THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED,
I remember 2012 being an interesting year in film, giving us great films like Skyfall, The Avengers and The Hunger Games. But then I remember hating terrible films like the dissatisfying finale to Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga.
PLOT
Breaking Dawn Part 2 continues exactly where Part 1 left off, showing Isabella Swan wake up as a newborn vampire after giving birth to her human-vampire hybrid daughter Renesmee. With the aid of her husband Edward Cullen, she does get use to her newfound abilities, while also trains to prefer animal blood over humans. As she transitions with her now immortal life, the joy ends when she finds out that Jacob has become possessive due to his imprint on her. She remains furious until realizing that he is only acting as a protector. In order to keep her close and prevent her leaving Forks, Washington, he reveals his werewolf persona to her father Charlie (Billy Burke). But he is still kept under the loop of vampires when saying that Bella adopted a child, not conceive. With him understanding that his daughter is not human, this gives the Cullens an excuse to stay. As months go by, Renesmee is growing rapidly. When she goes out in the snow with her mother, a vampire named Irina (Maggie Grace) who attended the wedding, sees her and assumes she is a child that was turned. She reports what she saw to the Volturi, which infuriates them because it is against the law of vampires to turn children, as they are impossible to train/restrain. When Alice (Ashley Greene) gets a vision that they’re coming to kill them, the Cullens plan to gather witnesses that will testify Renesmee is not an immortal child. While this happens, she and Jasper (Jackson Rathbone) leave to gather evidence of their own. The list of vampire witnesses include: Alistair (Joe Anderson) who can track senses, Eleazar (Christian Camargo), Carmen (Mia Maestro), Tanya (MyAnna Burning), Kate (Casey LaBow) who has psychic electrokinesis, Senna (Tracey Higgins), Zafrina (Judi Shekoni) who is capable of visual projection, Peter (Erik Odom), Charlotte (Valorie Curry), Garrett (Lee Pace), Randall (Bill Tangradi), Amun (Omar Metwally), Kebi (Andrea Gabriel), Tia (Angela Sarafyan), Benjamin (Rami Malek) who has elemental manipulation, Liam (Patrick Brennan), Siobhan (Lisa Howard), Maggie (Marlane Barnes), Stefan (Guri Weinberg) and Vladimir (Noel Fisher). As the witnesses assemble, Bella is trained to learn her own gift that is a mental shield, which is why Edward can’t read her mind and why Jane (Dakota Fanning) can’t inflict pain on her. She learns how pass the shield to others to prepare for the Volturi. As they prepare for the worst, Jacob trains younger werewolves in the meantime. During the season of winter, Bella finds a clue Alice left behind. It is an address in Seattle. She goes there without Edward knowing and meets Jasper’s lawyer J Jenks (Wendell Pierce). He mistakes her as Alice when they meet and hands her forged documents for Jacob and Renesmee. She realizes that they’re made for the two to run away incase she and Edward don’t survive the battle against the Volturi. Come the first snowfall, the Cullens, their witnesses and Jacob’s Quileute tribe meet the Volturi. Aro is surprised of the realization that Renesmee is a hybrid. He decides to execute Irina for misinforming him, in order to provoke the protagonist army. Alice and Jasper return to share proof that Renesmee will not be a future threat. She shares a vision to Aro that if he chooses to provoke, he and the Volturi will die trying. She then introduces him to the first hybrid Nahuel. He explains that he reached maturity after seven years, currently 150 years old and still feasts in human blood. Understanding that Renesmee is not a threat, Aro makes the final decision that the Volturi will not provoke. As they leave, Stefan and Vladimir leave dissatisfied because they know the coven won’t forgive of what happened. As the witnesses leave, Alice has a vision of how Jacob and Renesmee will be happy together, with Bella and Edward eventually approving. Edward hears her thoughts and finds himself satisfied to know that his daughter will be safe. The film ends with Bella being able to remove her mental shield and show her thoughts to him, reminiscing every moment they’ve had together, as a reminder that they’ll continue to be happy and love each other forever.
