The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 2 Reviews

As said in my review of Breaking Dawn: Part 1, I am neither a fan or detractor of the Twilight Saga, though in terms of the books I only lasted the first chapter of the first book. Of the movies, for me the best was Eclipse, and the worst New Moon. In terms of Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 I'd say that it is a marginal improvement over Breaking Dawn: Part 1 and ranking the whole saga I'd put it bang in the middle, but for a finale to a film series I found it very underwhelming.

Does it have good points? Yes actually. I did think the scenery was really lovely, very evergreen-looking, and the photography did have some nice shots(some of the zooming though does get too much). I also thought that Breaking Dawn: Part 2 did have the best music score, courtesy of Carter Burwell, of the saga, and that Renesmee was just adorable. There are a few performances that were quite good. Michael Sheen does ham things up but he is gleefully fun to watch, Billy Burke is once again amusing and Ashley Greene is good as Alice. Dakota Fanning is also not too bad, I think an improvement over the previous instalments, but I have seen her give better performances in better movies.

That said, I am still not convinced by the acting of the three leads. I will say though that Kristen Stewart does give her best performance of the series, she does finally crack a smile after looking bored previously, she doesn't mope around as much and she does show some genuine concern regarding Bella's situation. However, and it doesn't help that Bella(in my eyes) is such a dull and unlikeable character, I still didn't find her entirely convincing, her eyes show no signs of life, her face lacks expression and she has a lot of flat line delivery. Robert Pattinson does have some sweet chemistry with her, but he does look constipated a lot and his facial expressions have a tendency to be on the hammy side. They are not that bad though compared to Taylor Lautner, who is unbearably wooden here as Jacob and the constant taking off of his shirt got old quickly.

On top of that, Bill Condon's direction seems rather uninspired. I am familiar with Condon and do find him a promising director/writer who observes things well, Gods and Monsters is one of my favourites, Kinsey is very interesting and Dreamgirls is decent. But there is little of what these things as good as they were on display here, so as like the previous instalment there is the sense that Condon was not in his comfort zone. A lot of things don't help though, as the dialogue continues to be clunky and almost like watching an overly-melodramatic soap opera- especially in the first half where everything is lacking in any kind of intent- and the story is plodding- though the beginning also manages to feel very rushed- in its exposition with scenes dragging on too long and very little that is exciting or surprising. The ending has no real gusto or emotional punch(though actually it still manages to be the highlight of the entire film), the fight scenes are clumsily choreographed, the opening credits go on for far too long and you just don't care for any of the characters.

In regard to the special effects and make-up, they are pretty terrible here. The computer generated wolves manage to be both cheesy and stupid in design and manner and the red glaring contact lenses look dodgy and are more at home in a cartoon. While Renesmee as a baby looks so creepily fake that it is laughable, the be-headings are the equivalent of ripping the head of your favourite toy in a rage and the white greasepaint passing for make-up all looks blotchy and artificial. The closing moments are clichéd and reek of cheese as well, and the vampires are as far away from authentic as you could come. Overall, not the best or worst of the series, but for a saga finale it was underwhelming, where it had potential to go out on a bang it was more of a whimper.

4/10 Bethany Cox

To tell a tale out of school, out of all the horrible Worst Picture Razzie winners, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 was the main reason I retained from doing this marathon in the first place. On top of not getting into the teenage vampire and werewolf trend in early 2010’s, I didn’t want to expose myself to the cinematic bubonic plague known as the Twilight franchise. Unfortunately, the 8-year record is broken as I have now seen one of their movies, the final one. Previously, Bella Swan-Cullen (Kristen Stewart) gave birth to Edward Cullen’s (Robert Pattinson) half-vampire baby Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy). In Part 2, Bella and Edward’s love-child brings a conflict between the Cullen family, the pack of werewolves lead by Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) and the Volturi cult led by Aro (Michael Sheen). Having not seen the other films or read the Stephanie Meyer books, I could never follow why being immortal would be a threat to the Volturi vampires or how the vampires inexplicably gain powers like chopping logs like a cheese cracker, superspeed, or super-jump. It also didn’t help that the visual effects are far below the standards of a Sci-Fi channel movie, demonstrated by the werewolves, motion blurs, the backdrops, and the baby. Another list of stupidity: Bella learning to act human, the elemental powers that contribute nothing to vampirism, the ethnic stereotypes, and the climactic battle near the end which was all a vision. The only redeeming and entertaining value in the whole series so far is Michael Sheen, who bites the scenery gloriously and even has that silly hammy laugh as an act of threat. While nicely shot and not with some crazy and funny moments, Breaking Dawn Part 2 is still a poorly written, poorly acted and poorly directed mess.

