My Week in Film: June 12, 2012: Worldwide Short Film Festival, Snow White and the Huntsman, Exploring YouTube & More!

Image from: Gravity of Center, from the Official Selection Creative Control program at 2012 Worldwide Short Film Festival

Hey Everyone!

I hope everyone survived the crazy hot weekend that was just here in Toronto. I swear, we get the craziest weather. I stayed out of it and continued along some marathons I'm working on although heading to the theatre might have been a smart retreat! Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

Most recently I headed out the The Worldwide Short Film Festival last week and enjoy oodles of short films. The opening night was packed and had an awesome selection of award-winning short films from around the world and it was quite an impressive selection. I was particularly fond of the inventiveness of Luminaris (dir: Juan Pablo Zaramella), the haunting nostalgia of The Fisherman / El pescador (dir: Samantha Pineda Sierra from Mexico , and of course the ode to monster movies in The Elaborate End of Robert Ebb / La mysterieuse disparition de Robert Ebb (dirs: Fx Goby, Matthieu Landour and Clément Bolla).

I also headed out to the festival on Day 2 to enjoy the Official Selection Programs of The Family Compact and Creative Control. I also really enjoyed Official Selection Creative Control, in particular the fabulous movement piece Gravity of Center (Dir: Thibaut Duverneix) with the RUBBERDance troupe, the heartfelt tragic comedy Lifetripper (dir: Graeme Joyce) starring Rob Benedict and the absolutely extraordinary Withering Love / Les amours perdues (dir: Samanou Sahlstrøm) starring Emmanuelle Béart and Denis Lavant which touched my heart with it's haunting, tragic romance. The Official Selection Family Compact had several films that caught me including the clever short Long Distance Information (dir: Douglas Hart) starring Peter Mullan and Alan Tripney as well as the touching documentary Me Without You / Mig uden dig (dir: Aage Rais-Nordentoft) from Denmark.


Images from: A Shadow of a Doubt / Skyggen af tvivl; Morten Holst and Nikolaj Dencker Schmidt in To All My Friends / Til alle mine venner

Speaking of Denmark, Day 3 held the treat of Film School Spotlight: Super 16 Anarkino program full of Danish film to love, and love it I did! The Film School Spotlight: Super 16 Anarkino program was my favourite of the festival even though I had already seen the film Dennis back in 2008 and it only had 5 films, but they were all gems. I adored the sensitive romance/personal journey film A Shadow of a Doubt / Skyggen af tvivl (dir: Esben Tønnesen) starring Nicolei Faber & Anders Hove that followed the beautiful forming of a new relationship with also showing the doubts and memories of the past. I was also blown away by the film To All My Friends / Til alle mine venner (dir: Behrouz Bigdeli) starring Morten Holst and Nikolaj Dencker Schmidt as two friends against the world, against the odds, and the complexity when that starts to put them against each other. It's not an easy watch with the enormous amount of tension and the obviously limited resource they live in, but the formidable performance will blow you away.

Overall, it was another great year at the festival and I was so happy to be able to get out and see so many films. See all of my Worldwide Short Film Festival Coverage here.



Fairy Tale Femme-tastic: Snow White and the Huntsman
Although I didn't see it last week, my most recent venture to the theatre was to see Snow White and the Huntsman (dir: Rupert Sanders, USA/2012) starring Kristen Stewart (Twilight) as Snow White, Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) as the Hunstman. This film ranks high on the #7 spot of my My Most Anticipated Films of the Year for 2012 as the story looks compelling, it has fabulous women in it (and men...), and the art direction looked divine. And divine it was, the world they created was on that you feel like you could step right into and marvel at it's beauty, as well as the bizarre dangers that also lurked there. I was so happy with Snow White and the Huntsman as it honours the original story yet really aligns and makes accessible the theme of beauty and power, without it feeling superficial or silly. It's a tale of deep hurt as well as the challenge to face the fear and striking odds, but also offers a positive and inspiring perspective. I loved how it's also very much about the women in the film, not only Snow White and Ravenna (The Evil Queen), but other women as well. It makes me curious about the choice in the title, and although I enjoyed the character of The Huntsman and Chris Hemsworth's performance, it wasn't overly played up in the film. I loved that, because the story is really about the women. It's so rare to see and it really worked here. I can't go without saying that the costumes were gorgeous, especially for Ravenna, Coleen Atwood does it again! I loved the film, I highly recommend it to fantasy film fans and especially for people who enjoy female protagonist films. I can't wait to see it again. If you want to hear even more about Snow White and The Huntsman, hear my review with co-host Marina Antunes over at the Before the Dawn Podcast.

