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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1 review

Posted : 2 years ago on 2 March 2022 07:54

I am neither a Twilight fan or a Twilight detractor. This said, I am indifferent to the franchise. As far as the movies, I still think, coming from someone whose knowledge of the books only comes from my sister being a fan and me reading a chapter of one and putting it down, that the best is Eclipse(not saying much) and New Moon the worst. But that is not a consolation really. Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is not quite among the worst of the year and nowhere near among the worst ever, however it suffers from some major problems that I will get to later in the review.

So what was it that got me seeing Breaking Dawn: Part 1 in the first place? The answer was its director, Bill Condon. I am familiar with his previous films and find him a promising director and writer, finding his films well written, observed and acted. Gods and Monsters is amazing and one of my favourites, Kinsey was interesting and Dreamgirls elevated by the soundtrack and cast was quite decent. Did Condon do a good job directing? For me, I am not sure. I'd say of the four Twilight movies so far Breaking Dawn: Part 1 has the most cinematic feel to it, on the other hand there is not much here that made Condon's previous films so good and I'd go as far to say it is the film of his that engaged me the least.

Are there any redeeming qualities to this instalment? I think so actually. Although there are moments of sloppy editing, I did like the look of the film. At some points it was quite Gothic, and at others it had either an evergreen or autumnal feel to it. The scenery often does look stunning, the effects are okay I guess and the cinematography especially with the close-ups of the back of the wedding dress and the final shot is some of the best of the franchise in my opinion.I also liked Carter Burwell's score. I like Burwell a lot, his music has a hypnotic and quite hauntingly beautiful quality to it. For my tastes though some of the pop tunes are on the insipid side, however the score itself was pleasant with a lot of what I like about Burwell evident.

Much has been said about the sex scene. In all honesty I was expecting it to be of hilariously cheesy quality, but somehow Condon brought a little more subtlety than I was expecting. The last thirty minutes was perhaps the most exciting Breaking Dawn: Part 1 got, as some of does have purpose and intensity, which was something that the first half of the film did not have.There are also two good performances, Billy Burke and Michael Sheen, the latter being another point of interest. Burke as always is amusing with some of the better lines of the film(though is that saying much do you think?), while Sheen, ever the great actor, adopts a menace and magnetism as Aro without overdoing it too much. Ashley Greene is also quite good, if not great.

I have to say I still don't think much of the acting of the central trio. Kristen Stewart is much better than she is in New Moon, with much less of the moping and dead pauses, but some of her line delivery is still awkward and her facial expressions for my tastes are lifeless. It doesn't help though that Bella is a rather dull character.Robert Pattinson has more to do than he did in New Moon and is less hammy than in the first film(the looking into the camera moments brought moments of unintentional laughter when I first went to see Twilight when it came out). As a matter of fact this is perhaps his best performance of the series and he is certainly the best of the central trio, but like Stewart some of the line delivery could've been more inspired.

Taylor Lautner on the other hand is getting worse and worse. He is hunky to be sure, but does that alone make you a good actor? Not to me. I will give credit and say he is better than he was in this year's Abduction, where both the film and performance were awful, but the more dramatic moments from him felt forced and overplayed, and throughout there was a very stilted nature about him. A lot of the problem is to do with the writing. The dialogue in the Twilight franchise never was particularly good, saying this though in terms of written quality this is Twilight at its most banal, its most clunky and its most cheesy. The characters are clichéd and underdeveloped too, and at the end of the day you don't care for anybody. Oh, and the talking wolves were poorly done and unintentionally funny.

The story is very bland and unengaging, not to mention thin structurally and in content. The whole of the first half reads little more than ponderous melodrama. Was the wedding lavish? Yes it was. But it was also plodding and over-extended. The second half fares better, still with the clunky dialogue, uneven acting and cheesy, underdeveloped plot points and characterisations, but as I said the last thirty minutes or so serves as the highlight of the film. But for me what killed the film was the pace. Mind you, I have seen movies with slow pacing, but they are often paced deliberately and with strong meanings, great acting and dialogue and identifiable characters. With little of that here, Breaking Dawn: Part 1 not only is dull and plodding but also uninteresting and without bite.

Overall, despite my admiration for Condon and Sheen, this didn't work. The ending is highly suggestive of a continuation, which I understand is happening. If so, I do hope it will be better than this. 4/10 Bethany Cox


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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1 review

Posted : 2 years ago on 2 March 2022 02:21

I am neither a Twilight fan or a Twilight detractor. This said, I am indifferent to the franchise. As far as the movies, I still think, coming from someone whose knowledge of the books only comes from my sister being a fan and me reading a chapter of one and putting it down, that the best is Eclipse(not saying much) and New Moon the worst. But that is not a consolation really. Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is not quite among the worst of the year and nowhere near among the worst ever, however it suffers from some major problems that I will get to later in the review.

