The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2

So here we are again. Back in the land of bloodless vampires and shiny waxed werewolves. Yes, we are back in the world of Twilight…

The story continues with Bella (Kristen Stewart) embracing her transformation from human to vampire and watching proudly as her daughter Renesmee grows at an accelerated rate. Because of this, she is mistaken for an ‘immortal’ or vampire child, which had been outlawed by the ruling Volturi.

Aware that their lives and the life of the Renesmee are in danger, Edward (Robert Pattinson) and the rest of the Cullen family appeal to other vampire clans to confirm that Renesmee is not an immortal and to act as witnesses and allies in their plight.

The Volturi arrive to destroy the child (as well as the Cullens) and a battle commences…

As you can see, not much of a plot and they managed to make that last a whole one hundred and sixteen minutes. 

I shall start with the one good thing in this film. 

Michael Sheen. 

Michael Sheen is AMAZING as Aro, the leader of the Volturi. He acted everyone off screen just by raising his one eyebrow. His performance veered from Kenneth Williams when he meets the child (the child’s name is unbelievably stupid, so I am refusing to use it anymore) to Tony Blair’s fake sincerity when he reads the mind of Alice Cullen. The man was brilliant, he was the only one not taking it seriously and the only time this film was bearable was when he was on screen.

The bad things? I shall start with the actors. Other than Michael Sheen, they were all dreadful, utterly, utterly dreadful. Wooden and totally lacking in any real ability to act. Meaningful glances do not make a good actor. Neither does sighing. Nor does pouting. The screenplay? Dreadful. There’s no point giving your actors meaningful glances to do if there’s no dialogue to back them up. And where’s the story in beautiful people just standing around in beautiful houses? The direction? No real sense of proper direction, so dreadful. The cinematography? Actually not too bad. The battle scenes were very well done and were the only moments when I actually felt any kind engagement with the film. Imagine my disappointment when it turns out to be only an apparition. How I would have loved for all the characters to have died (except for Aro, of course). They also resolved the werewolf to human transition problem that has plagued them in the last few films. Hurrah!

I know that Twilight is an easy target for non-teenagers like myself but there is a more serious issue here. Teenagers, particularly girls, are being exposed to films which perpetuate the myths that as long as you have a boyfriend then its OK, that the idea of having men rule your life should be embraced, that every aspect of your life should be controlled and that you should be prepared to sacrifice everything for your one true love. Is this really what we want our young girls to be seeing? 

It also raises the question that should films (particularly those aimed at young girls) have more responsibility in ensuring that there are more positive female role models? There are very few films with proper female leads that any young girl can aspire to and it is very depressing to think that this could be the only film that a 13/14 year old girl could and would want to see. The values and ideals presented in the Twilight films are not values or ideals that I would want impressed upon any young girl today.

Verdict: Aside from all the points made in my review, the films in this franchise are incredibly dull. A fact that was demonstrated at the packed midnight screening that I attended where a couple of people tried to start an applause at the end… 

The applause didn’t catch on.

Argo

One area of American society that always interests me is the work of the FBI and CIA. So on hearing about this film and the fact that it was based on a true story my appetite was whetted.

The film is based on the aftermath of an attack on the American embassy in Tehran in 1979. The vast majority of the embassy staff were taken as hostages, but six escaped and took refuge in the Canadian ambassador’s home. The ambassador, Ken Taylor (Victor Garber) then tried to devise a plan to enable the Americans to leave the country without being captured by the Iranians.

In the US, CIA operative Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), has been asked to help secure the release of the Americans. Mendez comes up with the plan to create a fake movie, so that he can pose as a Canadian producer, go to Iran on a film location scout and bring back the Americans who are to be seen as part of his film crew.

