Not A Twilight Fan- Still Enjoyed It

Rating: 6/10 (16 November 2012)

Now look, I'm no Twilight fan. I watched the first movie and forgot it after an hour. I talked to some Twilight fans in the theaters to fill me in on what the movie was going to be about. I came in with prior knowledge of what imprinting was, what Bella's daughter was like, all the good stuff. From what I understood, this movie was basically The Deathly Hallows Part 2(a terrible movie by the way). My thoughts were, "Oh no! Not another fan service movie with no soul!" I sat down and awaited the eventual sleep that would take me out of the boredom I would experience from such a bland movie.
BOY was I wrong. This movie was FUN. It had a quick pace (which I think was by accident), fast editing (again, I don't think they intended such a blatantly quick movie), and absolutely ridiculous situations. Now I am of the belief that you can make anything stupid look really cool. This movie took that idea and made them look really funny. Bella jumping up and biting a cougar on the neck? That is hilarious to me. The audience thought so too because they erupted in laughter, and it seemed to me that this was a theater full of Twilight fans (it was the showing before the midnight premiere... I know, that doesn't really make sense). Were we making fun of the movie? No! We were all just having a good time. The movie can be really funny sometimes and thats OK. Its a movie that I felt understood the criticisms around it and just ran with it. This movie was 2 hours long, but it felt like 1! If any movie does that for you, that is an impressive feat.
The audience was such a big part in making this such a fun experience. There was so much laughter and enjoyment that it made everything feel as though it were a part of a bigger event. It felt like I was sitting in a room with a bunch of good friends who were enjoying this movie with me. And it wasn't jerk laughter that was disrespectful to the movie and it's fans, it was the sort of laughter that just sparked out of people just having fun. I haven't seen a single movie in theaters that did that this year, so kudos to you Twilight.
Now, the actual movie, was it good? Well... it's definitively something. There are definitely redeeming factors of it that make the movie interesting, but in the end, it feels like giant B-Movie without blood. It just does things that I feel only films that understand they're going to be ridiculous or terrible will do. Kristen Stewart continues to disappoint me with her acting (Snow White would have been a much better movie if she wasn't in it), the characters don't really make sense to me other then the fact that they just want to be beautiful and sleep with each other all the time, and the way it was filmed was just... horrible. I don't remember if the first movie looked so bad, but man, what the hell did they do here? It looks like they shot the entire movie against a green screen with my friend's low-end DSLR. I absolutely can't stand it when a movie looks like it was shot on video. Skyfall was partially (or wholly, not really sure) shot on video and it looks drop-dead gorgeous. And the script... OH the script... That oracle, the one who can tell the future is THE worst storytelling tool in the world. She absolutely takes the drama out of EVERYTHING. And drama is the most important tool a movie has! Don't trick me into feeling sad when a character dies only to find it was vision. Don't tell me what happens down along the line with Jacob and Whatever-Her-Name-Was. Don't tell me... don't tell me stuff I don't need to know! Now look, I don't think death is necessary in every story (a la Dark Knight Rises) to make it good. But this movie uses it as an emotional adrenaline and give the audience both the battle they've been waiting for AND the happy ending that they want. It's... after all... a business.
But hey, in the end, I needed to just sit and enjoy it with the people I was watching with. It's by no means the best movie ever, and it's debatable whether it's a good movie at all. But this movie is bigger than itself for all the people who love this series, and I was glad I could have shared in an experience that they thoroughly enjoyed and thought was really good. Because hey, who's to say it wasn't?