THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When a film franchise concludes their story arc, it can be exciting for an era to end because it usually ends on a high note. I say 'usually' because a high note was not the case with the Twilight Saga when it concluded with Breaking Dawn.
PLOT
Part One starts just a day before the wedding of Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen. About everyone is excited for the event except the heartbroken Jacob Black, who left town after getting an invitation. On the night before, Edward discusses with Bella that went he was first turned by Carlisle (Peter Facinelli), he would temporarily kill bad people before committing to his diet of animal blood. He tells her this to warn her that it will be difficult adjusting as a vampire when she turns. On the day of the event, her parents Charlie (Billy Burke) and Renée (Sarah Clarke) gift her a sapphire encrusted hair comb to wear for the occasion. After she officially marries Edward with exchanging vows and sharing a meaningful kiss, the event seems to go well as everyone congratulates the newlyweds, from the Cullens to Bella's school friends. Billy Black (Gil Birmingham), Sue Clearwater (Alex Rice) and her son Seth (Booboo Stewart) of the Quileute tribe attend on behalf of Jacob to congratulate Bella. It almost gets intense when an invited vampire named Irina (Maggie Grace) notices the teen wolf. She is bothered to see him since his tribe killed her boyfriend Laurent. Thankfully, she leaves before she can make a scene. Edward surprises Bella with a returning Jacob, who gets to dance with her before she leaves for the honeymoon. He only leaves more disappointed than before when she admits to consummate before turning into a vampire. It bothers him because he knows she could get hurt or possibly die. The newlyweds spend the honeymoon on a private island off the coast of Brazil to privately enjoy their time together. Although they do move forward with having sex, Edward feels uncomfortable with inadvertently hurting her during their time of physical intimacy. Bella tries to cheer him up by reminding him that she was prepared for it and will recover overtime. During the time span of the honeymoon, Jacob anticipates to kill Edward once the treaty is broken, but his alpha Sam claims to decide when and if it ever will be. He only says this because he knows the Cullens are not a threat to them or the humans. Two weeks go by after the wedding, and Bella discovers that her period is late. This means that she is pregnant and this terrifies her and her husband because it was never thought to be possible for a vampire could conceive with humans, plus they are unable to do so in general. The honeymoon ends after this discovery because Edward worries that it could kill her after giving birth. When they return home to Forks, Washington, the Cullens suggest that it should be aborted, but Rosalie (Nikki Reed) sides with Bella on keeping the baby, which becomes the final decision. Two weeks after coming home though, the baby is growing rapidly inside her. When Jacob finds out of what's happening to the woman she loves, Edward gives him a blessing to kill him if she doesn't make it. When Jacob tells the tribe, Sam plans to kill Bella before the baby is born, out of fear that it likely won't control the craving of blood. Seth and Leah Clearwater (Julia Jones) disperse from the pack with Jacob because they don't want to hurt Bella. Jacob warns the Cullens of what Sam intends to do but because he is outnumbered, he doesn't have the element of surprise and now plans to surround their home until the right opportunity is found to attack. As the three wolves stand guard with the vampire family, Bella's health continues to decline as her baby grows. Her health is temporarily maintained when she chooses to drink blood. Jacob is then able to distract the pack while Carlisle and Esme (Elizabeth Reaser) go hunting with Emmett (Kellan Lutz). After the distraction works, Bella collapses as her back breaks and goes into labor. When Rosalie cuts an incision on her body for the C-section, she accidentally gains blood thirst and Alice takes her out of the room until she regains composure. Since she was given morphine beforehand, Edward uses his teeth to complete the incision and when the baby is extracted, it is revealed to be a girl. She is named 'Renesmee' after Renee and Esme. As Bella's heart slows down, Edward tries to turn her with a syringe of his venom and multiple bites around her body, but she doesn't appear to recover. Believing she is dead, Jacob decides to spare Edward. He intends to kill the baby, but is prevented after imprinting her, becoming bound to protect her. When Sam finds out that the baby is born, he intends to kill her. Edward holds them off with Alice and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) until the others return to help. But the pack surrenders and retreats when Jacob reveals his imprint because it is an absolute law to not harm the imprinted. Within two days, Bella wakes up thanks to the venom completely healing her, finally becoming a vampire. The film ends with a mid credit scene, showing Volturi elder Aro (Michael Sheen) claim that the Cullens have something he wants.