Tuning into SciFi TV: American Warships!
I had the pleasure of guest hosting on a recent episode of The Saturday B-Movie Reel to chat about American Warships with host Kevin Bachelder and fellow co-host Gary Mitchel from the RevolutionSF.com. We had a blast chatting about the film which was previously titled American Battleship and came hot off the heels of Battleship. There was so much fun to enjoy, and the discussion continued on and on as director Thunder Levin and wardrobe designed Ashley Crist listened and responded to the podcast! They bring up some good points that I definitely will make note of and I am really impressed that they chimed in. Check out the podcast over here at Tuning into SciFi TV.

Exploring YouTube
You may have noticed that there is a lot of vlogs popping up over here at Movie Moxie recently, and I'm hosting them somewhere new for me but not new to most. That's right folks, I've actually created my own YouTube Channel, aptly named: http://www.youtube.com/user/ShannontheMovieMoxie . It's quite a culture shift, but I'm starting to get the hang of it and am very curious to see what other people post about, and what people watch. I'm not totally big on the transparency that how many views you have is so 'out there', but wow, that's just the way it is. If you are a fellow YouTuber, feel free to subscribe and swing by. Almost all the content will be uploaded here at Movie Moxie and the DVD Releases, Marathon Vlogs and Recent Release vlogs are compiled and included in audio form in the weekly Movie Moxie Podcast. More ways to enjoy content is a good thing, right? I hope so! As a sampling, I've included the review of Film School Spotlight: Super 16 Anarkino below:

Haywire (DVD Review)

DVD review of stylish action film Haywire starring MMA Superstar Gina Carano


Image Courtesy of Alliance Films

Dir: Steven Soderbergh (Solaris, Oceans 11, The Girlfriend Experience)
Cast: Gina Carano, Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton
USA/Ireland, 2012

Reason to see: Female protagonist action films are always on my to see list

Haywire stars Mixed Martial Artist Gina Carano, and is directed by Steven Soderbergh which I miraculously kind of forgot about before going in because all I really needed was an MMA star in a film to pull me to see it. But Soderbergh directed Oceans 11, 12, 13, the Solaris remake and The Girlfriend Experience, and it’s no doubt he is a very stylish director which you could really feel that in the film. The pacing and the storytelling style were very different than I was expecting; a lot of action films go for a very high-paced style but Haywire feels much more like a drama, with action. It feels like an American espionage drama with action and a female protagonist as opposed to an action film. Although the action is fantastic and Gina Cararo is amazing and certainly will be a draw to the film, the most important part of the film which is her character journey and the story which has some welcome mystery elements to it.

I do wonder if some people will think the pacing is too slow, and I found myself spending time while watching literally interpreting and experiencing the film from the perspective of the fact that it wasn’t what I was expected. But, once I settled into realizing what they were going with and just relaxed into it, I really enjoyed it and I particularly enjoyed that it has a slow burn with a lot of visual storytelling. We get to watch Mallory (Gina Cararo), as she herself is watching, interpreting and reacting to what is going on around her in a very visual manner. I was very impressed by this, the completely visual storytelling that was accompanied by a groovy soundtrack were a huge highlight of the film and something sets it apart from many current-day action films proving that you don’t have to shock & scare us with stuff to entertain us, you can also appeal to our logical minds as we try to piece together the puzzles, be they ones of action or espionage. It was very impressive.

It was fantastic to see Gina Cararo was so good in this role as an action star, so much so that it actually pushes buttons and boundaries of things that we don’t normally see; for example if she is fighting a guy in the film – they are really going all out at each other. She’s not treated differently and she’s certainly not treated lightly, she’ll get thrown around just as much as anyone else who is in an action film. It’s literally a new primer when there dynamics of the fight aren’t re-adjusted to balance for any strengths or weaknesses of either fighter; they are treated as equals. Although theoretically I cheered and the balance, it took a while to adjust to seeing that. They did also call out on some action film tropes to be a more clear counter-reaction to what we often see gender wise, that didn’t work in the film quite a smoothly as the action balance did, but considering it’s such a new shift I think its’ entirely fair to expect some growing pains. To be honest, I’m happy to take those growing pains if the counter is seeing an amazing, capable, and believable action star. And that is exactly what we got: Gina Cararo is amazing, capable, believable and very dynamic action star and I look forward to seeing her in more films in the future. The story was good too, and I was impressed I could keep up considering espionage can be a bit of challenge for me but I suspect seeing it in open captioning help (see more on the experience of open captioning here).

