Breaking Dawn Part 1 Movie Experience

So I’ve been meaning to have this blog post up for a while, but the first time I wrote it up, it was accidentally deleted. I was so disheartened that the draft has been sitting unfinished for weeks. Thankfully, I’m a visual person and still remember the finer details of the movie! 😀

A few weeks ago I managed to score some kid-free time and my husband and I decided to go on a little field trip to the movies. He suggested we go see Breaking Dawn Part 1 and I agreed.

Unfortunately I didn’t go to a Hoyts movie theatre so I didn’t get my Red Jelly babies, lol. I’m not terribly disappointed, I can assure you. I wanted to see the movie for exactly two reasons: 1) I really wanted to see how the birthing scene was handled and 2) How the hell they managed to split the horrid book into two movies in the first place. Usually curiosity kills the cat, but I was pleasantly surprised in some ways with the book’s cinematic experience. For me, Breaking Dawn Part 1 was neither bad or good. It was just okay. There are loads of things I can criticise the movie on like Edward bruising Bella during sex or Jacob imprinting on Renesmee, but that’s not really the movie’s fault…just its source material. In which case, I will be saving my venom and rage for my Breaking Dawn book review. Heh.

The movie opens with wedding invitations being opened by Jacob, Rene, and Charlie and Bella practicing walking in heels. And this is also the scene where my lovely husband chose to compare me to Bella Swan:

Hubby: “Hey, look at that. You and Bella have something in common. Stephanie hates wearing heels and so does Bella.”

Me: “OMG, please do not use our names in the same sentence.”

Hubby: “I bet you guys wear the same shoes too.”

Me: “You are starting to annoy me.”

And just to drive the last nail into the coffin, Bella then puts on her brown converses and he throws his head back and busts out laughing very loudly in the theatre. That’s also the part where I start to wonder if it was such a smart idea going to the movies with him after all.

Hubby: “Oh, this is classic. I’m going to call you Bella from now on.”

Me: “If you value your life, it would be wise not to. In any case, it’s not my fault you seem to be the only person that doesn’t own a pair of chucks. My shoes are practical.”

Hubby: “Whatever you say…Bella.”

Me: “AJGKIDLTUIHDB!!!!!”

It was not a good thing for me to start annoyed when watching a Twilight movie. Thankfully, there were times during the movie when I laughed at something genuinely funny. During the reception scene Emmett gives a small speech that made me chuckle:

“Bella, I hope you got enough sleep the past 18 years because you won’t be getting any with Edward!”

And who could follow-up behind that? Only Charlie, that’s who:

“I know Edward will be a good husband. I know because I’m a cop. I know things. Like how to hunt someone to the ends of the earth. I also have a gun.”

I pretty much love Charlie and Emmett. LOL.

You know what happens next: the honeymoon scene. But, first Bella has to prepare herself! Re-brush her teeth, re-shave her legs, have a mini panic attack. Breathe, Bella. Breathe. Okay that part was actually pretty comical. Lol. But on to the main event:

And yes, it was just as creepy and uncomfortable as you read about it in the book. However, unlike in the book Edward not only destroys the bed and pillows (the feathers! LOL), but the entire room. I mean, the room is totaled. It looked like a freakin’ hurricane came through and Bella, the pin head that she is, wakes up and looks around like, “Oh, my! When did this happen?!” I don’t care how good the sex was. There is no way she didn’t know the room was being destroyed. There I go again trying to apply logic to anything related to Twili
ght . Any who, Bella ends up battered and bruised the next day. I think they toned this part down a bit for the movie because I remember her bruises being described more vividly than what was shown on film. Either way, Edward’s response is the same: he refuses to do it again. And since Bella is such a selfish…oh, excuse me…selfless ha! Yeah right! character, she then proceeds to use her feminine wiles, attempting to seduce him back to bed. She hangs out around the vacation home in lacy lingerie for a few days until his resolve breaks.

