Breaking Dawn: Part Two (2012)
Warning! This review is chock full of spoilers! Spoilers for the book Breaking Dawn, AND spoilers for the movie Breaking Dawn: Part Two, as they do change some things. For those who have not seen the movie yet, my final thoughts are spoiler free.
I often joke that The Twilight Novels (or at least the first three) are the book equivalent to fast food. Yes, they’re not that great for you, and overindulging will probably make you sick, but every now and then you really just want fast food. So I’m perfectly aware that the books aren’t fantastically written, and that the relationship aspect is problematic, but they’re still a lot of fun to read, and can be quite suspenseful at times. Unfortunately, I’ve always felt a little lukewarm about the movie adaptations (although Eclipse wasn’t bad). I’ve never been happy with the majority of the casting choices, and the dialogue sounds a lot better in my head then it does up on screen, something that is not fully the fault of the cast. Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is my least favorite of the Twilight Movies. This probably stems from the fact that I’ve never been hugely fond of Breaking Dawn the book. Breaking Dawn: Part Two, which finished up the Twilight Saga for good, was a far more enjoyable film but still a lukewarm experience for this reviewer.
Here are a few of the things that struck me, spoilers ahead.
Turning the Book’s Biggest Strength into the Movie’s Greatest Weakness: Despite the fact that I’ve always been iffy on Breaking Dawn, I have always enjoyed the parts where the Cullen’s must gather their allies and prepare for war. I liked meeting the other vampires, and the fact that Bella is able to train with them to activate her newly discovered “shield” powers. Unfortunately, as you don’t get as much time in a movie (yes, even with a book which has been separated into two movies) to actually meet these characters, it just feels like there are a lot of people standing around on screen for most of the movie. The result is you never really come to care for them, and the film can actually drag quite a bit. I wished that the movie had decided to diverge from the book and thinned out their allies some.
Turning the Books Biggest Weakness into the Movie’s Greatest Strength: To me, the biggest flaw of the SECOND half of Breaking Dawn was the anticlimactic ending. Over hundreds of pages, you get prepared for quite a showdown and then… nothing happens. The movie has clearly learned from this mistake by giving is quite a doozy for an ending. For those who have not seen it (and here come the spoilers), when Aro is reading Alice’s mind, she realized that there’s nothing that she can do. He’s going to kill them all anyway. A large and dramatic fight sequence begins where we witness the enemy tear the heads off of principal vampire characters (Jasper and Carlisle. Interestingly, these are the two most illogical choices, as my fiancé pointed out to me, given that Carlisle is the oldest, as Jaspet has the most combat expereince) as well as kill two of the wolves (Leah and Seth, I believe). The good guys, in turn, go completely to town on the Volturi, eventually decapitating Aro and lighting him on fire. After all this occurs, it’s revealed that THIS is merely the vision of the future that Alice has shown Aro. Knowing his death in imminent, he agrees to turn away. This scene is pretty shockingly violent, given how low key the films have been so far, to the point where I think they may have gone a little over the top. But still, I guess we ended up getting what we’ve always wanted, and ending that’s not anti-climactic, yet still stays true to the book.
Creepy CGI Baby is Creepy- (But she's very cute once she grows a little). I get that there’s supposed to have been something a little unnerving about the intelligence of Renesmee, but the CGI they use to create the baby form is just really poorly done. This shouldn’t be a surprise as the CGI in the Twilight movie has always been a little shoddy. This is something that made sense when the films had a budget 50 million or less, not when your budget has blossomed to 120 million dollars!
Spoiler-Free Final Thoughts: Breaking Dawn: Part Two, much like the book it’s based on, is uneven, although not necessarily for the same reasons. I found that the film dragged when the book was suspenseful and fun, and was satisfying where the book fell short. This is probably something that’s better experienced as a rental, and only really for fans of the series. Three Stars.
Next I will be reviewing Legion by Brandon Sanderson.