The most important scenes failed.

Rating: 6/10 (29 November 2009)

I remember reading the book and thinking, I am OK if every other scene is a complete screw up, if only they get the cliff diving and the reunion scene down correctly. And when I watched the movie, I almost ripped my hair out! Not out of spite for the director or anything, but out of sadness and loss that they missed the essence and emotion of these two most fundamental scenes!
First the cliff diving scene.This is supposed to be a climactic scene and it did not feel like one. In the book, Bella is growing more desperate for another hallucination and you as a reader are inevitably going through the same emotions. Its like she's a heroin addict thinking, I need a fix,I need a fix, I need a fix, until she can't possibly take it anymore. Then finally she reaches to that point where she is willing to sacrifice her safety, her security, her body, for that tiny taste of Edward... and she lets it all go and plunges..
the problem was that it had no flow or connection to the story. I feel no desperation, no build up. It simply feels like I'm watching a chronological order of her daily activities.I'm supposed to feel some sort of urgency in her motivation. Which i did not.
Also the cinematography of the scene did not do much justice. It would of been more effective to see some close up shots that dispelled Bella's emotions, and the illusion ultimately sucked. In the book, the illusion is supposed to vibrant, clear, much more emotionally impacting and different from all other hallucinations. and you feel like its worth jumping for. Watching the scene on screen just makes you think, Why the heck are you jumping off a cliff? If you want to see your illusion, just ride the motorcycle again! you know? Its like this scene was randomly thrown in there without and relevance to the story. And on the contrary, this scene is supposed to the ultimate representation of Bella's incompleteness and desperation..
And as for the reunion scene. When Bella finally pushes him (or attempts to push) him behind closed doors, they instantly jump into the Why's and the How's. Edward tells her that he didn't do it out of guilt but out of love, blah blah. You might as well end the movie there! This makes the rest of the movie just feels blah. The build and emotional urgency ends, Sure the Volturi seem kind of threatening but I feel content and complacent and there's no tension really because Edward and Bella's relationship is mended. But in my opinion, that is what makes the Volturi scene so damn tense, is that Bella and Edward might die here while they still have unresolved issues!
As for the other scenes, they were great, the characters themselves, like Laurent, Victoria, the wolves LOOKED amazing. The aesthetics were just remarkable, the best i have ever scene. But I guess that's what they focused on, the picture, not the story. which is tragic. Jacobs voice just bugs the heck out of me.