The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 2 (2012)

Movie Info

Yes…finally a fight! Kind of…

The end is here!  Bella (Kristen Stewart) is now a vampire and building a family with Edward (Edward Cullen) and their rapidly aging half-human/half-vampire child Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy).  Learning that Jacob (Taylor Lautner) has imprinted upon Renesmee, Bella and Edward learn that the Volturi are coming for Renesmee who believe she is a child turned into a vampire.  The Cullens and Jacob’s pack work to raise an army to protect Renesmee, but the Volturi are coming and the danger is real!

I’m just sad I can’t be a Middle-Earth elf.

Directed by Bill Condon, The Twilight Saga:  Breaking Dawn—Part 2 is the final entry in The Twilight Saga and follows The Twilight Saga:  Breaking Dawn—Part 1 from 2011.  The movie adapts the second half of the 2008 novel by Stephenie Meyer, and was poorly received (yet did receive slightly better marks from critics).  The movie was nominated for Razzies for Worst Actor (Robert Pattinson), Worst Supporting Actress (Ashley Green) Worst Prequel, Worst Screen Couple (Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart), and Worst Screenplay but won Razzies for Worst Picture, Worst Actress (Kristen Stewart—who also won for Snow White and the Huntsman), Worst Supporting Actor, Worst Screen Couple (Mackenzie Foy and Taylor Lautner), Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel, Worst Director, and Worst Screen Ensemble.

Let’s introduce a ton of characters with powers…like the X-Men

The problem with the Twilight series is seen here.  Though the story shows a bit of improvement, it still has a horrible pacing problem.  The movie doesn’t go anywhere.  With all the films in retrospective, The Twilight Saga:  Breaking Dawn—Part 2 shows what the real problem with the films flow are that they feel like WB TV shows.  The events in the film are really episodic.  First, the movie deals with Jacob’s implanting, then Bella deals with her father, then the movie has the Volturi brought in about Renesmee, and for the final episode…I mean sequence…the characters ending up having a huge battle, but not really.  The need for action leads to an “it’s all in your head as a potential future” battle that is the only cool thing that happens in the whole series…and it didn’t really happen.

Hey Bella, do mind if I hook up with your kid that riding on my back..eventually?

It is also problematic that the characters don’t seem to have much logic.  Here, you have scenes like the part where Jacob strips for Bella’s father (Billy Burke) and transforms into a wolf in front of him…and he takes it ok, but Bella and Edward say they are different too and he acts like it is a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” situation.  You also have the Volturi who apparently are total idiots and listen to Aro (Michael Sheen) when you can apparently just touch Renesmee and know the truth.  There is also the rather obscene visual of Jacob actually hooking up with Renesmee when she’s old enough (she’s about seven here)…”Should I call you Dad” he says to Edward…gross.  There are logic gaps like this through the whole film and whole series.

We can only dream that this happened for real.

Acting still remains a problem with the entire cast of Twilight.  I’d like to single out a single good actor for the movie, but no one is “good”.  You could argue that Michael Sheen is decent as the over-the-top enemy Aro, but his hammy acting is only benefited by the fact that he just seems to be having fun playing a cheesy villain.  Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart, and Robert Pattinson still must have a bet on who can be worst in the film.

The biggest visual in the film is the final fight at the end.  The two forces face off for bloody battle on an ice field.  It looks like a weak version of big battle films like Lord of the Rings.  This battle is of course moot as mentioned in that doesn’t actually happen.  It is all a vision presented by Alice in the mind of Aro…you’d think a vision would have better special effects.

The tragedy of The Twilight Saga is that there are worse films than The Twilight Saga, but the fact that they are so average and so successful with rabid fans that think they are good is sad.  With strange messages on relationships and teens, The Twilight Saga should be questioned more.  Thankfully, with this marginally better entry, this weird and unlikable series is over.

Related Links:

Twilight (2008)

The Twilight Saga:  New Moon (2009)

The Twilight Saga:  Eclipse (2010)

The Twilight Saga:  Breaking Dawn—Part 1 (2011)