The Twilight Saga: Eclipse - Discussion and Grading

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Dream, Jun 29, 2010.

  1. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    The really morbid parts of my curiosity wants to read the books to, but that'd mean either an embarassing pruchase at the book store or some really terrible Amazon suggestions.

    Anyway, yeah, the books do read like bad fan-fiction from everything I've read about them. Here's a good sum-up of them:

    LINK

    Spoilers, obviously, lurk in that link.
     
  2. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    Breaking Dawn is a weird rated R horror novel. It's like the author completey forgot that she was suppose to be writing for a YA audience. I'm sure it scared plenty of tweens when it was first released. The main problem I had with it was that it dragged. Nothing happens for much of it, which is why I was surprised that are going to try to stretch it into two movies. It won't be very hard to improve on the novel, just get change some of the dumb parts.
     
  3. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Why should they start now?
     
  4. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    All three Twilight movies are a little different from the books. It tends to happen with most book adaptations. The biggest changes about them was that each movie ended differently from their book versions.
     
  5. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I read the Wikipedia plot summary, and I'm confused also:

    Bella and Edward get married, go on a honeymoon, have sex, there's a very fast pregnancy, a disgusting birth, end of movie one. Movie two: the baby grows up fast, vampires show up and decide not to kill the baby, everyone is happy.

    You could fit that into 45 minutes. But two movies? WTF? :p :rolleyes:
     
  6. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    They are obviously milking the fans by spliting the final book into two movies. I guess you can't blame them though.
     
  7. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The idea of splitting Breaking Dawn: The Movie in half was actually first suggested by Stephanie Meyer herself, which would seem to invalidate the idea that it was done simply to 'milk' the franchise.

    As to my own personal thoughts on the decision to split BD into two movies, I don't really understand it (granted, I haven't actually read BD but am more or less familiar with its plot and narrative), but given that I'm not the person or persons in charge of making decisions for Summit, all I can really do at this point - as a fan of the series - is trust that the filmmakers know what they're doing in terms of splitting the novel's plot in half for the filmic adaptations.
     
  8. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^^ Er... Meyer is hardly a disinterested party in the question of how many movies are made, either monetarily or egoistically... so no, it doesn't invalidate nuthin'.
     
  9. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Given what happens in the last book it seems one movie would be too short but two movies would strike me as "too long." Seems it'll need to be padded out some.
     
  10. JediKnightButler

    JediKnightButler Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I definitely thought that Eclipse was the best of the three movies so far even though I haven't read Twlight nor Eclipse. Frankly, I haven't been a huge fan of the series.
    Being a fan of shows like BTVS and Angel, the Twlight series has been enjoyable so far but nothing spectacular until this movie. I've tried reading the books but the books seem to be much harder to get through than the movies are and the Twilight Saga may be the only book series whose plot/storylines actually seem to work better as movies than books.
    Some of the movie was definitely plodding but the soundtrack was well-done- both the vocal songs chosen for the movie as well as Howard Shore's score and I loved the final battle scene between the Cullens/Werewolves and the newborn vampires and Victoria.
    I'm interested in seeing how the series ends, as well as checking out the novella that Stephanie Meyer did about one of the (short-lived) newborn vampires in the story.:techman:
     
  11. doubleohfive

    doubleohfive Fleet Admiral

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    Because Meyer would not stand to benefit (financially or otherwise) from two more movies instead of just one. Gotcha.
     
  12. Caligula

    Caligula Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I just figured they were doing it because they saw that the final Harry Potter film was being split into two parts and they decided it would be a good business decision for them to do the same.
     
  13. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Pretty much what I figured, honestly there's an event in the last book that'd make a good coda for the next movie, but it'd take a lot of padding, from what I can tell, to fill two movies but I could see it done.
     
  14. hyzmarca

    hyzmarca Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    But, you see, they are. Being vampires does not put them above or beyond the law or morality and there are these crimes called Accessory, Conspiricy, and Facilitation. To put it bluntly, if you help someone commit murder, cover up a murder, intentionally provide the means to commit murder, or whatever, you are a murderer.

