Ok… I am going to admit, the main reason that I wanted to see this movie was because of the fight scene. The one scene in the movie that is blatantly not in the book. I know when I read the book (and yes I will admit to reading the book, no shame in that… much) I was supremely disappointed that there was no battle, just one massive chess match. Especially since Alice had a vision that showed that some number of the Cullens (if not just Edward and Bella) and other vampires would not survive the Volturi’s visit in some capacity.

I wanted to see how that would have played out, who would have survived as well as how and who did in the battle?

What we know from the books:
– Jacob and Renesemse survive
– Bella and Edward die
– Other members of the Cullens die

That’s about it… Well not really.

Later in the novel (towards the end to be exact) Edward mentions his theories as to why and how the Cullens and company survive. His speculation was that Bella defensive shield was enough to throw Aro and the Volturi off to the point that battle was more than evenly match… Edward admitted that the Cullens and company would have sustained heavy losses but so would the Volturi. If there is anything that Aro hated it was losing… in any capacity.

After watching the film, I finally decided that the best bit of the series was the faux-battle scene that happened. Yes it was just a future that Alice saw as long as Aro continued on his path to destroy the Cullens, but still that was one damn fun battle to watch.

So what actually happened in the battle?

Well the first major fatality was Carlisle… after all you needed a hell of a trigger that would force everyone from Cullens and company to fight. After Alice knocks Aro, his henchmen capture Alice and Carlisle runs across the field, meets Aro mid-air and gets decapacitated in the process.

Yup… definitely the only true trigger that could have worked, because now the battle isn’t so much about defending Reneesme as it was about avenging Carlisle.

Next up on the chopping block (from the Cullens side) was Jasper… which makes sense since at that time Aro was eyeing the “prize” of obtaining Alice for his coven. In order to make sure that Alice would stay locked with the Volturi was to destroy her mate, Jasper.

Jasper fought bravely with Bella helping him out but then she got detained due to Alec which allowed Jane to subdue Jasper whilst another (probably a combo of Felix and Demetri) killed him off. This instigated Alice to find something more to escape her captors and avenge her mate’s death.

Emmett came in and avenged Jasper’s death by killing Alec, however it was Felix that crushed Seth’s bones with Jane’s aide. This brought an extra “oomph” of fight into not only the wolf pack as a whole but to Leah (his sister), Sam (the leader) and Jacob (true leader).

In fact when Leah howled in pain at her brother’s passing it got Jacob’s attention and he decided to rid him and Reneesme of the Volturi that was chasing them. So when the Volturi was in midair about ready to land on Reneesme, Jacob leaped, grabbed the Volturi with his jaw and immediately gnawed at him until he was decapacitated too… all without missing a step.

Go Jacob!

Meanwhile back in the meadow.

Cullens and company were losing ground, with three of the Volturi surrounding Bella and trying to break her (she’s a newborn and as thus stronger than the average vampire at this point); Benjamin the vampire in control of the four elements of nature (air, earth, water and fire) threw his first into the earth and caused a huge crevice to appear.

No one was safe and if one wasn’t careful they would risk falling into the abyss. Esme was the first as risk as she was being pulled into the volcanic abyss, but Leah (who was trying to shake off a couple Volturi of her own) saw Esme and with a bit of strength leaped onto the Volturi that was pulling Esme and pulled him off… unfortunately Leah ended up falling to her death but she brought a few Volturi with her.

Edward was scuffling with Demetri but was thrown into the crevice. Demetri thinking that his battle was done and looking for another turned his back at the precise moment that Edward managed to push himself back out of the crevice, leap over Demetri and rip his head off…

Meanwhile Jane is seeing that her comrades are dropping one by one, she sees Alice and attempts to subdue her only to find that she is blocked by Bella. Alice charges forward… knocking more than a few Volturi along the way… and continues to chase her. Jane runs because honestly she is not a hand to hand combat fighter and without someone else to help kill off someone she has just subdued she isn’t much help.

Well Alice just flipped over Jane and manages to subdue just long enough to drag Jane over to one of the wolves… aka Sam… and just let Sam do as he wished. Bringing about the funniest death of the battle sequence.