So what was it that got me seeing Breaking Dawn: Part 1 in the first place? The answer was its director, Bill Condon. I am familiar with his previous films and find him a promising director and writer, finding his films well written, observed and acted. Gods and Monsters is amazing and one of my favourites, Kinsey was interesting and Dreamgirls elevated by the soundtrack and cast was quite decent. Did Condon do a good job directing? For me, I am not sure. I'd say of the four Twilight movies so far Breaking Dawn: Part 1 has the most cinematic feel to it, on the other hand there is not much here that made Condon's previous films so good and I'd go as far to say it is the film of his that engaged me the least.

Are there any redeeming qualities to this instalment? I think so actually. Although there are moments of sloppy editing, I did like the look of the film. At some points it was quite Gothic, and at others it had either an evergreen or autumnal feel to it. The scenery often does look stunning, the effects are okay I guess and the cinematography especially with the close-ups of the back of the wedding dress and the final shot is some of the best of the franchise in my opinion.I also liked Carter Burwell's score. I like Burwell a lot, his music has a hypnotic and quite hauntingly beautiful quality to it. For my tastes though some of the pop tunes are on the insipid side, however the score itself was pleasant with a lot of what I like about Burwell evident.

Much has been said about the sex scene. In all honesty I was expecting it to be of hilariously cheesy quality, but somehow Condon brought a little more subtlety than I was expecting. The last thirty minutes was perhaps the most exciting Breaking Dawn: Part 1 got, as some of does have purpose and intensity, which was something that the first half of the film did not have.There are also two good performances, Billy Burke and Michael Sheen, the latter being another point of interest. Burke as always is amusing with some of the better lines of the film(though is that saying much do you think?), while Sheen, ever the great actor, adopts a menace and magnetism as Aro without overdoing it too much. Ashley Greene is also quite good, if not great.

I have to say I still don't think much of the acting of the central trio. Kristen Stewart is much better than she is in New Moon, with much less of the moping and dead pauses, but some of her line delivery is still awkward and her facial expressions for my tastes are lifeless. It doesn't help though that Bella is a rather dull character.Robert Pattinson has more to do than he did in New Moon and is less hammy than in the first film(the looking into the camera moments brought moments of unintentional laughter when I first went to see Twilight when it came out). As a matter of fact this is perhaps his best performance of the series and he is certainly the best of the central trio, but like Stewart some of the line delivery could've been more inspired.

Taylor Lautner on the other hand is getting worse and worse. He is hunky to be sure, but does that alone make you a good actor? Not to me. I will give credit and say he is better than he was in this year's Abduction, where both the film and performance were awful, but the more dramatic moments from him felt forced and overplayed, and throughout there was a very stilted nature about him. A lot of the problem is to do with the writing. The dialogue in the Twilight franchise never was particularly good, saying this though in terms of written quality this is Twilight at its most banal, its most clunky and its most cheesy. The characters are clichéd and underdeveloped too, and at the end of the day you don't care for anybody. Oh, and the talking wolves were poorly done and unintentionally funny.

The story is very bland and unengaging, not to mention thin structurally and in content. The whole of the first half reads little more than ponderous melodrama. Was the wedding lavish? Yes it was. But it was also plodding and over-extended. The second half fares better, still with the clunky dialogue, uneven acting and cheesy, underdeveloped plot points and characterisations, but as I said the last thirty minutes or so serves as the highlight of the film. But for me what killed the film was the pace. Mind you, I have seen movies with slow pacing, but they are often paced deliberately and with strong meanings, great acting and dialogue and identifiable characters. With little of that here, Breaking Dawn: Part 1 not only is dull and plodding but also uninteresting and without bite.