THOUGHTS
I chose to see this in theaters at the time it was released because I was hopeful that there would be improvement in quality before conclusion. But it pains me to say that it declines even lower. I find myself disappointed in director Bill Condon because I respect his overall filmography, yet shook of how he made such a terrible finale out of this film and its follow up. I assumed that splitting it to two parts would help flesh out material like the Harry Potter franchise did for the Deathly Hallows, but its not the case here. It mostly comes off as a drag to hype up the moment fans waited for so dearly, making us bored by the time we get there. Yes, it did look intense when the Cullens fought the Quileute, but this ain't the first time I've seen werewolves and vampires collide. What I did respect though was its attempt to tackle the subject of love and loyalty. Robert Pattinson gives arguably his best outing as Edward because his character is in a pickle: He wants to support his wife’s decisions, but can’t bear accepting that he could lose her if things don’t go well. Luckily, he never gave up on her and saved her like he was. Taylor Lautner made Jacob such a debatable character after this. You want to respect how bold he was for choosing Bella over his family, showing that his loyalty was based on how his heart felt. My respect for him only disappears for him in seconds after imprinting the baby. I know he can’t control it and he is approaching it as a protector, but it’s uncomfortable because imprinting is meant for werewolves to find their soulmates. So the fact that he technically found his just when she was born is disgusting, which is why I can’t condone it at all. What I did love the most about this movie was Bruno Mars’ ‘It Will Rain’ because it is an accurate depiction of how both male leads were gonna be unable to cope with losing the woman they love. On the other hand, Kristen Stewart improves for the last time as Bella. She does a good job depicting her as the most fragile person, yet maintains hope for the better. The visuals effects are at their best on making her appeal as if her body is decaying, which helps her improve with her mannerisms significantly. Now that she's finally a vampire after going through hell to get there, you bet your bottom dollar that she will enjoy every bit of it with her husband. The wedding scene is actually sadder than one would realize because it would be the last time she'd socialize with her human family before turning. Seeing her maintain her composure of it as she drives away blows my mind. The only other actor from the three leads that got my attention this time was Chaske Spencer. He always portrayed him as the most mature Quileute because of his responsibility leading a wolf pack. But when Bella's baby becomes a factor, he becomes obsessive with fighting the Cullens because he anticipated for a moment of retaliation, in order to make his kind the superior to watch over Forks. Thankfully, he stands by the laws and stands down before he were to become the monster he sees vampires as. Despite finding things that make this movie interesting, it doesn't condone the many things in the story that I so deeply hate. Like why the hell were Bella's parents seated together? It's weird because Renee wasn't sitting next to her husband until later. Someone please explain why they sat together. I've never said this before but I gotta say it now: Why is Alice only sharing visions whenever the conflict rises. It's just too obvious how it's only used for plot convenience. Like she doesn't even how she wasn't able to foresee Bella's future, which doesn't make sense. If her powers were explained thoroughly, I would've let the whole thing slide. I want to think it's cool that werewolves can speak telepathically, but why did we wait until now to see this? I know this arc is more about Bella but if you want keep things interesting, this should've been acknowledged during New Moon, when the werewolves were first introduced. And of course Jacob is lucky to survive standing up to Jacob, but why doesn't he just challenge Sam for the position of alpha? I know that's not what he wants but if he really loves Bella, he'd do it .And if he were to win, he would change the rules and there would be no more conflict until the Volturi are involved. It may be smart of Jacob to distract the pack so that the Cullens can hunt in order to get stronger, but how come Sam didn't call for backup sooner in order to get the jump on them? Had he done that, it likely would've been easier to get to Bella, even though I don't want that to happen. It is even smart to have a law to not harm the imprinted, but how is that more important that wolves not killing each other? I mean that actually sounds more important when you think about it. And lastly, I was not satisfied with the mid credits scene. I know it's supposed to bring more hype for the second half of this story, but it's pointless because they haven't exactly driven the plot to the series as well as the prior antagonists, aside from demanding Bella to turn, so I lost being intimidated of this coven at this point. To get this over with, Breaking Dawn Part 1 is the first half of a mess I wish never existed. Again, I say good luck to those who bother with this franchise claiming to be fans.
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