The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

Reviewer: Katey Stoetzel

Director: Bill Condon

Stars: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner

Released: November 16th 2012

Twilight is just one of those things that happened. It didn’t revolutionize the story world like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. It didn’t do much of anything except create the world’s most annoying fan base. Frankly, it kind of undermined the whole ‘vampire’ and ‘werewolf’ idea. But, now it’s over. We don’t have to deal with it anymore… except for the fact that we might. It’s been speculated that this vampire romance might be showing up in a few more films and while I really don’t want it to, it sort of makes sense seeing that Breaking Dawn Part 2 ended with a fizzle.

Part 2 picks up right where Part 1 left off; Bella is now a vampire and has an awfully named new daughter, Renesmee. While learning to adjust to her new life style as a vampire and a mother, the Volturi, the Italian vampire lords in charge of keeping vampires a secret from humans, learn of the child and assume she is an immortal. The Cullens gather their friends from around the world to play witness to Renesmee’s strangeness, and to help prove to the Volturi that she is only half immortal, and therefore  not a threat. It’s hard to say if this movie would have been better if they had not split the book up into two parts. I was really sceptical about this instalment because I had read the book, and knew that it ended in the worst anti-climatic sequence ever. I knew that if the writer decided to follow the book, the movie was doomed right from the start.

First off, the directing is horrible. It seemed Director, Bill Condon, only knew one angle to shoot and that was right on the actor’s faces. Pretty much every shot was a head shot of the characters, and when the camera did pan out to get more than one person in the shot, it only showed people from the waist up. I don’t know if it’s a product of laziness or just failed artistic statement, but it only distracted from the story. The CGI of baby Renesmee’s face was particularly horrible and creepy, almost laughable. Even when Renesmee grows, she still looks fake.

As I said before, the movie is anti-climatic. *Spoiler Alert* This is large in part due to Stephenie Meyer’s awful plot line. What bugs me most is her need to tell a happy love story. This allowed for nothing to go down between the Volturi and the Cullen gang, and instead provided us with a really long stand off. Now, translated on screen, this would have felt like an eternity with no reward of a satisfying ending. So, they had to change it. And while I agree the change had to be done, I don’t like what they did with it. After Aro decides that the Cullens are telling the truth about Renesmee, Alice returns to prove to Aro that Renesmee will not pose a threat, by showing him the future. But then, she basically starts a war because she knows Aro will never listen to them anyway. It was here, my friends, where I completely loved Twilight. Alice was grabbed by a few other members of the Volturi, and Carlisle ran forward to save her. Aro and Carlisle ran right into each other, but Aro had the upper hand and took Carlisle’s head right off. He then burned his body. Many screams echoed throughout my theater as I sat there laughing; I’m not some morbid person who enjoys seeing beloved character’s head’s ripped off. I was just glad that something was actually happening. Carlisle’s death resulted in everyone else running forward to avenge him and, in the the process, Jasper and two wolves died. I was eating the entire thing up. I loved looking around the theater and seeing everyone’s shock. What made this whole thing great was the sheer confidence it had to kill off characters. I thought, now this is a vampire story. Then Bella and Edward team up and kill Aro, and it seems that they have won. But all of a sudden, it goes back to Alice taking her hand away from Aro’s face, a gesture she uses to show people the future. In the background, Carlisle and Jasper and everyone else wait. I groaned, the theater cheered. What essentially just happened was the writer’s couldn’t decide which ending they wanted to tell, so they picked both. The movie ended just the way the book does… lame. *End of Spoiler*

You would think that after four years of working on the same movies with the same people would allow for better on- screen chemistry. The acting is sub-par. Kristen Stewart only does a slightly better job at not being awkward, except in this one scene in the beginning where she almost eats a human. But despite that, it can be argued that she really does make a better vampire than human. Taylor Lautner’s character of Jacob is put on the back burner here, which again is Stephenie Meyer’s fault. His basic function is to get the crap beat out of him by Bella and to be a creepy old guy in love with a 12 day year / old, or whatever. Robert Pattinson was okay.

I know I’ve been ragging, but it’s hard not to. There are some enjoyable moments where Edward and Jacob joke around about Jacob calling Edward dad, and Billy Burke as Bella’s father, Charlie, is always wonderful. Some new characters spice up the scenery. In particular, Rami Malek as the element-bending vampire from Egypt, Benjamin, added some new fun to the group dynamic.

What is really sad is that this movie is definitely the best instalment of all five movies. It’s main problem was plot line, and the directing. A few editing problems as well, but definitely a step up from its predecessors. If you’re a Twilight fan, you’ve probably already seen it. If you’re having a bad day, go see Twilight; you’ll definitely get in a few good laughs. If you like to see things fail, go see Twilight. But if you like watching movies with quality and thought-provoking story lines and plots, I heard that basically everything in theaters beats this movie.