(1 ½ Ugly CGI Renesmee Cullens out of 5)

At last, I'm finally done with this franchise... To be honest, I have never really understood the passion it created, either from the lovers or the haters. Sure, it is all rather weak and underwhelming but it is also rather harmless and I have seen much worse through the years. Anyway, coming back to our main feature, in my opinion, it was actually a step down from the previous installment. Indeed, Bella has finally become a vampire, she and Edward have managed to have some weird hybrid baby (by the way, it must be the creepiest baby I have ever seen) but, instead of focusing on this new set-up, they all get wrapped around some really boring supposedly climatic fight with the vampire big bosses, a fight which never happened in the book and, in fact, also never really takes place in this movie either. So, during the whole thing you wonder what the fuss is all about and, eventually, nothing really major happens after all so it felt like a pretty huge waste of time. To conclude, I didn’t really hate it and of course I didn't like it either but I certainly cannot recommend it, especially if you consider all those other far superior movies dealing with vampires.

"My time as a human was over. But I've never felt more alive."

Heavens above, they finally did it. After four failed Twilight movies ranging from unwatchable to barely tolerable, the cast and crew behind the franchise have at long last figured out how to make this bullshit palatable. See, the past four films strived to faithfully adapt Stephenie Meyer's turgid novels with a straight face, but that all changes with 2012's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2. This time, returning director Bill Condon and the long-suffering cast seem to embrace the fact that the material indeed sucks, giving this final picture the chance to be the ludicrous joke that the fanbase doesn't seem to realise that it is. Cranking its ridiculous aspects up to eleven, Breaking Dawn - Part 2 is quite simply hilarious, one of the funniest and most enjoyable movie-watching experiences of 2012. It's a brilliant parody of itself, and the end result, ironically, is more entertaining than the parody film Vampires Suck.

With Bella (Kristen Stewart) having finally made the transformation to vampire, she begins to feel her new powers and deal with her thirst for blood with help from her husband, Edward (Robert Pattinson). Meanwhile, the couple's newborn daughter Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy) is growing at a rapid rate, and Bella is compelled to confront the fact that werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) has imprinted his everlasting (paedophiliac) love on the infant. Word of Renesmee soon reaches the leader of the Volturi, Aro (Michael Sheen), who assumes that the Cullens have actually turned a child, which is against the rules and will apparently lead to the downfall of their kind for reasons that are never adequately explained. Because Aro has been seeking an excuse to kill the Cullens since the beginning of the franchise, he begins planning for war while Edward's family recruit as many bloodsuckers as possible to help in the impending battle.

From the very first scene, it's clear that Condon and the actors are finally in tune with the material, finding the campy tone that we've wanted all along. Part 1 showed evidence of hilarious camp at times, but Part 2 embraces it entirely, giving us scene after scene of uproariously bad dialogue and stiff performances that are amusing as opposed to flat-out boring. Not having read Meyer's books, I cannot comment on the quality of the adaptation, but the dialogue here is absolutely killer. In an early scene, Jacob reveals that he has nicknamed Bella's newborn "Nessie," to which Bella angrily responds with "You named my baby after the Loch Ness Monster?!" Tears of laughter were shed. In another scene, Bella discusses the fact that she and Edward can have consistent sex 24/7 since they will never get tired. Furthermore, an early reveal of Bella the blood-thirsty vampire, hunting for animals to kill, is side-splitting. Couple the dreadful CGI with the campy cinematography and performances, and the end result had this reviewer on the floor gasping for breath. There's also a bizarre arm wrestling scene that defies explanation.