Overall, despite my admiration for Condon and Sheen, this didn't work. The ending is highly suggestive of a continuation, which I understand is happening. If so, I do hope it will be better than this. 4/10 Bethany Cox


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An average movie

Posted : 10 years, 1 month ago on 27 February 2014 11:42

Honestly, I never really understood the huge love and hate reactions towards this franchise. In my opinion, it is neither great or awful like everyone is trying to convince you. I mean, it is definitely nothing amazing but I can imagine that some viewers might love it. Personally, I even think that the first installment was not bad at all but from the first sequel, it became an endless and rather tedious soap-opera around this love triangle. Anyway, with this 4rth installment, it was slightly better but not much more, I’m afraid. I mean, at least, something happened, Bella and Edward finally had sex! Even though, in theory, it might seem possible that a vampire fall in love, it seems rather odd that he would want to have sex at all. Anyway, even though they get in bed, it hardly seems enjoyable, even if Bella tries very hard to convince Edward that she really had a great time (usually, it is the other way around). It doesn’t really matter because she quickly became pregnant and it gets pretty damned creepy (and that’s why you shouldn’t have sex, teenagers, it is not fine at all and you are sure to go through a very painful pregnancy and your baby will probably be an awful monster). Basically, it is a rather odd soap-opera with some rather unsettling ideas about sex and whatnot so I didn’t really enjoy it much but if you love the genre, you will probably eat this up.


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Here we go again...

Posted : 10 years, 6 months ago on 27 September 2013 11:55

"No measure of time with you will be long enough. But we'll start with forever."

It has become the new "in" thing to hate the Twilight saga, to the extent that it would almost seem the fans are actually in the minority. The hate is also very justified. Unlike unfairly bashed great movies like James Cameron's Titanic, those involved in creating Twilight just do not seem to care; the writing is poor and unfocused, the characters are superficial, the dialogue is beyond awful, and all of the directors who have helmed a Twilight instalment exhibit minimal grasp on critical filmic concepts such as pacing and narrative momentum. And here we are yet again, with 2011's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 once more demonstrating that this stillborn franchise is still not worth a damn. Once again scripted with detrimental fidelity by Melissa Rosenberg, this fourth Twilight film is livened at times by moments of unintentional hilarity, but for the most part, it's an agonising bore.


After three movies of brooding stares and playing hard to get, Bella (Kristen Stewart) and vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) are at long last set to be married, but this upsets angsty werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner), who still clings to the hope that he has a shot with the girl who rejects him all the time yet takes every opportunity to teasingly lead him on. Following the disturbing ceremony, the newlyweds set off on their honeymoon to the Cullen's private island (?) in Brazil (??) for the long-awaited sexual intimacy. Bella unexpectedly falls pregnant, leaving the family bewildered and stressed, especially as the unborn grows at an exponential rate and seems to be attacking its mother from the inside (yes, these moments are every bit as hilarious as you can imagine). The werewolf clan decide to kill Bella and the baby for reasons too vague to go into, which prompts Jacob to take Bella's side, wanting to protect the manipulative whore who continually shows that she doesn't care about him.

The first three instalments in the Twilight saga gave Stephenie Meyer the opportunity to spread her Mormon (moron?) propaganda about abstinence, but Breaking Dawn actually begins with Bella and Edward tying the knot, meaning that the couple can at last engage in coitus (never mind that one of them is a walking corpse). Thus, the abstinence lecture has been replaced with anti-abortion propaganda. See, Edward wants Bella to terminate the baby and even recruits Jacob to help convince her, but Bella is determined to martyr herself for the sake of the unborn foetus, for no reason other than because Stephenie Meyer is against abortion.


Because the Twilight movies have proved so lucrative for Summit Entertainment, and because they wanted to milk the cash cow for everything it was worth, Breaking Dawn has been split into two features, a decision that only renders the experience excruciating rather than epic or rich. With the studio-mandated two-hour runtime in mind, Rosenberg and director Bill Condon slacken the pace to focus on superfluous dialogue and insignificant details that could easily have been excised. The dialogue is particularly subpar here, lacking so much as a modicum of wit. As with every Twilight movie, nothing happens in Part 1 until the last ten minutes. Okay, so some stuff does happen, but the events of this feature could have easily been compressed into a 30-minute opening act of a single cinematic adaptation of Breaking Dawn.

The Breaking Dawn novel is actually regarded as the instalment that even the fans dislike, as it's no longer a brooding high school romance but rather a convoluted fantasy-horror story that's also completely crazy. For those unaware, this is a story involving vampire-on-human sex (which leads to the bed breaking), an undead vampire being able to impregnate a human female (lol), and Edward giving Bella an emergency C-section with his fucking teeth. Such lunacy had the potential to make for a riotously campy motion picture, but because this film is PG-13, everything is muted and boring. At the helm here is Bill Condon, who has actually made some good movies in the past, but he clearly phones this one in. Breaking Dawn is visually drab and flat, carrying the look and feel of a low-rent television soap opera as opposed to a big theatrical release. To his credit, Condon does get comic mileage out of several scenes (intentional or otherwise), but there is only so much a director can do with this material. This is why the Twilight films are doomed with this set of producers and writers: a director is forced to include hundreds of pensive stares and as much cheesy dialogue as possible, forbidding them from producing their own spin on the story. Boldness is thus renounced in favour of bland fidelity because it guarantees more bums in cinema seats.


