the twilight saga (film review?)

listening to the soundtrack and writing most of this at 6 o'clock in the morning. i must prepare for a night shift, and what better way to do it than watching all of the Twilight movies back to back and finding that i really enjoy them...? is this an issue for my character?... am i derAngEd?! stay tuned lmao

so i guess this is my first um... blog entry? movie review? can be both :/ anywho welcome to my manic 'Twilight Saga' movie binge with Sorta Stupid because they make it easier to get through these pieces of content (which as of rewriting my notes i took from watching these movies, you'll see where my current thought differs from what i was thinking at the time, if it does come up more often than not i'm not alice blogs are hard lmao)

"I Caught Myself" just came on so let me lock in... this was a 15 year long story written and carefully crafted by Stephenie Meyer (i'm not much of a reader) and was a box office phenomenon that lasted for four years (at least in my household because my mom and cousins were cool like that). i think.. it's way over hated. if they came out today, sure she'd be cancelled on twitter for some of her plot-points :/ but i think they're films that should be re-evaluated by a lot of people if they haven't seen them in a while. the author wrote a very good story with several different aspects of different known tropes, but kinda also flipped most of them on their head at the same time, even if was due to an insufferable main character and painted with an angsty teenage, early 2000's tone, which this stuff is marketed towards anyways. the movies definitely get better exponentially as there is more story to sink into, but it's hard to pick a favorite as they build on each other and are based on a preexisting finished work.

when the first movie came out, i was seven years old, but music still affected me deeply (was my shield, if you will *winks*). that music was in a way, the first ever movie soundtrack i fell in love with growing up... i mean i was printing off the Paramore lyrics from our printer to sing along to the song on my iPod, playing it on the loudest speakers i could find in the house and singing full blast. i thank Hayley Williams and Chester Bennington (rest in peace) for my sweet tenor charm. upon hanging out with Sean, Bree, Ruff, and Erik watching these movies (thanks to my gold membership hehe), it made me realize there's so much more here than i could have ever imagined... i hadn't seen any of these movies before..? gasp so thankfully i had pals to watch it with to kinda bear through most of the meh stuff with. my opinion is my own, but i was also watching with the most stoned YouTube reaction group ever, so let's get into it lmao 

Bella Swan is a thrill seeking, high school student and falls in love with an old dead guy and a half human, half good boy (which shockingly covers most corners of the internet nowadays...) she is not only a FRUSTRATING main character to watch, she also appears to be the central ISSUE for the first three 'chapters' of this story. she wants the human experience kind of a love with Jacob but says she doesn't, and ALSO the eternal-forever, mysterious vampire kind of love with Edward... and sometimes said she didn't. the first two movies, she's just a young woman who has only graduated high school with plenty of life to experience who... just wants to be a vampire i guess (which is a typical would you rather question, just without the marriage and the living forever thing {not for me}) 

at the same time, the story only really makes sense because of the weird love triangle being so built into the plot... so by the end it's turning back around to just fucking awesome? let me cook in a tumblr-esque, over-explainy kind of way why in my adult life, i am Team Jacob:

Edward is a cold-blooded killer (vine boom) and can read minds... he gaslights the SHIT out of her for most of the first couple of movies imo. in 'eclipse' when he's like "you're just trying to make everyone else happy" to Bella when talking about Jacob and the wedding, he has the consistent and constant ability to mend situations to his will in the earlier movies (even if it's for her benefit). and he just takes so many L's... to persist and continue to push and push the ideas of all the sexual aspects, but the moment she gets pregnant (granted it's a miracle and should have never happened) he starts losing his mind?? talking about some "where is my choice"... i guess my biggest thing is remembering the demographic and also knowing and acknowledging this stuff for what it is- the sex aspect for most women and this franchise comes with the concept of their marriage, and the last movie or book specifically? bella literally says they don't sleep, need breaks... she literally says "how are we gonna stop" so like... could NOT be me. lmao

NOTE inclusion: Edward gets points at times, and so much redemption by the end of the saga. in breaking dawn part 1, he mentions that he was a vigilante of sorts in his days of rebelling Carlisle.. so like score?  and with how the final battle would have went down... holy moly)