Unfortunately, the delirious hilarity of the first act begins to wane as the dramatic stuff kicks in, leading to a midsection that drags and only provides a few laughs here and there. It's during the second act that the missteps of the prior Twilight movies begin to emerge yet again, with mundane dialogue and uninteresting proceedings, crying out for better-judged pacing. Luckily, it's almost worth enduring the dreariness for the climax when we finally get to the payoff. The ending of Meyer's novel was insultingly anticlimactic, but Condon and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg rejig the climax, leading to a tremendous battle sequence that must be seen to be believed. Vampires with X-Men-esque abilities and vicious werewolves absolutely go at it; many bloodsuckers are decapitated, central characters are killed without remorse, one character opens up the ground to reveal a pit of goddamn lava, and Dakota Fanning is mauled by a fucking wolf. Best of all, Condon handled this sequence with utmost confidence. The digital effects remain terrible, but there's no lazy shaky-cam; it's easy to follow the mayhem. Believe me, it's awesome! But then Rosenberg literally introduces the "it was just a dream" conceit, which kind of undercuts the experience. If only the movie stuck to its guns and let that battle actually exist, Part 2 would've been even better. How ironic that this is an average movie that actually envisions a better version of itself...

To cap off the series, Breaking Dawn - Part 2 closes with a montage that recaps the prior movies, just to remind us about the journey we've taken. It's meant to be an emotional, weepy moment to allow the fangirls to reflect on their memories, but it's actually funny because of how slight the montage truly is, validating yet again that nothing ever happens in these fucking motion pictures and showing just how little really has occurred over the franchise's ten-hour lifespan. It also fails to be moving. As a matter of fact, the final scene surrounding this montage is total fucking bullshit, finding the actors spouting woefully cheesy dialogue and staring at each other.

At this point, one has to pity the actors, who probably took the job not knowing exactly what they were in for and wound up being contractually bound to the goddamn franchise. To their credit, it genuinely looks as if the cast wanted to take the piss this time around, gleefully hamming it up and no longer taking the material with a self-serious disposition. Stewart is frequently uproarious, but it's Pattinson and Lautner who walk away with the show this time. Pattinson has openly stated that he hates Twilight and doesn't understand the love for Edward, and he seems to incorporate this hatred into his performance. He's very, very funny. Likewise, Lautner ostensibly knows that this stuff is total shit and loosens up big time. Plus, again, he's only shirtless in one scene. Holy shit! But the standout is Michael Sheen, who's very much aware of the film that he's in, and completely goes for broke. His performance is a whole lot of fun.

Let's get this perfectly clear: I am not endorsing Twilight: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 because it's a legitimately good motion picture. On the contrary, it's pretty poor, and it's especially awful if the filmmakers actually intended to make a straight-faced franchise closer. But Part 2 is a whole lot of fun in the same vein as The Room, and for the most part, plays out as if the cast and crew wanted to give a great big "Fuck you!" to the fans, who (ironically) probably won't be unable to see the humour in the production and will take it with a straight face. Consummate trolling. Twilight haters, believe me when I say that Breaking Dawn - Part 2 is the Twilight movie that we've been waiting for since the beginning. It's a total blast. And it's even better that it finally spells the end of the Twilight franchise. It's over. It's actually over. Praise the film Gods!

5.9/10

It is finally here! After four corny and needlessly overhyped predecessors, the finale of the Twilight saga has arrived. Blatantly a move copied from the final novel of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows being split into two films, the last installment of the Twilight franchise wanted to end on a high note and build up anticipation. Still, you can look at the film and believe that it has the exact features of yet another lame addition into the suck-fest franchise. However, it is still the conclusion of a series and it has, reluctantly, been financially successful. So there must have been something going for it. However, although it is perhaps the strongest film in the series, it still suffers heavily from the Twilight curse that put the icing on the cake and, thus, makes the entire franchise overall a complete failure.