Overall, the action, score and tone were all amazing plus I enjoyed the story as well. But Gina really was the pull to the film, and she pulled me right in and kept me for the entire time.

I would definitely recommend it to action, espionage and mystery film fans and especial to fans of female protagonist films.

DVD Extras:

• Gina Carano in Training (16 minutes) Behind the scenes footage, film clips, MMA fighting footage of Gina Carano, pre vis choreography footage, and interviews with Gina Carano, World Extreme Fighter founder/owner Jamie Levine, special ops technical advisor Aaron Cohen, fight choreography J J Perry, actors Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum and Ewan McGregor on working together, on her physicality and aptitude, fighting, MMA, women fighting in the MMA, training including a section on weapons training, fight choreography and + clips from a film Q&A with Steven Soderbergh on when he first saw Gina Carano and the idea to build a movie around her. I loved how they would show progression of several of the fight scenes from pre vis choreography, to behind the scenes of filming to the finished film; that was pretty freaking awesome.
• The Men of Haywire (5 minutes) behind the scenes, film clips and interviews with Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum and Antonio Banderas on what drew them to the film, the feel, look and tone of the film; the realism of the characters in the film, training for the film, working together and especially the experience of working with director Steven Soderbergh.
• Characters of Haywire (9 minutes) This includes a set of tailored trailers, but each one shows the character of Mallory (played by Gina Cararo) paired with the other characters in the film including what her relationship is to them; and then one that purely focuses on Mallory; Plus snippets and film footage of the interviews with Gina Carano, Channing Tatum, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender both from the previous extras as well as additional interviews with Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Bandares and Channing Tatum on their characters. I'm a little surrpirzed this doesn't have it's own menu to see the footage character by character, but rather it has 6 trailers in a row, then the 2 sets of interview footage.
  

Haywire is available on DVD as of May 1, 2012. Check it out over at Amazon.ca & Amazon.com

Shannon's Overall View:
I enjoyed it
I can't wait to watch it again
I'd highly recommend it to fans of action films & female protagonist films

Return to Film Reviews or see more DVD Reviews

© Shannon Ridler, 2012
Originally reviewed for Theatrical Release - February 12, 2012


Gina Carano stars in HAYWIRE, and Alliance Films release. Photo Credit: Claudette Barius


Gina Carano (left) and Channing Tatum (right) star in HAYWIRE, an Alliance Films release. Photo Credit: Claudette Barius

Haywire

Dir: Steven Soderbergh (Solaris, Oceans 11, The Girlfriend Experience)
Cast: Gina Carano, Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton
USA/Ireland, 2012

Seen: January 25, 2012 at the Rainbow

Reason to see: Female protagonist action films are always on my to see list

Haywire stars Mixed Martial Artist Gina Carano, and is directed by Steven Soderbergh which I miraculously kind of forgot about before going in because all I really needed was an MMA star in a film to pull me to see it. But Soderbergh directed Oceans 11, 12, 13, the Solaris remake and The Girlfriend Experience, and it’s no doubt he is a very stylish director which you could really feel that in the film. The pacing and the storytelling style were very different than I was expecting; a lot of action films go for a very high-paced style but Haywire feels much more like a drama, with action. It feels like an American espionage drama with action and a female protagonist as opposed to an action film. Although the action is fantastic and Gina Cararo is amazing and certainly will be a draw to the film, the most important part of the film which is her character journey and the story which has some welcome mystery elements to it.

I do wonder if some people will think the pacing is too slow, and I found myself spending time while watching literally interpreting and experiencing the film from the perspective of the fact that it wasn’t what I was expected. But, once I settled into realizing what they were going with and just relaxed into it, I really enjoyed it and I particularly enjoyed that it has a slow burn with a lot of visual storytelling. We get to watch Mallory (Gina Cararo), as she herself is watching, interpreting and reacting to what is going on around her in a very visual manner. I was very impressed by this, the completely visual storytelling that was accompanied by a groovy soundtrack were a huge highlight of the film and something sets it apart from many current-day action films proving that you don’t have to shock & scare us with stuff to entertain us, you can also appeal to our logical minds as we try to piece together the puzzles, be they ones of action or espionage. It was very impressive.