The death of Jane prompts the Volturi trifecta to join the battle:

First… Caius (are you really that surprised?) heads to Tanya and tries to take her only to be knocked off by Garrett who throws him in Kate’s general direction. Not a good idea since her electric skin quickly subdues Caius and Tanya soon rips his head off of his jaw. Ew.

Marcus didn’t really put up much of a fight (not really a surprise when you know a bit of his background) instead just lifting his arms up in surrender and allowing the Romanians to rips his top half from his bottom.

Which leaves Aro, and by this time Edward and Bella are both free and are both gunning for him. Bella reaches Aro first only to be knocked right off of the snow and thrown into Edward (seriously Aro if you’re going to do that, rip her head off so she doesn’t get to you again). Now Edward and Bella do a double team and when Aro appeared to have the upper hand on Edward, Bella leaps onto Aro’s shoulders and slowly rips his head off.

Once decapacitated, Bella reaches for the torch and as she tosses the torch into Aro’s severed head you can see all around her the massive number of Volturi ready to rip her to shreds.

Thus ending the vision that Alice presents to Aro as a way to convince him that battling the Cullens and company now is not a good idea. No kidding, he loses a vast number of his guards and comrades despite being able to knock out a few of the Cullens and company. Not only that, he loses his own life in the process… no self-respecting vampire would put his life in danger over a desire of acquisition…

But in any case… out of the entirety of the film this battle sequence probably caught my attention the most… to the point that I couldn’t help but watch and rewatch it several times at home and online in any various way possible.

However, that got me thinking… didn’t the Cullens and company start to divvy up opponents when it had originally appeared that they were going to have to fight? After a quick skim through the novel this was what I found:

Bella to Edward: “I’m going to have to concentrate. When it comes to hand to hand, it’s going to be harder to keep the shield around the right people.”

Edward to Bella: “I’ll keep them off you.”

Bella to Edward: “No. You have to get to Demetri. Zafrina will keep them away from me.”

Zafrina to Edward: “No one will touch this young one.”

Bella to Edward: “I’d go after Jane and Alec myself, but I can do more good here.”

Kate: “Jane’s mine. She needs a taste of her own medicine.”

Vladimir: “And Alec owes me many lives, but I will settle for his.”

Tanya: “I just want Caius.”

So out of the above sequence who actually got the chance to fight whom they claimed from the novel?
– Edward kills Demetri (Bella tells Edward in the novel that his target must be Demetri)
– Tanya wanted Caius
And really… those were the only ones that made much sense… though it would have been fun to see Jane get a taste of her own medicine. Though I am kind of surprised that the film didn’t take advantage of Zafrina’s power… I mean that would have saved a hell of a whole lot of trouble towards the beginning if half of the Volturi isn’t able to see because of Zafrina.

But I digress.

Personally I think this battle alone is worth the price of the DVD… but then I am one of those nutcases that would be more than willing to watch and rewatch the battle sequence over and over again. At the same time, I do like this final installment of the Twilight Saga if only for the fact that to me this seems to be the most realistic of the series overall.

Then again… Breaking Dawn (at least the second half of the book) is probably the best part of the series if only because Bella doesn’t seem to be as helpless here as in the first seven-eighths of the series. Then again, having to turn into a vampire to get there isn’t exactly the right kind of motivation for young girls everywhere… but I am not going to open that can of worms anytime soon.

Anyway…

So why am I writing about this? Well the obvious would be because I watched the film, but really it is because I really enjoyed the battle sequence so much that someone had to write a blow by blow for those that haven’t (or won’t) see the film for any multitude of reasons.

Yes, it would have been nice to see the fight all the way to the conclusion and a part of me kind of hopes (albeit the chances are probably next to nil) that the producers and director actually filmed the fight sequence to the end just to see who actually survived to the end. I think a lot of Twilight fans (and non-fans) would love to have seen what happens to Edward and Bella after burning Aro.

But anyway… if and when there is an extended edition of this particular film in the series… I will probably purchase it, since the battle (to me) is worth it.