If you love the Twilight saga, then rejoice to know The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is now available in multiple formats for you to enjoy the film from comfort of your home.
This final installment begins when Bella experiences rebirth as a vampire, complete with red eyes and better fashion sense. She must also adjust to being a mother to a rapidly-growing daughter while preparing to battle the Volturi. Her life was much simpler before she ever met Edward, wasn’t it?
And since I already reviewed the film during its theatrical release, I’ll focus on a portion of the bonus feature “Forever: Filming Breaking Dawn Part 2,” a seven part “making of” documentary.
The seven chapters are:
- Chapter 1: “Rebirth”
- Chapter 2: “Renesmee”
- Chapter 3: “The Cottage”
- Chapter 4: “The Gathering”
- Chapter 5: “The Field”
- Chapter 6: “The Battle”
- Chapter 7: “Forever”
And the documentary is incredible. Perhaps I’m biased since I love behind-the-scenes stuff, particularly when it focuses on visual effects. And bonus . . . Phil Tippett is interviewed. I once briefly spoke to him and some of the other effects artists that worked on Jurassic Park. Great guy.
“The Battle” is self-explanatory, and you may or may not be surprised to learn that the sequence was not shot on a snow-covered field but rather on a soundstage surrounded by green. The “snow” existed in physical form, but it wasn’t real.
The climactic sequence was a slight departure from the book, which I felt was a bit anti-climactic. Director Bill Condon explains, “In cinematic terms, to build up everything to this moment and then have people talk it out would have been really really hard.” (In other words, he agrees with me). So talks began on how to stay faithful to Stephenie Meyer’s story while bringing to audiences the visual excitement required of the film medium. Hence, The Battle.
And while stunt performers were involved, the actors did as much as they were allowed for the complicated sequence, including being attached to wires that flung them from one side of the set to the other and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen) has a martial arts background as well as receiving additional training for the films, which may explain why her scenes look so incredible. She moves with such grace and precision.
Jeff Imada coordinated the fights and stunts, which look all the more impressive in the film considering many of the elements had to be imagined during filming. The wolves and fissure were added in post-production.
Phil Tippett’s team was responsible for the wolves, as they had been on earlier installments of the saga, but this film presented new challenges. For example, Renesmee had to ride on top of wolf-Jacob to escape the battle. Since fur is difficult to animate, the artists built a furry saddle and placed it on top a hydraulic rig for Renesmee to ride. The device imitated Jacob and allowed the girl to grasp onto fur as she filmed her scenes which helped integrate her with the computer generated wolf.
And this is only from one part of the documentary, but it really is fascinating to watch. Particularly if you ever wonder how did they do that?
I’d recommend this DVD/Blu-ray to anyone who saw and enjoyed the final film, or is a fan of the saga but missed this one while it was in theaters. And be sure to watch the documentary.
(Amazon link: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 )