THOUGHTS
I want to be clear that I never exactly enjoyed this franchise yet did my best to feel so. Just because I admit to have liked certain things throughout does not mean I actually like them as a hole. When getting to see this film in theaters at the time it came out, I hated it so much that I shouted ‘Good riddance’ because there wasn’t a single thing for me to enjoy this time. This movie was just all over the place and I can’t stand it. Director Bill Condon already messed up the first half, so I didn’t feel as surprised that he would mess this up too. He’s trying to make an epic finale but it doesn’t look like he respected the material because he didn’t seem to make it all worthwhile. Not only were a fair amount of the visual effects were uncomfortable to witness, there were so many side characters that are instantly introduced and he expects us to root for them because they’re on the side of the Cullens. I don’t think they deserve it because they had no fucking depth to begin with. There’s also a third act battle that doesn’t even fucking happen. The fact that the audience get played with like that just ruins the one thing to maintain watchability. I was so disappointed that I shouted ‘What the fuck?!’ in the theater. On top of that, I’m not even sure how to feel about the main cast. I still can’t find myself defending Jacob because no matter how bad Taylor Lautner tries to make him reasonable, it still doesn’t condone his character for imprinting Renesmee. I know he is acting as a protector at first, but they’re now bound to fall in love, which makes it gross. And Alice’s vision makes it worse. I honestly don’t think Robert Pattinson has much to do playing Edward which disappoints me because I always felt that he carried this franchise. Here, he’s just a loving family man that is preparing for the worst and that’s it. I was honestly missing the complexity behind him, but it’s only sensible because now his wife fully understands him at this point. Since Kristen Stewart has the biggest spotlight on her, she doesn’t succeed in owning her final outing as Bella because it’s not her mannerisms that bother me but her line deliveries this time. From the second she berates Jacob for the imprint, she loses me so quick I wanted to walk out of the theater. Because of my irritation, I couldn’t pay attention to what a brand new strong willed character she has become. If you think she was the worst, you clearly weren’t paying attention to the exhausting Michael Sheen. If I'm gonna find one thing about this mess of a film, it would be Christina Perri's song, 'A Thousand Years'. It was poignant to listen to because it is an accurate depiction of how much Bella loves Edward and will never stop doing so. His layer of creepiness he brings to Aro is so bothering that I again almost walked out when he gets excited over Renesmee. He really overdid it in this one and I’m relieved that I don’t have to see anymore bad performances like this anymore. And to make matters worse, there were so many issues I had with this story because they made no fucking sense. I want to find it badass that Bella killed a cougar for the first time, but where did the blood go? If a vampire is gonna go to town on an animal, there should be some blood on the clothes and since Bella is new to this shit, I don't buy it that her dress doesn't have any because it's not like she bought blood resistant clothes. I do like how she and Edward get a house to themselves, but how have they found it before? They've travelled around the woods of Forks a lot and if the Cullens actually built it, I kinda wish Alice said that. And what good reason was Irina watching Bella in the first place? Is it to kill Jacob or because she was jealous of Bella? If her motivation was clear, I would be a little bit interested on how things get into motion. If we're gonna talk about plot holes, its gotta be how does Charlie understand the situation of Renesmee rapidly growing? I mean if he is getting used to that, then he has to know about the vampires. Which is annoying how we can see him react to Jacob being a werewolf and not the other. I can't be wrong about this. I even thought it was weird how Edward actually thanks Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) for saving him by turning him the first time in 100 years. What the fuck took him so long? There's no way he'd be that stingy. And my god it was stupid when Jacob barked at Aro. Do you want Renesmee dead? Because he was fucking asking for it. And lastly, if the Cullens were gonna beat the Volturi in the vision, why was Nahuel lying in wait? I feel like Alice could've started with him before the vision if he wasn't gonna intervene. I do not believe people can ignore these and still enjoy it. To get this shit over with, Breaking Dawn Part 2 is by far the worst franchise finale I’ve ever seen. It shouldn’t exist. This franchise should never even have been made and I do not understand why or how people would ever remain defending it.
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