Despite Mendez’s boss’s reservations, it is obvious that this is the only viable option. Mendez gets in touch with a make-up artist John Chambers (John Goodman) and convinces him to help him with the mission by creating the buzz around Hollywood press about this film. Chambers advises that in order to make everything look as authentic as possible, Mendez needs to have a script and a director. Chambers introduces him to Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) who agrees to be a part of the charade.

The story moves on to show how Mendez gets into Iran and how he convinces the both the Americans and his manager to go along with his audacious plan.

The film is really interesting as it was about an event that I was not aware of and it is the type of story that I really like. The attention to detail is impressive in terms of everything looking like it came from the time of the story. I was particularly struck when the credits were rolling, how uncannily similar the Americans and their actor counterparts were made to look. 

The film was really gripping and tense right up until the last few frames, testament to the subject and  that the film never went down the ‘worthy’ route which so frequently happens. My only reservation is that in some scenes the Americans were outright rude to Mendez, I find it very difficult to believe that this would actually have happened in real life. If someone is risking their own life in order to save yours, I think little more gratitude would have been displayed.

Verdict: A really tense film which shows an audacious, and in places, ludicrous plan in action. Gripping, well acted and directed, this is a very entertaining film that proves that Affleck is developing into quite the actor and director. And the little catchphrase involving the word Argo will stay with you for a while.

Skyfall

Like most 30-somethings, James Bond was an ever present figure in my cinematic life. My dad and I would often watch them on a Sunday afternoon and no Christmas Day was complete without a Bond film to fall asleep to after lunch. Despite this, my interest in Bond is fairly limited, he didn’t seem a particularly ‘real’ character and you always knew that no matter what happened, he would be fine.

My personal favourite Bond was Roger Moore as I felt he brought a fantastic sense of comedy to the role. I lost interest when Timothy Dalton took up the challenge and although I know I’ve watched Pierce Brosnan versions, I couldn’t tell you anything about them.

I was persuaded to watch Casino Royale a while ago and immediately saw the massive improvement which was down to the popularity of the excellent Bourne films. The bar had been raised and Casino Royale more than met the challenge. Daniel Craig had made Bond more human, the story was more interesting and the film was visually very appealing.

Most people would agree that Quantum of Solace was a bitter disappointment, the film made little sense and the franchise looked tired and past it’s best. Moving onto 2012 and the franchise was celebrating 50 years since the release of the first Bond film and the pressure was on Sam Mendes to bring the film back to its former glory.

So Skyfall is a different, but very familiar kind of Bond. He is older, more careworn and is very aware of his increasing age. We find out more about his background and his complex relationship with M (Judi Dench) which shows him in a different light. Bond doesn't have quite the same swagger, the same confidence he had in previous films. I think that this a deliberate attempt by the film makers to show Bond with flaws and weaknesses and it was an excellent way of deconstructing and almost rebuilding Bond that everyone knows.

The story is typical Bond and is so quite unashamedly. There is a fantastic villain in Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) who is a former MI6 agent who holds a grudge against M. The plot is fairly simple and involves beautifully choreographed fight scenes and the necessary explosions. There is, of course, the usual close calls and a brilliant twist near the end that will make most viewers gasp. The film is very well made, fast-moving and holds the attention well.

Although I'm not a massive fan of Bond, the job has been very well done here. It was interesting that so much of the film was set in the UK although I couldn't really see the point of the China section (yes, money I know). But for a 50th anniversary film and all the pressures that creates, it met the challenge.

Some people have been saying that this is the film of the year. I don’t agree at all. This is a great, well-made film but there are no boundaries being broken here, nothing original or ground-breaking. This is a Bond film, albeit a very good one, but it is just a Bond film.

Verdict: A fantastically cinematic film with standout performances from Bardem, Dench and Craig. Although I didn’t think that the film had evolved as much as it could have done, I can completely understand why they wanted to create a film celebrating the 50 years of Bond. I am left wondering where the franchise can go now, the constant references to Bond’s age throughout the film would indicate that maybe the next film would be less action-based which would be a shame in my opinion.