The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
Bottom Line: Excruciating drop from Eclipse; utter disappointment for anyone but “Twi-hards”.
Directed by: Bill Condon
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Forget the fact that THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 1 (wow, that’s a long title) finally makes the whole “vampire romance” genre look as dumb as it sounds. The thing that truly makes this a bad film is that it starts off as a sappy romantic drama, and it takes over half the film to evolve back into a supernatural/romantic thriller like the rest of the saga.
That is certainly not to say that “Twi-hards” will not enjoy this fourth and thankfully penultimate entry into the Twilight Saga. Even the novel Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer was a huge drop from the previous three, but how could someone who would give anything and everything for this series care? (Not to mention, the drop from the novels Eclipse to Breaking Dawn was not nearly as large as the one we see from the films.)
The plot of this film is like a run-on sentence and a half, and it carries very few events, anyhow. The film starts off with Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart, who seems to be the only one to deliver a strong performance) preparing for her wedding, and then continues on to her actual wedding to vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), which goes perfectly, against what she had been fearing, except for the fact that she realizes that the Edward/Jacob rivalry is still going on. (Oh, come on, I’d like to be done with this “Team Edward/Team Jacob” B.S., once and for all!) Edward and Bella honeymoon on a Brazilian island called Isle Esme, and after making love once or twice, it comes as a surprise to them that Bella is pregnant with a half-human, half-vampire baby–something vampires have apparently believed for years to be impossible.
That last part occurs at least an hour into the film, and that’s just where the intensity and vampire-related Twi-thrills from the rest of the saga come in to play. On top of that, the ultimate choice to split Meyer’s final Twilight novel into two separate parts was a bad idea, as the book runs for over 700 pages, but not much actually happens. This film just drags on and drags on, rolling up carpets and carpets of dollars made for director Bill Condon and all the disappointingly-performed actors; don’t be the next one to make them another ten bucks.
I don’t recall them making love several times. They made love once and then Edward noticed bruises on Bella’s back and is scared to touch her after that. Bella begs and pleads with him to be intimate with her and he refuses. Instead they play chess over and over. So boring! Nice review though.
I must be mistaken, then. I thought there was that once scene when they made love in the ocean, and a few other in bed. I find it odd, though, that almost all my friends who saw Part 1 loved it, but it’s obvious they were just commenting on the grotesque childbirth scene. (Through which I LAUGHED.) Even though I hated this film, especially the way it ended, I will make a reluctant effort to go see Part 2 next November. Thanks, Mark!
I took what you said into my own consideration and edited my post so that it said “once or twice” rather than “several times”. Thanks!
I just came back from watching the new movie. It’s incredible! My boyfriend just downloaded the whole movie. I wanna go watch it one more time.
I’m glad you think that. But I didn’t think it was that great at all. The ending was horrible (may I say that again just so the message is clear?), but I’m going to go to the theaters (against my will) in November or December next year to see Part 2. Hopefully it’s somewhat better than Part 1 was.
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