Lots to enjoy (with a few exceptions)

Rating: Null/10 (18 November 2011)

Summery: Despite some criticism, I know that I will go back to see the film again because there is a lot there to enjoy. Ultimately, I find that it does what I want it to do â€“ give an on-screen representation of what I envisioned in the books and allow me to experience the story visually. Like the somewhat obsessive nature the books depict, I confess to an inexplicable, somewhat addictive relationship with the novels. And ultimately, the movie does what I want it toÂ… it gives a good visual "hit" to my addiction. I'm not ecstatic, but I am satisfied.
What I loved: 1. The stunningly beautiful wedding 2. The wedding-prep scenes 3. Bella's exquisite dress. Undeniable. I was hoping that they wouldn't put her in some sorry excuse for a designer gown that actually looks horrible. They didn't and I'm SO glad! She looked stunning - undeniably alluring while maintaining an essence of purity. The more I looked at it, the more I loved it. 4. Charlie and Rene's spot-on performances. 5. The honeymoon awkwardness. 6. Edward was entirely believable throughout. One of my favorite moments in the film happens when Edward calls Bella to task for making a unilateral decision when, in fact, marriage is supposed to be about compromise and two people working together. I found the comment and its delivery profound and insightful. 7. Bella's beautiful lullaby theme from movie #1 was brought back and served to weave continuity between all three films. I also LOVED the flashbacks to the other films. They remind us of the characters' history and our history with them. This was one of my most favorite aspects of the movie. 8. Finally, I liked the initial images and sounds when Jacob phases into his wolf form after discovering that Bella's pregnant.
What I didn't love: The script was SERIOUSLY lacking in the 2nd half of the film. It didn't support or provide an explanation for why Jacob continues to return to Bella even after he's said he isn't sticking around to witness her slow death. This could have been easily managed via conversation with either Seth's character or with Leah's character, but it's left out completely and as a viewer, we're left to "fill in" Jacob's motivations on our own.
The conversation between Jacob and Leigh when she is explaining that she's willing to help him through his upcoming grief is entirely omitted in favor of Leah's explanation that she would prefer to be unwanted in Jacob's pack rather than be unwanted in Sam's pack. This interaction was entirely underwhelming. I found Leah's performance, something that had the potential to be gritty, painful and pack some serious punch wasÂ… lacking. Bland. I didn't grow into compassion for Leah's character and this was the opportunity to do so. Rather, I am left seeing her as a cardboard cut-out of a person, stuck on the screen because she's a partially relevant piece of the novel. I say this, feeling somewhat guilty for the criticism because I like the actress, she seems sweetÂ… but her performance in this case left me wishing for a lot more.
The script did not support Jacob! Having grown to care about this character, I felt that the script really let him down. I had a difficult time understanding his feelings. So much was left to facial expression and while that's great much of the time, in this case because Jacob has so much distance to cover as he shifts from his love of Bella to his utter devotion to Renesme, the script really needed to be there to support him and it just wasn't.
The wolf pack. CGI â€“ what happened?!?! The CGI pulled me right out of the movie! I could not maintain the illusion in the face of its awfulness. Given the money these films make, couldn't Summit have put a bitÂ… OK, a LOT more effort into making the wolves look realistic? They did a thousand times better in Eclipse! We're regressing? Really? Unbelievable. The wolves looked horrible. I just couldn't get over it. Adding to my dislike of the wolves was the funky "Darth Vader" rumble-y scratch-i-tude that they used to modify the voices of each member of the wolf pack. I am left shaking my head in amazement. Anything would have been better than this! Might I suggest this simple solution: Silence firstÂ… much in the way the book depicts. It would have been easy to achieve by keeping the pounding foot beats, add heart beats, add a clamber of voices and cut to sudden silence.
For the argument scene following,in an effort to represent the plurality of the pack mind, make each character shout his/her lines, and then play with the sound in order to pull one voice to the forefront while moving the others to the background at a much lower volume. This seems like such a straightforward option and so much better than ruining the actors voices with really, really, bad tech-modifications.