The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II

I don’t know if I’ve ever had such a drastic swing in interest mid-movie as I did during The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II. The film is the fifth and final installment in the supernatural love triangle series. This time around, Bella (Kristen Stewart) has been changed into a vampire in order to save her life and that of her half human half vampire daughter. Of course papa Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) is there to keep an eye on things and werewolf Jacob Black’s (Taylor Lautner) connection with the child is too complicated to explain in this short film review. But the real complication comes when the tyrannical Volturi mistake the girl for an “immortal child,” a child vampire, who are illegal. So the Cullens bring in friends from all over the world to bear witness to the girl and stand by them against the Volturi if it comes to that.

The first half of the movie, which focuses on Bella’s new abilities and the exhausted eternal love plot line between her and Edward, is completely cringe worthy. I can’t remember the last time I rolled my eyes this much. Probably last time I watched one of these movies. But then, imagine this, something actually happens. An external conflict is presented and interesting moments occur. The introduction of the new vampire characters, the Volturi, the changing of new werewolves, these are things that work in a fantasy film. The story reaches its peak with an epic fight scene that stands up against any other modern fantasy epic.

Now I don’t mean to hit Twi-Hards where it hurts, but the series’ leads, Bella and Edward are definitely the basis of the issues. It’s been well-documented in my reviews of the past Twilight films my thoughts on their acting abilities, but it goes deeper than that. Every character from Charlie to Rosalie to a random nameless werewolf comes across as more interesting than these duds. Ultimately the epic battle and a nice light hearted tribute to the series leave a pleasant taste in the mouths of the audience in the end. It’s so difficult to cast judgment on a movie that I both hated and really enjoyed. Oh Twilight, I’m going to miss you. But not enough for you to reboot. Please don’t do that.

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.