It was fantastic to see Gina Cararo was so good in this role as an action star, so much so that it actually pushes buttons and boundaries of things that we don’t normally see; for example if she is fighting a guy in the film – they are really going all out at each other. She’s not treated differently and she’s certainly not treated lightly, she’ll get thrown around just as much as anyone else who is in an action film. It’s literally a new primer when there dynamics of the fight aren’t re-adjusted to balance for any strengths or weaknesses of either fighter; they are treated as equals. Although theoretically I cheered and the balance, it took a while to adjust to seeing that. They did also call out on some action film tropes to be a more clear counter-reaction to what we often see gender wise, that didn’t work in the film quite a smoothly as the action balance did, but considering it’s such a new shift I think its’ entirely fair to expect some growing pains. To be honest, I’m happy to take those growing pains if the counter is seeing an amazing, capable, and believable action star. And that is exactly what we got: Gina Cararo is amazing, capable, believable and very dynamic action star and I look forward to seeing her in more films in the future. The story was good too, and I was impressed I could keep up considering espionage can be a bit of challenge for me but I suspect seeing it in open captioning help (see more on the experience of open captioning here).

Overall, the action, score and tone were all amazing plus I enjoyed the story as well. But Gina really was the pull to the film, and she pulled me right in and kept me for the entire time.

I would definitely recommend it to action, espionage and mystery film fans and especial to fans of female protagonist films.

It was very exciting that January 20, 2012, had not only one but two action films with female protagonists that opened here in Toronto. I decided not to choose between them therefore I saw both Haywire & Underworld Awakening.

See also: Haywire DVD review

Shannon's Overall View:
I enjoyed it
I can't wait to watch it again
I'd highly recommend it to fans of action films & female protagonist films

Also see my review of Haywire on Episode 59 of the Movie Moxie Podcast:


© Shannon Ridler, 2012

Underworld Awakening

Dir: Måns Mårlind & Björn Stein (Shelter - podcast review)
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Rea, Michael Ealy, Theo James, India Eisley, Charles Dance
USA, 2012

Seen: January 25, 2012 at the Rainbow

Reason to see: Selene, the vampire death-dealer protagonist, is one of my all-time favourite film characters and it's on My Most Anticipated Films for 2012

Underworld Awakening technically follows Underworld: Evolution chronologically in the series but if you aren’t overly familiar or haven’t revisited the series recently they do help with a little memory jogger, which is the lead into the current world where humans were not only made aware of the vampire and lycans existence, but also defeated them in a ‘cleansing’ leaving the remaining numbers very small. I found that a bit of a challenge to buy into, that the humans would prevail, but that’s the world they create so you kind of have to go there to experience the film. In this near future world we travel with death dealer vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale) who awakens after the said ‘cleansing’.

A brief personal history of how I weight in on the Underworld series is that I absolutely adored the highly stylish full-tilt vampires vs lycans (werewolves) action film that was the original Underworld, but was completely dismayed by some random gender crap in the sequel Underworld: Evolution that made me hate the film, which is a statement I don’t make very often. And then I flipped back to enjoying the series with the prequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans which features Michael Sheen and was the only film in the series without Kate Beckinsale. So, personally I’ve had a bit of a rocky relationship with the series but I can’t help but the gorgeous stylings, amazing action and cool vampire & werewolves throughout.

In terms of the action and art direction of how the film it looks and feels, I loved it. It’s a little dingier than the original film so you have to take that into account as it aligns with this whole living on the fringes with low resources which doesn’t really read ‘vampire’ to me, but it is something new. I really enjoyed seeing a lot of the actors in the film including Theo James (‘Bedlam’), Charles Dance (Aliens 3) and Kris Holden-Reid (‘Lost Girl’) who I really think they could have had more in the film. Plus, to make sure it doesn’t go without saying, Kate Beckinsale was fantastic to see, I love her as Selene a fierce and beautiful death dealer who kicked a whole lot of butt in the film and makes no qualms about the fact that she is completely in charge.

