Film Review: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
Honestly, reviewing the penultimate Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is a bit pointless. The hardcore fans will have already watched the film by now, the haters will never deign to see it... and in the case of casual viewers, unless they’ve watched the previous films, they will be completely lost here seeing as Breaking Dawn leaps straight into the action with no backstory recap or character introductions. Ultimately, like all the movie adaptations of Stephenie Meyer’s supernatural romance tales, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 bundles good, bad and boring in various ratios for a mildly entertaining experience that is neither amazing nor awful.
As already mentioned, Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is not a film for newcomers to the series. The film opens immediately with 18 year old Bella Swan’s (Kristen Stewart) long awaited marriage to “good” vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). It’s a move that will precede Bella’s transformation into a vampire, and her werewolf best friend and almost boyfriend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) is furious – as well as shirtless within literally the first 10 seconds of the film. The newlyweds jet off for a sultry secluded honeymoon only for the impossible to swiftly shatter their bliss: Bella is pregnant. And the wolf pack cannot let a freak human-vampire hybrid survive, triggering a dangerous standoff with the Cullen vampire clan. Meanwhile, the unlikely pregnancy threatens to destroy Bella.
To Breaking Dawn – Part 1’s credit, this is the first Twilight film to really feel like a horror movie. At least in parts. Although the birth scene is a lot less graphic and bloody than described in the book, the moments leading up to it and Bella’s life-sapping pregnancy are appropriately creepy. The film successfully actualises the darker, unnerving side of having a being – “a thing” – growing inside you, and pushes the experience to its monstrous extreme. I’d go so far as to say Bella’s pregnancy rivals the skin-crawling zombie gestation in Dawn of the Dead. Credit must go to the make-up artists and special effects team for making Stewart look as awful as she does in the film’s second half.
Also successfully done is Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is the wedding. There isn’t as much love-triangle posturing and general silliness to snigger at in this film (the baby naming sequence is a notable exception), so the wedding scenes help to inject some much needed humour into proceedings. Once again Billy Burke and Sarah Clarke do fine work as Bella’s parents, bringing likeable human warmth and identifiability to a film that is otherwise populated with irritatingly perfect vampires and scowling werewolves. Stewart also delivers during these scenes, capturing Bella’s escalating wedding nerves.
On the downside, Breaking Dawn – Part 1 loses interest once it detours away from Bella’s pregnancy to explore Jacob’s turmoil. Many of the film’s worst moments are in the second half. Although I have no problem with the film’s werewolf design, the lycans’ big powwow, which involves snarling critters and booming voice filters, is cringe-worthy in its cheesiness. Even worse, the film’s climactic confrontation between vampire and werewolf is completely incoherent visually. Director Bill Condon, who is typically associated with pedigreed dramas and musicals, can’t shoot action scenes for shit.
It’s also worth noting that the character of Edward is especially unappealing in Breaking Dawn – Part 1. Whatever the motivations for this actions, he really treats Bella badly here. The sex bruises are inconsequential when you consider how he withdraws his physical affections from his wife, berates her for “her selfishness” and only warms again when apparently all is not lost. How anyone can find Edward dreamy in Breaking Dawn, I don’t know.
In the end then The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is a mixed bag. The fact that the film is mired in supernatural soap opera certainly won’t win over new (male) fans like its predecessor Eclipse did with its destructive battles and intriguing flashbacks (read my review). The Twilight faithful will be pleased, however. Meanwhile, for everyone else it’s impossible, and quite unfair, to dismiss the film as a complete turkey.
As already mentioned, Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is not a film for newcomers to the series. The film opens immediately with 18 year old Bella Swan’s (Kristen Stewart) long awaited marriage to “good” vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). It’s a move that will precede Bella’s transformation into a vampire, and her werewolf best friend and almost boyfriend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) is furious – as well as shirtless within literally the first 10 seconds of the film. The newlyweds jet off for a sultry secluded honeymoon only for the impossible to swiftly shatter their bliss: Bella is pregnant. And the wolf pack cannot let a freak human-vampire hybrid survive, triggering a dangerous standoff with the Cullen vampire clan. Meanwhile, the unlikely pregnancy threatens to destroy Bella.
To Breaking Dawn – Part 1’s credit, this is the first Twilight film to really feel like a horror movie. At least in parts. Although the birth scene is a lot less graphic and bloody than described in the book, the moments leading up to it and Bella’s life-sapping pregnancy are appropriately creepy. The film successfully actualises the darker, unnerving side of having a being – “a thing” – growing inside you, and pushes the experience to its monstrous extreme. I’d go so far as to say Bella’s pregnancy rivals the skin-crawling zombie gestation in Dawn of the Dead. Credit must go to the make-up artists and special effects team for making Stewart look as awful as she does in the film’s second half.
Also successfully done is Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is the wedding. There isn’t as much love-triangle posturing and general silliness to snigger at in this film (the baby naming sequence is a notable exception), so the wedding scenes help to inject some much needed humour into proceedings. Once again Billy Burke and Sarah Clarke do fine work as Bella’s parents, bringing likeable human warmth and identifiability to a film that is otherwise populated with irritatingly perfect vampires and scowling werewolves. Stewart also delivers during these scenes, capturing Bella’s escalating wedding nerves.
On the downside, Breaking Dawn – Part 1 loses interest once it detours away from Bella’s pregnancy to explore Jacob’s turmoil. Many of the film’s worst moments are in the second half. Although I have no problem with the film’s werewolf design, the lycans’ big powwow, which involves snarling critters and booming voice filters, is cringe-worthy in its cheesiness. Even worse, the film’s climactic confrontation between vampire and werewolf is completely incoherent visually. Director Bill Condon, who is typically associated with pedigreed dramas and musicals, can’t shoot action scenes for shit.
It’s also worth noting that the character of Edward is especially unappealing in Breaking Dawn – Part 1. Whatever the motivations for this actions, he really treats Bella badly here. The sex bruises are inconsequential when you consider how he withdraws his physical affections from his wife, berates her for “her selfishness” and only warms again when apparently all is not lost. How anyone can find Edward dreamy in Breaking Dawn, I don’t know.
In the end then The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is a mixed bag. The fact that the film is mired in supernatural soap opera certainly won’t win over new (male) fans like its predecessor Eclipse did with its destructive battles and intriguing flashbacks (read my review). The Twilight faithful will be pleased, however. Meanwhile, for everyone else it’s impossible, and quite unfair, to dismiss the film as a complete turkey.
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