The comedic highlight of Breaking Dawn - Part 1 is easily a scene in which CGI werewolves talk to each other, with Jacob being defiant, raising his voice and bickering with the others. It's one of the most unintentionally hilarious scenes of 2011, with the studiously hyperbolic voice acting, the awfully phoney digital effects, and the fact that the wolves are apparently speaking telepathically (???) since they aren't mouthing the words they say (???). Another highlight is the "birth" scene, when the infamous C-section occurs, brought to life with cinematography and editing to retain the PG-13 rating that winds up looking like an LSD trip. Similarly, Bella lapses out of consciousness, and the sight of Edward simply pushing into Bella's chest yelling "Come on!" looks completely, hilariously pointless. But the crowning achievement is the moment in which Jacob falls in love with Bella's infant daughter. It's such an unmotivated, WTF moment, and Condon executed it with maximum comedic impact, to the extent that the CGI newborn actually acknowledges Jacob's attraction. This reviewer was sobbing with laughter.

Against all odds, it would seem that the Twilight performers are only getting worse with each new film, sticking by the same old acting chestnuts and refusing to learn from their mistakes. Typical high school drama productions feature more convincing acting than the "performances" glimpsed here. Stewart and Pattinson were a real-life couple during production, yet they still don't feel like credible lovers. They share no chemistry, and it doesn't help that the actors have seriously limited range, unable to properly convey emotions through facial expressions. Canines are more expressive, for fuck's sake. Lautner, meanwhile, continues his downward spiral, hitting rock bottom with this terrible performance full of forced intensity and blank expressions. Miraculously, Lautner only removes his shirt once during the entire movie. Progress at last! None of the other actors are worth mentioning, really. Everyone in the cast is so awkward and flat; they seem like aliens trying to impersonate human behaviour, spouting the most woeful dialogue imaginable in a forced fashion. It's also amusing to note that despite the intrusive score and the amusingly self-serious performances, this reviewer was utterly unaffected by everything; at no point did anything move me to tears or even provoke goosebumps. It only prompted me to sleep.


Arguably, Breaking Dawn - Part 1 is the most tolerable Twilight movie so far, but only due to how unintentionally humorous it is at times. It's also exciting that with four pictures down, there is only one more agonising Twilight movie for this reviewer to endure. Still, Part 1 is appalling, and it quickly becomes a chore to sit through with its monstrous running time. You'd be better off watching a few clips of the film's funniest moments as opposed to suffering the entire thing. In the right hands, Breaking Dawn could have been a beautifully campy treat, but Condon can only give the picture life at times, and even then, it's difficult to ascertain whether or not he expected any of this shit to be taken seriously. Then again, nobody can take this shit seriously, and if any filmmaker expected such nonsense to be taken with a straight face...they failed.

2.8/10



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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1 review

Posted : 11 years, 9 months ago on 27 June 2012 08:03

This fourth movie in the series is, I think, the worst of them all by far, as it spends SO much time on the sickeningly gross love story between Edward and Bella. And yet, this was the book I enjoyed the most because it spent a lot of time on Jacob, as well as Bella. So far, in the movie, Jacob is still a smaller character. Most of the movie was just paying tribute to the love of Edward and Bella, and then their eventual tragedy.

I am glad there is only one more in this series, then I never have to be subjected to this crap, or Kristen Stewart's terribly bad acting, ever again.


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Just another Twishite film for twitards.

Posted : 12 years, 2 months ago on 22 January 2012 05:07

Following a well-deserved 17 month break from Twilight after the release of Eclipse, the time has come with the start to the beginning of the end of this paint-dry, corny and needlessly overhyped franchise. Being the one series of films that you truly either love to bits where you’d get all obsessive about them or you absolutely hate every aspect about and being one who thankfully succumbed to the latter, there wasn't really anything major that was going to change at all. So, for this reason, there was nothing to look forward to and expectations were practically the same as the other films and as a result of this, we’ve been given another dull, incredibly boring and laughably awful film that may have left a cliffhanging conclusion but still provides the audience with the fact that the exciting death of this franchise is almost here.