I was pretty surprized to see that it was only 88 minutes with around 10 of those being credits, but I still felt like I got 1-films worth of enjoyment for the film. The story and world may not have been perfectly what I was looking forward but they stayed true to what they created and I respect that. In terms of the series I’d still say the first one is my favourite, and then Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, then Underworld Awakening and finally Underworld: Evolution. It was one of my most anticipated films of the year so I was excited and looking for a bit more than what we got here, but I certainly was entertained and engaged while watching.

In terms of the story, I took me for a bit of a surprized that I don’t think the themes will appeal to everyone; but it also feels like it’s one of many periods within this world and therefore we’ll have more to enjoy to come. However, for supernatural action fans this is a total fun ride with lots of action, and interesting story and continuing the journey through the cool world they have created so for that I do think it’s a success.

Underworld Awakening opened in Toronto on January 20, 2012, and it was excited to see not just one but two action films with female protagonists released on that date with both Haywire & Underworld Awakening. I saw ‘em both. Good times.

See also: Underworld Awakening DVD Review

Shannon's Overall View:
I enjoyed it
I'll buy it
I'd recommend it to fans of the series & vampire/action film fans

See also a spoiler-filled awesome discussion of the film over at Before the Dawn and a spoiler-ree review on Episode 59 of the Movie Moxie Podcast:


© Shannon Ridler, 2012

Tanner Hall (DVD Review)

DVD Review of the boarding-school set coming of age drama Tanner Hall starring Rooney Mara, Georgia King, Brie Larson & Amy Ferguston

Image Courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment

Writers/Directors: Tatiana von Furstenberg and Francesca Gregorini - feature film directorial debuts
Cast: Rooney Mara, Georgia King, Brie Larson, Amy Ferguston, Shawn Pyfrom, Amy Sedaris, Chris Kattan, Tom Everett Scott
USA, 2010

Reason to see: I'm always up for a female ensemble-cast coming of age film

Set in a New England boarding school, Tanner Hall follows Fernanda (Rooney Mara of ... and the upcoming US Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and her group of friends as they enter their senior year of school. Of course there is trouble and shenanigans to be had by the group, not so much by Fernanda and artist buddy Lucasta (Amy Ferguston), but more so by friends like the flirtatious Kate (played by the fearless Brie Larson) who constantly culls the attention of the one male teacher at the school. The spirit of all of the girls is really in an exploration to find themselves by gently pushing the boundaries of the contained world around them, while always having their own friendships to fall back on for support as well as laughs & tears.

Things start to get a little more real with the arrival of Fernanda's childhood friend, or more succinctly daughter of her mothers friend, Victoria (Georgia King) who brings her own demons and furious energy that unbalances the good trouble of the group into potentially bad trouble but adding a layer of deception, playing favourites, invoking jealously and all of the not-so-nice things that can happen between friends. But what I loved about the film was that it really did show an interesting, layered viewpoint of female friendships at this age, when so many things are changing and people are pushing the boundaries & exploring their own power as they come into their own. I loved how it finessed the layers of grey, the mistakes and mishaps be they serious or subtle they always felt real with a great sense of emotional rawness.

The young cast does a great job portraying the girls on the verge of womanhood and although it's a school setting as opposed to camp, I couldn't help but be reminded by the classic coming of age film Little Darlings, as they both show old friends and new trying relationships and the messy, emotional jumble that happens when they collide. I loved that you can feel that it's a story from a female perspective, and it's exciting to see more female voices in films out there. I will look forward to seeing what else co-writers/co-directors (and best friends!) Tatiana von Furstenberg and Francesca Gregorini have up their sleeves.

DVD Extras:

• Feature Commentary with writers/producers/directors Tatiana von Furstenberg and Francesca Gregorini on the themes & bond of friendship (and how they are the two directors are both friends & met at school), the music, the locations, casting process including people who actually auditioned for different parts, the complex portrayal of multiple emotions at once, folkloric touches in the film, working with Rooney Mara in her first leading role, the incredible improving between Amy Sedaris & Chris Kattan, the theme and analogy of midlife crisis to coming of age, explanation of the absence of extras, the tonal shifts & how they work with the ensemble cast, shooting sequences, how they aligned the filming experience for the actors to mimic the themes of the film, lots of shout outs to filming in Providence, the stories and anecdotes from the film that are from their own lives, making a film about adolescence and the complicated nature of everything at that time, how amazing & trusting the actresses are, the creative efforts made as the film was low budget and the complicated emotions & relationships in the film.
• Trailer