Then we get to the good stuff: the pregnancy. I think they did a great job with the use of CGI in the movie because Kristen Stewart looked totally different. She looked haunted, gaunt, extremely pale and sickly. At first I thought it was just make-up, but she appeared noticeably skinny too. However, there is one part in the movie where Jacob is about to leave the pact where it gets super corny and cheesy. The voice overs with the wolves sounded terrible and I literally laughed so hard at that part. It wasn’t even meant to be funny, but it was. They could have done a much better job with the wolves.

One thing I found interesting was that the dialogue in Breaking Dawn seemed to make fun of the actual book. There is one part where Bella is at the Cullen’s hiding her pregnancy and Charlie is growing worried about her “illness.” So they are on the phone and she somehow convinces him that she’s okay and he changes the subject saying, “So how’s married life? Edward still walking on water and all that?” Lol! Yes, I’m glad someone has realized Bella has an unhealthy view of Edward. She’s so obsessed with him, she acts like he’s her personal messiah or something. Then, later when Bella is toying around with baby names and tells everyone the name Renesmee, Jacob pretty much tells her it’s…not good, lol. Even better, you can see one everyone else’s faces that they feel the same way, but don’t want to hurt her feelings. I don’t think that happened in the book (correct me in the comments if I’m wrong) because I was waiting for someone to tell her how ridiculous that name was. Just think about it. The kids in school will tease her and refer to her as Nessie the Loch Ness monster. Not a good look.

So how did this book end up as one movie let alone two? Doesn’t seem like much happened? That’s mainly because Hollywood had a bunch of filler scenes that were not included in the
book. Edward and Bella dancing in Rio, an elongated scene of Edward and Bella playing chess day after day, a few drama scenes of Edward and Bella fighting over the baby and a random fight scene that was NOT in the book. That last part doesn’t really surprise me. Stephenie Meyer does not write fight scenes anyway and Hollywood has pretty much added one in every movie, so I expected that. And honesty, the fight scene (between the Cullens and wolf pack) wasn’t bad at all.

I was pretty disappointed with the birthing scene, but I will say that Kristen Stewart played a great almost-dead person. All she had to do was put on her one facial expression of hers and she was just golden! The birthing scene is shown mainly through Bella’s eyes. That way there wasn’t much blood and gore. You barely even see Edward bite open Bella’s stomach. In fact, if you were watching the movie and happened to blink at that part, you would miss it completely. But I guess showing a sex scene is more PG-13 appropriate than a birthing scene. Huh.

And finally the moment I had been dying to see happens: The imprinting. My husband didn’t understand exactly what it meant to “imprint” and I had to end up explaining it to him a few times after the movie ended. He thought Jacob imprinting was a little…hmm…I struggle for the right word here…pedo-Bearish? I don’t care which way Stephenie Meyer wants to flip that Krabby Patty, Jacob imprinting on lil’ Loch Ness is creepy. It was creepy in the book and even creepier on the big screen. Don’t believe me? Well don’t take my word for it:

See? Creepy. Hanging with Edward has done Jacob way more harm than good.

And of course we had the ending which showed the venom working its way through Bella’s body, remaking her into a permanent member of team undead. The CGI for that part was pretty cool because it showed her filling back out and her back unbreaking itself. Then the movie just ends with her opening her eyes, which are crimson red. The end.
And that’s pretty much the movie in a nutshell. Most of the action in this installment happens in the beginning of the book, so I’m pretty curious to see what they will add in part two.

One thing is for sure, though. Next time I go see a Twilight movie, it will be the midnight showing because I missed all the die-hard fangirls. When I saw New Moon it was during the midnight showing and they actually screamed when Rob or Taylor took their shirts off. Fangirl reactions are the best part of the Twilight movies and I’m sad I missed it. But I guess that’s what happens when you have kids to look after. Lol.

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Steph Sinclair

Co-blogger at Cuddlebuggery

I'm a bibliophile trying to make it through my never-ending To-Be-Read list, equal opportunity snarker, fangirl and co-blogger here at Cuddlebuggery. Find me on GoodReads.

@cuddlebuggery

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