more correctly known as Shape-shifters. At the same time, as Bella tries to get over her break up with Edward, Jacob ends up being the one to help her with that oh-so-painful event that gave her a sudden feeling of emptiness, being the guy to fill in that empty crater left by that big blow she received from Edward in the woods. He certainly does bring that warmth back to her life, so effectively that even whoever watches the movie would feel it too, which I certainly did. in each and every part of the movie where he appears, its like there's always that sun shining brightly past the dark clouds that hover above the entire time it seems almost like an eternity.
Reading the comments from the director and producer on the matter, it really did get me started with one thing in mind, "If the movie ain't so nice, its their fault because of all the dumb ideas they'd possibly decide for the movie" . So I checked up on Chris Weitz and just coming up to his track record of movies he's directed before comes this movie title which I can unfortunately describe only as Ugh, Bleh, and OMGB - Oh My Goodness Boring !
The Golden Compass, which I certainly can recall being quite long-winded, though having an interesting idea of a story at first, got really really dead boring as it got closer to the end. Now to compare this one to The Twilight Saga : New Moon, you may realize there are some sort of similarities between the two.
Both tend to be quite bland, empty at some parts. For instance in New Moon during the whole break up scene with Edward and Bella, the actors are very much responsible for bringing to life the emotions and feelings which has already been described in perfect detail to the readers of the book. Yet during the scene, there was no hint of deep down to the depths of darkness, bitter emptiness felt but instead, a very much tasteless, if tastelessness could even be measured, a scene where two people are struggling really hard to do just exactly what they should do, bring written words to life, especially that one significant part of the story. Thank goodness for the actors who've stayed on from the first movie that they've somehow covered up this one director's handiwork with their brilliant performance. *Applause*
Whats the whole point to conclude? Pray hard the director will never ever touch any of the other sequels in line.
Happy Reading! ^_^