Now, look, I like Twilight. I do. It was one of my favorite books for awhile there. Even though its written terribly and lets face it, Bella Swan is NOT the best role model out there.

And the movies really really killed it for me for awhile there.

But I saw this series to the end as a book series (I picked up Breaking Dawn the book at midnight) so why not see the end of the series as a movie?

And they announced that the City of Bones trailer was going to be shown before the movie. That was a pretty nice incentive as well, even though they premiered it on MTV.com the day before and I’ve watched it…well, a bunch of times.

They didn’t show the preview for City of Bones at the movie theater I went to. Such a bummer. That’s okay though. Here’s the trailer for you to enjoy, if you’re a Mortal Instruments fan. If you’re not, you are seriously missing out.

Moving on though, to the actual Breaking Dawn movie.

I have never, not once, not ever, been able to say that I was impressed by a Twilight movie.

I was impressed.

Truly, actually impressed.

I’m going to warn you. There are spoilers ahead. If you have any plans to see this movie, I urge you not to read on. Even if you’ve already read the book, don’t read on.

THE GOOD: 

They actually stick pretty damn close to the story. They leave stuff out, tweak it a bit but they stick to the story. That is impressive to begin with because most movies from books do not do that. At all. So that was refreshing. However, one of the biggest beefs with Breaking Dawn is the fact that it ends too happily. There is no battle scene, no heartbreak, no nothing. It was fairly disappointing.

Oh, they change that. They cause one of the biggest WTF moments I’ve had in a movie theater in awhile.

Now, if you know the story, at the moment where Aro decides that true, the Cullens are not guilty of creating an immortal child but there is an uncertainty about Renesmee’s future, Alice appears and is able to prove to Aro that that the child is not a threat.

In the movie, however, Alice shows Aro and Aro refuses to accept it and Alice says “No matter what I show you, you will not believe, you won’t change your mind” (Keep in mind, I’m ad libbing here). Thus begins a CRAZY ridiculous battle. Jake takes off, with Renesmee on his back. Carlisle is killed, almost instantly. Then Jasper. Then Seth Clearwater and Leah Clearwater. And members of the Volturi and Jane and Alec. It was insane. The entire theater was in an uproar.

I mean, in all honesty, thats what should’ve happened in the book. I was crazy disappointed with the end of the series. I mean, I don’t LIKE when people die in books; it breaks my heart. But its realistic and it shows how attached you’ve come to characters. So when Carlisle dies and Jasper and SETH (I adore Seth), I’m heartbroken. But this is completely deviating from the storyline so the movie theater is an absolute uproar.

And then, the craziest WTF moment, when it pulls back and you realize that this is the vision that Alice is showing Aro and the entire theater literally goes “WHAT?!” One guy in our theater literally spewed out “What the F**K?” and we all laughed.

And I was really impressed by this part. One of the hugest criticisms of Breaking Dawn as a book was the ending. The ending…it just ended. They spend a good half of the book preparing for this big battle and nothing happens. I mean, I don’t like when people die but its necessary sometimes. Lupin, Tonks, Sirius, Fred…they all die and it breaks my heart but it made the book that much better.

So I thought this battle scene in the movie was a way to fix that huge criticism while still sticking to the book that she wrote and the one that we got. If that scene would’ve actually taken place, I would’ve been like WHOA, that is SO different from the book, as much as I would’ve liked it. But the fact that it was the vision that Alice showed Aro in the book that we didn’t get to see…that was awesome and perfect. Giving the audience what they desired without changing the actual story. Brilliant.

And I have to admit, the acting was much better in this movie. None of these kids are going to win Oscars or anything but impressive. Even Kristen Stewart seems to have learned some emotions. I was surprised at the difference she showed in this movie. It was noticeable.

I also liked that they stuck with most of the characters that they brought into this novel. That was my favorite part about this book: all the new vampires we get to see. I liked the vampire part of these books! The romance got to be too much but the vampire breakdown with the Volturi and the vampires all over the world? Thats interesting so I’m glad they kept all of those in there, with their special powers too.

THE BAD:

One, creepy Renesmee as a baby. Whoa. I know she’s supposed to grow fast and be strong and extremely smart and all that. I get that, I read the book. But whoa, as a baby, when Bella first meets her, she was a freaky alien baby. I was like, that baby is NOT beautiful. Whoa. When they show her growing up, and she becomes the little girl, then she’s gorgeous and I’m okay with it. But whoa, alien baby freaked me out a lot. I can’t even put up a picture of her, its just so creepy.

Aro? Also really creepy. I know he was creepy in the books. He was also creepy in New Moon as well. He’s a creepy creepy guy and I think that’s why he aspires so much fear. But it was too much in this movie. He had these weird facial expressions and unexpected reactions to things and seemed to laugh at the weirdest moments. I think Aro is supposed to be very smart, very powerful and very calculating. I don’t think they captured that about him at all in these movies. They made him just seem a little crazy.

Jamie Campbell Bower as Caius was very good though. Ten more points to my confidence in his portrayal as Jace Wayland.

I wish Renesmee would have talked more and we could’ve seen more of her power. We see it once when she shares her first memory of her mother with Bella. But we never see it again. She does it but we don’t actually see it and that kind of bummed me out because its the way she communicated. And she doesn’t talk much either so she just kind of was there to look pretty, I suppose. I was hoping she would display more of her amazing and impossible qualities that were described in the books.

The brief almost epilogue moment where Alice has a vision of a grown up Renesmee with Jake. Stupid. I hate those kind of flash-forward things. Unnecessary and dumb. That was weird. We already knew there was going to be a happy ending, that was implied, we didn’t need creepy photo-shopped Renesmee with Jake.

And there was a part where Bella says “Always”. I nearly lost my cool with that. When Peeta Mellark says it to Katniss in Mockingjay, I nearly lost my cool and I ADORE the Hunger Games series so I was pretty pissed when Bella says it in this movie. Oh my Rowling, I was not happy. I seem to be one of the only people unhappy about this but maybe that’s because I have “always” tattooed on my ankle…

All in all though, I left this movie theater impressed. I went into this with little to no expectations or hopes for it. I’ve been very disappointed by these movies in the past; they just haven’t been good at all. However, finally, in this last movie, they managed to finally produce a good one.

And honestly, it wasn’t the best movie ever. There are plenty of movies out there that are fantastic and WAY better than this. And what I’d say for this movie was that it was really good. Not amazing, not great, but good.

And I’d check it out. They should have done for the earlier movies what they did for this one. Maybe this franchise would’ve been better received from more than just the Twihards. But I digress.

For now, I think I’ll go watch that City of Bones trailer again and dream of August 2013 when some of my favorite books hits the big screen :) Like City of Bones and the Sea of Monsters. Can’t wait!

Stay tuned for a Book of the Week by our one and only Bazingirl!

What did you think of Breaking Dawn Part 2? And remember our one rule! RESPECT!

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Edit: Officially Twilight has NOT broken the midnight record release. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 continues to have the top spot, followed by The Dark Knight Rises. Breaking Dawn Part 2 doesn’t have an official spot quite yet.