Breaking Dawn 2 Review

Written by Tyler Lamb.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 is the final chapter in the Twilight movie saga, and the second part of the final book. It was directed by Bill Condon, who also directed the first part of Breaking Dawn, and stars the same cast as last time around. If you aren’t savvy to the story of Twilight by now, the specific plot of this movie might be hard to understand. Basically, the Volturi (vampire Jedi council) hear of Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) recent vampire transformation and are pretty cool with it. Unfortunately, the half-breed child that Bella and Edward (Robert Pattinson) have conceived is mistaken by a fellow vampire as a full-breed vampire baby. This is highly against vampire law since children can’t control themselves and would make the vampires known. The vampire council takes it upon themselves to rid of this child before something bad happens. In the meantime, our heroes try and gather together fellow blood-suckers to testify for their child, saying she’s not what they call an “immortal child”.

Now, if you thought that sounded anything less than interesting you would be correct. To the film’s credit, it is up there on the higher end of the franchise’s quality, and much better than part 1 of Breaking Dawn. However, that isn’t a high bar to jump over. It’s amazing how something with such horrible overall production is such a hit. It’s hard to denounce the script too quickly, considering the already awful Stephenie Meyer source material. Yes, I have read the books and enjoyed a couple of them. That being said, I never actually finished the second part of Breaking Dawn, because they gave their child a stupid name (Renesmee!?!? Really!?!) and every time I saw it I was angered. Instead, I just got a quick synopsis of the ending and was glad I didn’t bring myself to reading such a horrible anticlimactic ending. Thankfully, this is changed in the movie. Personally, I think the new ending added some actual action to what would have been nothing. However, the film does suffer from a case of Return of the King syndrome, whereas there are a couple times you would believe the movie was over when it is, in fact, still going.

Now the acting is a whole different story. It is laughable throughout and can hardly be taken seriously in the most serious of times. The main three, Lautner, Stewart, and Pattinson gave their typical performances. There is definite growth in their acting ability since the first installment, especially with Lautner. When it comes to the supporting cast, one would wonder if they intentionally picked the worst audition for the role. Michael Sheen reprised his role as the leader of the vampire supreme court and his is the acting you’ll find yourself chuckling over the most. He brings this evil character to a complete laughable state, so far at some points it seems like he was doing it on purpose to make fun of the franchise. Dakota Fanning came back as the only girl vampire judge and does a horrible job at it. Her faces and actions are so annoying throughout, and I am almost positive Darth Maul had more lines in The Phantom Menace than she did in this movie. With the other vampires the Cullen family brings in, there are some very racist characters. The stereotypes of Irish, Russian, and Native Americans are all seen here. I’m surprised that the actors portraying these roles weren’t offended, but hey, they are in a Twilight movie, so it must take a lot.

Overall, if you’re a fan of the series (how?) or have read the books (guilty) or just have seen the others and want a conclusion, you might as well check it out. After all is said and done, it is a decent ending to the franchise and at least it all ended with what I believe to be the best yet. Also, out of its almost 2 hour running time, not once did I feel like it was dragging on. The final battle is a good one, but you will be wondering why they are driving cars or walking when they can just as easily sprint at high speeds.  There are heads being ripped off, but only one scene I can think of where any blood is shown, and there are good morals taught throughout the series such as abstinence before marriage, and the importance of family. This is not enough to redeem the film, however. When it comes down to it, if you haven’t seen any of the other movies, don’t plan on seeing this one anytime soon.

I give this film:
1 1/2 dumb kid names out of 4

 

 

Director-Bill Condon
Starring-Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner
Running Time-115min

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