Breaking Dawn Review

By Summit Entertainment 

Writer’s Note: As I’m not a huge Twilight fan, I decided to feature my advisor, Teresa Smith’s review as well. That article will be up sometime next week. I’ve read all the Twilight books in the past and even saw the first movie, but that’s when my liking for the saga ceased. Nevertheless, I approached this movie as I do all the movies I review and will critique it based on a variety of values, not whether or not I’m a fan of the series. Enjoy. 

From beginning to end, the Twilight movie franchise has grown since its timid beginnings in 2008. The actors further developed their abilities, the plot line became more intense and the imagery became vastly more impressive. As a stand-alone film, Breaking Dawn Part 2 was far more dramatic and enveloping than its predecessors, but still fell flat in many areas.

The acting, while greatly improved, still had its shortcomings. The interactions between Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) still remained awkward at times, as did many of the other exchanges between characters. Just like in the other books and movies, Pattinson’s character was far too controlling of Bella, creating an air of hostility and unhealthiness. Luckily, near the end of the film he admits to this fault, telling her he “underestimated her” and finally making him somewhat more relatable.  

With the addition of the couple’s daughter, Renessme (Mackenzie Foy), Stewart’s acting was virtually flawless in her role as a mother. She played a concerned protector shockingly well and always stayed in character when she was around Foy.  

However, from the time Renessme was an infant to when Foy, who is 12-years-old, began playing her, director Bill Condon decided to enhance her with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Bringing back the failed attempt at CGI-human mixes that appeared in Beowulf in 2007, the baby was very creepy and took away from the plot itself. As the child grew, she continued to have computer-generated eyes which were far too large and did not match the rest of her body’s emotions, creating a disturbing porcelain-doll-like effect.

Furthermore, there was a lot of hype surrounding the movie’s major plot twist which occurs in the epic battle scene. While the scene was extremely evoking and well done, the twist was not. In fact, it literally was a solid 10 to 20 minute waste of time and failed to add any significance to the storyline. The move was somewhat understandable since the movie takes place in Bella's perspective, but there was no need to drag it out as long as they did.

On the other hand, the ending of the movie was a true homage to the true Twihards: the fans that read all the books and have spent the last four years watching the movie renditions. Sweet and tear-provoking, the conclusion was visually beautiful and emotionally captivating.

The credits, featuring moving images of every character in all five films, wrapped up the saga perfectly, truly making the conclusion an event. Bella, Edward, and Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) appeared after book pages fluttered open to when they were first mentioned in Twilight which added a nice sentimentality to the piece.

It was ultimately the perfect ending to a series that captured the hearts of millions of fans, leaving the audience happy and nostalgic, wishing there was more to come. For the non-fans however, the credits were far too long and a bit overdone. But the film wasn’t created to please them anyway.  

-Alexandra Dersch, Editor-in-Chief