Jacob has a little more leeway most of the saga for me ('New Moon' Jacob is peak for sure), only because of how much more human and grounded into reality he and his family/story/lore is, and he's just much better for her in regards to the whole you know.. being alive thing. but like.. showing up TO THE WEDDING? huge! cuddling her shirtless so she wouldn't die in the cold while Edward watches?... crazy. making sure her daughter is never in harm? couldn't ask for more in a guy. but imprinting on her? ....he's a wolf? aaaaaa. i just thought he was loveable and in the right more times than not, and his family and their history actually made me so sad, so i'd just say take him for the man he is and embrace that throuple baebay. he's just gotta control himself sometimes and he's very emotional (add the 'sounds familiar, mucho projecting' obligatory parenthetical comments here)

another pretty big NOTE inclusion: SOOOOO the imprinting thing. um... wow. that peace treaty they had would have been BROKEN if this didn't happen. AND whoever a wolf imprints on can't be harmed, it's their highest law (stephenie meyer said it not me). these are also three true statements i guess.

and don't get me wrong, she was a moody teenager.. but she says out loud several times that it was her decision and what she wanted and could care less what anyone else thought about it (she's angsty like that), in turn creating an added equation to the vampire archetype which makes it interesting to me, and i just think that's awesome.

now here's where i cook.. their situations are thrusted upon them only because Bella as a character seems stubborn, right? it's BUILT into their characters; Edward is quite literally a vampire and Jake's literally a werewolf. when stuff with Jacob's family was splitting up, his siblings were all being the good guys here.... but it was instigated by Jacob, which was springboard from HER (see what i mean?)  and the Volturi stuff is only interesting because of Bella's ability to bring peace among tribes, groups, even species lmao.. so she's a CENTRAL part of it all, just also the root problem of most conflict.

enough of this breaking down female main character mood swings front page stuff, let me admire these for what they are; films. Stephenie Meyer and these movie crews add really cool backstory and plot to the side characters of both of these "mystical creature families". Carlisle is an amazing glue, leader character with cool Volturi backstory stuff, with Aro being his counterpart, and a very good "villian". i really like Jasper and Alice and their relationship is my favorite of all of them, Emmet and Rosalie's characters are also super interesting when you start to break them down (ya know with Rosalie's whole resentment thing but love for Emmet and Renesmee ugh) and their relationship is also very sweet methinks. 

i think that Charlie deserved so much better :/ Edward (with Renesmee) and Jacob did a good job at getting him back into Bella's life, even if he's blindly in the dark on many things and cases he could solve... only issue is he might have an alcohol problem, but god he's a police officer who LITERALLY can't solve murders that are happening around him so can ya blame him? and his daughters a freaking daredevil?! excellent dad, even if he doesn't know his immortal granddaughter is protected by a vampire family with a pet werewolf.

NOTE: Oh, and Rami fucking Malek.

i could have a WHOLE post about the last movie alone and how perfect the soundtrack is. "flightless bird, american mouth" by iron and wine? dude.... the juxtaposition of the "happy ever after" with the song lyrics talking about the most foul, not pleasant sounding stuff is fantastic. also plays well with the shots of them after the wedding because it signifies that really, no one else matters. and the cliffhanger transformation scene on Bella?! wow.

now HOOOOLY SHIT. a twelve. minute. escalation??. and the actual film score?! i didn't remember the climax of this series being as impactful or being this badass when i was little, but everything dude. the walk ups, the dialogue, the power flexes, Aro's army... and Jasper and Alice coming back?!?! HELLO?! ugh so fucking good, wow.. should i start reading?

and let's not forget to talk about this conclusion and wrap-up. alice's vision to Aro, (a.k.a the bad ass fight scene and most gut wrenching timeline to watch unfold, but to never even happen?) it just shows how powerful this family is and how much amplified their powers are compared to others. the gore? Carlisle....sent a chill down my spine. Eddie and Jasper?!?!?! the wilhelm scream? we're serious. "all peace gone, light this bitch up anyways" typa thing going on. like none of it even happened (thank you Alice)

as someone who struggles to paint not only *the* truth in situations, but also *my* truth as well, the finale of this series was what i'm assuming many fans (that knew what was coming) got such an emotional rollercoaster from. it's in her memories with Edward that you see not only their love story, you also see a four year film journey that's worth a ride, even if you didn't really reach the height limit the first time. ;)