The events of Breaking Dawn Part II pick up immediately after Part I with Bella having just given birth to a daughter Renesmee and resulted in her transformation into a vampire. The child becomes the central figure in Part II as the Voltori now want to kill her as an immortal child-vampire is forbidden. In defense of the film, we finally see some threat and it has been a long time coming! In addition, the climatic action sequence was somewhat enjoyable; perhaps the best moment from all five films. However, the term 'epic' does not even come close to Part II. This final installment did not feel like a finale. It was merely another additional story that just drags on and does not conclude anything. It does not leave the audience to feel any excitement or emotion. Furthermore, apart from atrocious performances, the entire Twilight series suffers from pacing. Part II starts off very slow and at least an hour of the film could have been within half of that time. This indicates that Breaking Dawn as a novel could have been one film instead of being two.


Once again, the acting goes completely nowhere and there were not any signs of improvement. We finally see Kristen Stewart in the role of Bella Swan. The character took a few turns following the events of Part I as she now not only a vampire but she is a mother. Therefore, Bella actually has a purpose in Part II other than swooning around Edward again. Considering this, Bella is still very much trapped in herself and becomes neither a young teenage girl nor a grown-up, responsible parent. Quite frankly, Stewart does not blend with motherhood, even on-screen, when she is still only 22 and still has many teenage features. Nevertheless, with the Twilight franchise having drawn to a close, Stewart needs to break out of her comfort zone and take her role selections to a new level.


Like Stewart as Bella, Robert Pattinson still goes absolutely nowhere as Edward Cullen. He expresses no happiness as he is now a family 'man' and a married one. Out of all three central actors, Pattinson has always been the driest and worst one of them all. He is just there and does not make a romantic or emotional effect. In fact, he becomes the most anti-vampire that he has been so far seeing as Bella does everything that he should. In fact, it is like Bella and Edward are together because they have to be as part of the series. They have not connected at all and it seems they want the franchise to end as much as many viewers do too. On the other hand, Jacob's appearance in this 'finale' was almost irrelevant and hardly served any important purpose at all. In this part, he is Renesmee's awkward protector when she has parents for that and is still sticking his nose in the lives of Edward and Bella. However, to please pre-teens and easily-aroused girls for the final time, Taylor Lautner did take his shirt off (and strip). Nevertheless, it is goodbye to Edward and Jacob – the two guys who become girls.


Despite Breaking Dawn: Part II is perhaps the 'strongest' installment of the entire series and does end on a satisfactory note, it still leaves with the same elements that they have always had. Of course, young girls and pre-teens are going to enjoy this and will be disappointed that it is the final film. Still, for most of us it is a great relief that we will not have to put up with any sparkling vampires and werewolves that sexually arouse their target audience. However, knowing Hollywood as it today regarding remakes, we could be in for another reproduced franchise in the future. Unfortunately, it is possible but if it does happen, now is time to savour the moments in the meantime where Twilight has finally ended.

With the release of Breaking Dawn Part 2 (BD2), The Twilight Saga come to an end.

Twilight series by Stephanie Meyers kept mesmerized and captivated the fans & readers all over the world. I haven't read this series, however I have read her novel, The Host, which is also cinematized and the movie is going to hit the screens, likely in March 2013.

Back to BD2, It was the best experience and a perfect conclusion to my personal Twilight experience. The novel than movies, these whole ten-year experience was something unbelievable.

After the birth of Renesmee, Bella is enjoying her new life and new powers, the family bliss is threatened again, by a new menace, as the rule have been broken by Edward by falling in love with human Bella, although converted into vampire, but the new born Renesmee could challenge the power and existence of the Volturi. Bella and the Cullens - together with any allies they can assemble - are preparing to fight a crucial, ultimate battle, to protect their family and the child from a false allegation that puts the family in front of the Volturi.

Last 20 minutes of the movie is quite gripping with one major twist in the movie that is not in the book is the battle sequence in which members from the Cullens, Volturi, and the Wolf Pack die. In the books, the Cullens and the Volturi simply talk things out in a somewhat respectable manner, and that’s it. Well, in the movie, one actually gets to see some action. Certain notable deaths rather one after another most of the major characters got killed and the the viewer is shocked and in awe!!

Then, suddenly, the major twist is revealed…..

What else is there, one better watch the movie.