The three predecessors have been met as critical failures already but what instantly made Breaking Dawn: Part I another one to follow up those is because it clearly steals the ideal decision from the final Harry Potter novel Deathly Hallows being split into two films to bring forth more excitement and so much had occurred in the single novel that would be too much to fit into a single film. However, with Breaking Dawn: Part I, it wasn’t even a huge build-up to the final film as it was really dry and just dull from start to finish. Plus, due to the dialogue and events that occur, Breaking Dawn: Part I renovates a much cornier take-on of classic Roman Polanski horror film Rosemary’s Baby, but there was actually one particular concept of the film that actually was quite freaky to watch. It’s just absolutely ridiculous why it has taken so long to add at least a bit of horror into the franchise.


Before Twilight and her role as Bella Swan, Kristen Stewart starred in some fun and interesting films as a child from the likes of Panic Room by David Fincher, Into The Wild by Sean Penn and fun family sci-fi adventure Zathura. However, now she has sunk to the lowest level that she ever will fall down to as she gives an absolutely appalling performance as Bella who doesn’t provide any emotional feeling for the audience and there is simply no connection between neither Bella and Edward Cullen nor Bella and Jacob Black! Stewart may have the pretty characteristics for the character but when it comes to actually playing the character, it just doesn’t work for her at all. The love triangle relationship between Bella, Edward and Jacob is literally like in a closed cage needlessly continues and simply does not go anywhere at all!


It is true. Cedric Diggory has died but has been resurrected by vampire Edward Cullen as Robert Pattinson has really gone from playing a rather crucial character in the fourth Harry Potter film to a vegetarian vampire who has fallen in love with a human. There is nothing vampire-like about Edward at all as he provides the exact opposite of the true nature of vampires that we have seen over the years. Pattinson’s performance as Edward has been atrocious from the very beginning but what we see within Breaking Dawn: Part I is Edward at his worst general standard, especially in the scene with the wedding and the laughably pathetic sex scene where he breaks the bed and panics that he harmed Bella during the act! Stewart doesn’t help build the connection between Bella and Edward but Pattinson just doesn’t merge it together at all and for the better, both characters just need to be killed off. Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black is once again a really annoying portrayal of a young teen-wolf. Lautner is perhaps the hunkiest than he’s ever been but that doesn’t make his performance or character any more interesting or stronger. His role perhaps wasn’t as vital or as frequent as in New Moon or Eclipse, so it was more about Edward and Bella in this one.


Just like the films based upon the Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, the films within the Twilight have consisted of a large number of directors chosen to direct the films but have always used the same screenwriter to pen the scripts. Academy Award winner Bill Condon couldn’t even successfully make this into a solid build-up to the end and neither could David Slade whose previous works before directing Eclipse were horror films Hard Candy and 30 Days Of Night. So, this proves that even experienced filmmakers could not bend around making a film that is emotional, occasionally intense or even entertaining to watch about some of the most annoying characters you could ever read about with ridiculous dialogue! In addition to the author Stephenie Meyer, the screenwriter has to be female, doesn’t it, who has transformed the scary-looking, deadly and sinister nature of a “vampire” into a soulless and soft-hearted fairy? The written dialogue is almost completely written from a typical avid female fan of the series with such clichĂ© and gut-retching lines that makes it completely dry throughout every second of it.


Overall, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part I is, as predicted, yet another atrocious addition to the Twilight series that moves us one step closer to when it all ends. This is the Twilight series in a nutshell: just because the characters are needlessly eye-popping and are an ultimate sexual fantasy towards its target audience, that doesn’t make it a good film that has a strong dialogue with intriguing characters. Quite frankly, Breaking Dawn didn’t even need to be split into two parts because there was not a large number of turning events occurring in this one with lots of detail in the story like there was in Deathly Hallows. It was basically just the Twilight series sneaking their way into earning some more money. So, now that Part I has been released with four films down and one to go, we’re almost there to the end of this series!


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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1 review

Posted : 12 years, 3 months ago on 3 December 2011 05:25

Breaking Dawn was one of the most highly anticipated movies of 2011. The opening scene, with Jacob Black getting upset for no reason other than Bella getting married to Edward, running, shirtless obviously
with an angry look on his face.

Starting from the marriage, Breaking Dawn 1 has lot to offer, with Bella getting concieved, struggling through the gestation period, decided to move on with her baby against all odds. During the period things got hot between wolves and Edward family.

THe movie ended on the note that Bella opened her Blood Red eye, after being dead on the death bed. So keep waiting for Part 2.


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