The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012) Directed by Bill Condon. Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, & Taylor Lautner. IMDB says: “After the birth of Renesmee, the Cullens gather other vampire clans in order to protect the child from a false allegation that puts the family in front of the Volturi.”
Breaking Dawn Part 2 picks up right where the first part left off. Bella has just completed her transformation into a vampire after giving birth to her half mortal, half vampire daughter. [side note: this opens right after an amazing opening credits sequence. Maybe one of the best I’ve seen this year, interestingly enough] The start of the movie is a bit of a jolt as you jump directly into Bella taking in her new state. Some of this is well done (the visuals of her hyper senses) but other parts are a bit rough (the weird slow-mo zoom in on Bella’s delighted face while she’s running at lightning speeds was a bit laughable). It makes for a tenuous start to the movie, but luckily it picks up after it finds its legs about 20 minutes into the film.
With the looming threat of the Volturi, the Cullens reach out to their friends around the world to bear witness to the fact that Renesmee is not an immortal child (a turned child who kills viciously and without discretion), which have been outlawed in the vampire world. A great thing about the movie is its world building. The first four movies really stay tight to the Forks, WA locale with little journeys outside that town but with a solid home base. While this takes place mostly in the same Cullen house, the introduction of vampires from around the world gives insight into the fantasy world that we haven’t been much privy to before. With that comes the interesting aspect of certain vampire’s powers that you’ve seen before in Edward (mind reading) and Alice (premonitions) but get to see in many new characters.
You also learn that Bella’s ability as a human to repel other vampire’s power translates into her unique vampire power that really dramatically shifts her from the before helpess Bella into the strongest member of their defense against the Volturi. This gives great stride to a character that has been maligned throughout the series. Yeah, Bella has been whiny, weak, impulsive (stupidly so at times), over-romantic, and over-dramatic… but she was a teen girl so the hate has been a little aggressive. In this film, she is transformed into a new character and Stewart plays her totally different than the Bella of the past. She is confident, strong, same dry humor but more fun as well. They even give a nod to her bad habit of blinking like a loon at times in the past in a scene where Bella is being coached on how to be more human.
Stewart and Pattinson are obviously very comfortable and believable as a couple at this point. It’s hard to get parental vibes from them towards their rapidly aging daughter (who ages from infant to about age 7 over the course of the movie), but that mostly has to do with their age. Bill Condon does another great directing job besides a little too many super close ups on faces. I still think if he had directed the series entirely, it might have had a different reputation.
What these movies have always struggled with is a pretty piss poor script at times. Too many lines are ridiculously corny and cliche which does the actors no favors. The acting has been better as the movies have gone on, and there’s no real complaints as far as a seriously bad performance here (besides two super Transylvania-type vampires that make you roll your eyes but have about 8 lines between them anyway).
This might be the best made movie of the series, but it’s interesting to see how far it’s come from the intimate, super moody, blue filtered first movie. It’s evolved into the fantasy epic romance that its story grew into as it stepped further and further away from Bella’s teen angst being the focus of the plot. The ending, that was liberally expanded upon from what Stephenie Meyer’s put to page, does wonders for the story and pulls off the series’ best narrative feat. This movie ends with both an action set piece that finishes off the epic part of the series, but also gives longtime fans the perfect romantic conclusion to the fantasy series that has above all always been a love story.
Finally, the ending credits will definitely be a fan favorite as it revisits the series in an endearing (and yes, long) sequence. Afterall, this series has been mostly about fan service when it comes down to it, and hey it works because the so-called Twihards love it. It’s not a movie for the critics, but it pleases a fairly large population of moviegoers so I think it deserves less heat. Twilight enthusiasts should be completely satisfied with the conclusion and will surely revisit the saga, but of course if you aren’t going to like a movie like this the same rules apply as they did for the first 4 movies.
FTS SCORE: 70%
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
opens in theaters nationwide on November 16th.