The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

Running Time: 117 mins
Directed By: Bill Condon
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattison, Taylor Lautner, Dakota Fanning, Michael Sheen, Billy Burke, Anna Kendrick, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Ashley Greene
Screenplay: Melissa Rosenberg
UK Release Date: 18th November 20111 - UK

Quick Plot: The penultimate installment of the Twilight Saga and Bella and Edward have got married. After a night of passion, Bella finds herself pregnant with a half-human-half-vampire baby; but it's killing her from the inside as Bella's body can't cope with the strong fetus.

Review: I admit, it wasn't so long ago when I could have qualified as a Twi-hard. I have read the books, owned a poster or two, constantly had battles with myself over team Edward or Jacob; but then after the hype of the films got out of hand, I tried to distance myself from the franchise. It helped that I didn't like the film for Eclipse. However, I find myself moving back towards my twi-hard days after seeing Breaking Dawn.

I had such low expectations of Breaking Dawn because of the awful reviews it has received over the past week, so I really was expecting a laugh out loud fest. But because of my low expectations, I think I enjoyed it! The first 30 to 45 minutes anyway. I have no shame in saying that the wedding scene is stunning and that I could now probably count it in one of my favourite wedding scenes ever. Then after that, it's purely a romance film with Bella and Edward; which I think is why I liked it. The pair certainly have chemistry and it was an absolute delight to see them together.

With the exception of Taylor Lautner, most of the cast in Breaking Dawn are all really great actors and they did their best with what they had been given in the script. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson deserve a lot more credit than they are given for their roles as Bella Swan and Edward Cullen because it's not their fault that the characters are badly written. Pattinson, in my opinion, played Edward the best he ever has out of all four films. He's made him more than just an uncomfortable stare and really given him a lot of emotion in Edward this time round. As most critics have mentioned, Stewart's Breaking Dawn Bella is more sophisticated this time round and the lip biting has finally stopped! She deserves a lot more recognition for this film out of the four films too. It's a shame that actors such as the lovely Anna Kendrick and Billy Burke didn't get as much screen time as we all probably would have wanted, but I guess they're not important in this story. Nevertheless, the pair definitely owned most of the laughs at the beginning with their wedding speeches.

Breaking Dawn was always going to be silly because the whole concept of the book is silly. This is probably more of a criticism for the book but the film still went along with the stupid, intense build up to nothing that the book had. I completely hated the ending of Breaking Dawn and will forever hold a grudge against Stephenie Meyer for ruining the series for me. This is why I can't say I'm looking forward to the final part, even though I so badly want to be excited. Unless the whole ending is changed, then yes, I might look forward to seeing it but the only reason for me to see it is because of the actors who deserve it.
Other parts I enjoyed were the sweet flashbacks and references of the previous films, especially Twilight. It may have been my twi-hard phase but I straight away noticed the two or three tracks of the soundtrack that were brought back from some of the most memorable scenes from Twilight. It was quite heart warming to feel the same feelings I felt when seeing Twilight for the first time. Even though I like Breaking Dawn for trying very hard with the visual effects, this film is probably the worst for the wolf effects. I couldn't help but laugh at a scene between the wolf pack where they can hear each other's thoughts but instead can only growl. There are other visual effects that I understand have to have been used to show a certain part of Bella's body working, but it all felt too different from the others and stood out as quite uncomfortable and prolonged.

Breaking Dawn isn't half bad at all. It's .5 better. Not the worst one but not the best. Just enjoy it.
3/5

Breaking Dawn trailer

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