It serves its purpose

Rating: 6/10 (23 August 2010)

So Its Bella's last year of school and she wants to turn into a vamp and get in bed with him. Every new age teenage girls dream huh. Edward like the not so new age male in return asks her to marry him.
The thing is she's fooling around with Jacob and the volturi just wont leave them alone like the good bad guys they are. But you guys already know the story so Im ganna jump to the "I love I hate I perish" part. (Or was that I burn I pine?)
Lets start off were no others do, with the secondary characters.
They have more dialogs, which leads us to a bit of Jasper's and Rosalie's backgrounds as a person and not as a Cullen. Which in my opinion was the best part of the book surprisingly well written and fairly described.Sadly they made it so dull and slow in the movie, if I didn't know any better Id think they were just trying to make time with these scenes.
They made it so obvious it didn't seem natural. Why would Bella all of a sudden care about Jaspers past and why would he open up like that when he is so reserved. (Completely different situations in the book *sigh*).
Once again these two very great actors were put to shame with boring and fake dialogs.These are not the kinds of roles that get you respect as an actor. The surroundings in the flash backs weren't convincing and dare I say neither were the outfits.
The surprisingly good news is that the poorly described action scenes in the book turned out very well put together mixed in with a bit of entertaining Edward Jacob antagonism. Visually the fight scene were quite captivating for not being an action film itself.
There are lots of unnecessary Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and wolf dude close ups for my taste, and we all know why they're there.To lure the audience when boring dialogs are being said. Now if the actors weren't so expressionless all the time it wouldn't feel like such a D class soap opera. Im not complaining about their acting. Im complaining on how they want to compensate for the lack of everything into those kinds of shots.
What else? Well we've got a new Victoria played by the oh so wonderful Bryce Dallas Howard, but yet again how can you give birth to a great performance with a lousy script?
They had something great going with her disciple that should have been explored a tad more. Non the less it was a nice and refreshing plot for all the readers.
The main dilemma with these films is they have such talented actors as secondary characters, and yet what do they give us? St st stuttery Kristen Stewart and those other two guys who are there just too show off some chest.Not that complaining about that, but they have two more films two get there ACT together. They have good potential but they're not quite up there like their costars.
Oh two things i was keen about: Jasper and Carlisle didn't have accents on the other films, and Bella's hair is darker. On some shots they glossed patinson's lips over the top which looked awkward and unnatural. We all know vampires are feminine, but feminine does not mean extremely queer!
All In All David Slade has crafted a beautifully shot movie with some excellent action pieces; but with level 1 performances from the lead cast and blunt dialogs.
Does the movie serve its purpose? Yes! Does that mean its a good movie and everyone will love it? No! Because its purpose is to sale merchandise. Why do you think there's the Cullen crest and Bella's ring and this and that.
But it entertains, its enjoyable, there's plenty a eye candy(unless you're a man). The characters are lovable, teen girls can relate to Bella. Its just nice for the moment, you will find no cult classic in this franchise.