    The Cullens could stop all other vampires from killing trivially. All they'd have to do is come out in a public manner. Once the public knows about vampires, vampires can't kill without risking arrest or death at the hands of human law enforcement.

    But the Volturi would kill them, some might argue. The Volturi aren't all powerful. If done right the news can be out worldwide before the Volturi get hint of it. At that point, its impossible for the Volturi to do such a thing without attracting the wrath of human law enforcement and perhaps military. Comming out forces vampires to play nice without significantly harming nice vampires.

    Craving blood is a silly reason to emo. Plenty of people drink blood. Its a staple product amongst a great many herding cultures. And as Buffy the Vampire Slayer often pointed out, you can buy it at any local butcher shop.

    Being undead? Twilight vampires are biovamps, not magic vamps. They're magically physis-defying biovamps, but they're not undead. They're alive, just different. In fact, vampiresbeing alive is a rather huge plot point, since if they were undead a hybrid child would be impossible.

    The only reason being a vampire really sucks is the Volturi's restrictions. And, well, the Volturi are pathetically easy to kill. Sure, they're super strong and tough and have awesome mental powers, but they have no practical defense against anti-tank missiles fired from UAVs. Twilight vampires, like most urban fantasy vampires, are profoundly stupid and eschew such modern weapons in favor of the medieval approach. But it only takes one to blow them all away.


    Personally, I'd do exactly what Bella did if I were in her situation. This isn't for any love of Edward. I'd probably kill him myself soon afterward. The issue is one of personal ambition. Long life isn't a curse and no amount of wangsting will make it one. More to the point, the power that someone in Bella's position could actually wield is amazing. She just doesn't see it. Or she doesn't care. At the end of Breaking Dawn she was one step away from killing the Volturi and making herself queen of all vampires, after all, and she failed only because she actually wanted peace.

    There is some alternate character interpretation that Bella is an emotionally parasitic sociopath who just uses the people around her for her own self-gratification. This first perfectly with her characterization. Thus, her transformation into a vampire could be seen not as a sacrifice to Edward but as an logical progression of her sociopath need to be special.

    Anyway, Eclipse has some good fight scenes, so that makes up for the plot sucking. I can watch the movie of the killing.
     
  15. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I recognize that the above was said with sarcasm, but the fact of the matter is that, yes, she would not have stood to benefit in any way from BD being two movies, at least not at the time she made her comments (which were made on her official website in September of 2008). The reason for this is that, up until BD was greenlit as two films, her relationship to Summit was more or less the same as the relationship between JK Rowling and the Harry Potter filmmakers (she provided consultation to them, was allowed/invited to visit the set, and even made an appearance on camera, something that JKR has not yet done). It was only AFTER Summit greenlit BD as two films that they went and brought Meyer on board as a producer.

    Meyer apparently later went back on her statement(s) about the feasibility of BD being adapted into two movies rather than one, but this also happened well before she was officially asked to join Summit's team as a producer on BD.
     
  16. Gaith

    Gaith Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Really? You can cite the part of her original contract that says she gets royalties for the franchise in one lump sum up front, no matter how many movies (and thus how much box office) are released?
     
  17. indranee

    indranee Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The books are actually ALL online. That's how I read them. Google is your friend, Trekker.
     
  18. indranee

    indranee Vice Admiral Admiral

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    How do we know cows aren't sentient again? And I still don't get why a book or a movie has to be "moral".

    BTW, you probably should give the Illiad another go. Up to you, though.
     
  19. Myasishchev

    Myasishchev Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^Cows are sentient. Cows feel.

    Meat is murder, etc.

    No kidding. Eternal life and eternal youth--not to mention superpowers, sweet abs and no-muss-no-fuss body glitter--are boons not be scoffed at. Someone should explain to Edward that if he were really damned, God is doing one piss-poor job at it.

    At any rate, I'll echo Spoony's excitement about the Breaking Dawn adaptations. Those movies will be magnificently bad.
     
  20. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

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    I love animals. They're delicious. :)