Tanner Hall is available on DVD as of December 13, 2011. Check it out over at Amazon.ca & Amazon.com

Shannon's Overall View:
I enjoyed it
I'd watch it again
I strongly recommend it fans of coming of age films & films centred on friendships, especially between girls

Return to Film Reviews or see more DVD Reviews

© Shannon Ridler, 2011

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1

Dir: Bill Condon (Dreamgirls)
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Nikki Reed, Kellen Lutz, Peter Facinelli, Elisabeth Reaser, Jackson Rathbone, Ashley Greene, Booboo Stewart, Julia Jones Sarah Clarke
USA, 2011

Seen: November 19, 2011 at Scotiabank in AVX

Reason to see: It's on my list of Most Anticipated Films of 2011 (#26)

My journey with the Twilight films & books has been an interesting one. I first read both Twilight & New Moon and then headed into see the first film, Twilight which follows the romance between the protagonist Bella (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson), and I ate it up. I'm no romantic, but I loved the film. I loved it so much that I have co-hosted Before the Dawn: A Twilight Podcast since 2009 when Twilight came out on DVD. But later that year I was heavily disappointed in the film New Moon, which is my favourite of the books as it chronicles the relationships that develops between a saddened Bella and her buddy Jacob (Taylor Lautner), but the film is a very direct translation of the book which tried to cram every moment and nuance and in the process lost a lot of the heart, essence and artistry created with the more interpretive Twilight. With the third film Eclipse, we come to a very direct love triangle between our characters along with having the biggest action-y scenes in the series until that point, and although I enjoyed it, I wasn't blown away. I think I mostly was relieved it wasn't awful, but I was disheartened as I felt it played up the action in hopes of gaining a broader audience, which honestly isn't very necessary considering it's already has a huge audience. So, going into Breaking Dawn: Part 1 I wasn't all that jazzed. It's my least favourite of the books and certainly got my feminist core miffed. But, it was still on my Most Anticipated Films of 2011 list (#26) and I knew I would see it. And hell, it's a female-protagonist vampire film, of course I'm would to see it!

So The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1 picks up where Eclipse left off and follows the continuing romance between human Bella and vampire Edward, and although their relationship is very unconventional it's still very conservative so to keep the heat increasing we have to make things all above board which means we have to have a wedding. I actually was quite looking forward to this in the film, and it was one of my favourite moments of the film with the great combination of awkwardness and beauty that the series is so great at bringing together in a humorous and real way. It's also one of the few times we get to see the humans in the film, including the awesome Billy Burke who reprises his role as Bella's father Charlie - I find him to be a stand out in each and every one of the films. I thought that the wedding might be the only part of the film I enjoyed, but as the story progressed I realized I was still enjoying it. I enjoyed the authentic translation from the book, the nods to the earlier films, the continuing development of Bella & Edwards relationships - bumps and all. I also realized that this section of the saga really is about Bella and her building maturity and how much of that is her choice which honestly, feels like a something that's depicted in film in a positive light. I'll admit that this story certainly has complications, but I do always feel like Bella does what she wants and stand her ground very strong, often with little or no support. It also continues to tackle the interesting question in the series about the power of choice.

It's wild that going into the film I didn't even really consider that I might end up liking it, but in the end I ending up really enjoying it and would place it as a 2nd favourite after Twilight. I also didn't know how it would fair being a Part 1 of 2 and didn't really think the book warranted 2 parts but after seeing Breaking Dawn: Part 1 I'm completely content with the decision. The pacing was great, the story didn't feel rushed and I felt like it had everything it needed to convey it's message and the emotions behind it. Breaking Dawn: Part 1 returns to the roots and the sweetness of the original Twilight, stays true to the book and also provides and powerful, emotional journey. A journey that I'll happily continue to see unfold in Part 2 which will be released in November 2012.

Shannon's Overall View:
I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected
I'm already looking forward to seeing it again
I'd strongly recommend it to people interested in female-protagonist & coming of age films and of course, to all Twi-Fans

Also see: All 2011 Films Reviewed, Most Anticipated Films of 2011 and 2011 Book to Film Adaptations

© Shannon Ridler, 2011