Twilight: Chapitre 5 - Révélation, 2e partie

It's with a hint of sadness that the Twilight franchise has come to an end. Sure, they're terrible, terrible films (and books I assume), the popularity of which paints a sorry picture of the tastes of today's youth, but now that all is said and done, on reflection it was worth enduring the first three insufferable disasters (Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse) to get to the unbridled mayhem of Breaking Dawn (my thoughts on part one can be found here).

After seeing part one, it was difficult to see where the story had left to go. We had seen the unending wedding of Edward and Bella, the banal South American honeymoon, the shocking and genuinely upsetting pregnancy/birth, and the werewolf falling in love with the baby. It seemed like an appropriate place to end it, but Summit and Stephenie Meyer obviously had other ideas, hence we have Breaking Dawn, part 2.

While perhaps not as off-the-leash nutty, Breaking Dawn, part 2 maintains a lot of the weirdness of the preceding chapter. Picking up exactly at the point where part one ended, Bella (Kristen Stewart) finds herself having to adjust to her 'newborn' vampire status, learning to control her superhuman strength and fighting the urge to hunt humans. Edward (Robert Pattinson) begins to assume a mentor role, but for whatever reason Bella learns so quickly that the learning plot is pretty much dropped.

Here's the first and biggest of the many problems of Breaking Dawn, part 2. For at least the first two thirds of the film, plot threads and characters are introduced with enough fanfare to make one think they're going to be important cogs in the larger machinery of the story, only to be forgotten or abandoned with zero explanation. Perhaps it's fan service, and people familiar with the novels will be able to link things up, but for newcomers it becomes increasingly hard to keep track of who everyone is, why they're involved, and what on earth is happening from one scene to the next.

The character of Alistair (Joe Anderson) is a good example. Following the development that the Volturi, the ruling council of vampires last seen in New Moon, are coming after Edward and Bella's daughter Renesmee, the Cullen clan assemble a team of vampires from across the globe to defend the child, the last of which is the enigmatic Alistair. Yet after an introduction to suggest he will be a character of some importance he merely ends up lurking in the background, and popping into one random and pointless scene with Bella. He's always there, but doesn't actually do anything significant.

It's this scattered and overloaded approach that really damages an already abysmal film. On top of the lack of charisma in the stars, the questionable storytelling is a real hindrance for anyone set on enjoying Breaking Dawn, part 2 at all, not to mention how simply ugly the thing is. There's an over-reliance on terrible green-screen work, shoddy visual effects, and whatever lunatic decided that an almost completely CG Renesmee was a good idea needs to be removed from the business of movie making.

However, much like the last film, a part of me loved Breaking Dawn, part 2. As I said, it may not seem as insane as part one, but in some ways that's a good thing. I loved part one because I was caught completely off guard by the madness, but was appalled by it because much of the content really shouldn't be part of a film made for pre-teen girls. Part two dials back the more troubling aspects of the previous film and just revels in the stupidity of Meyer's writing. It's weird as hell, but really pretty harmless, aside from all the decapitation. Oh boy, there's a lot of decapitation.

Director Bill Condon and his cast seem to be having a lot more fun here. The most ridiculous thing about the first three films in the series is how unwaveringly serious they are, but with both parts of Breaking Dawn, it feels like Condon and Pattinson in particular are winking at that portion of the audience who, like myself, are simply there to see how off the reservation this daft franchise can go. It manages to achieve a delicate and kind of wonderful balance of satisfying the true fans (the Twi-hards) with its creepy romantic melodrama, while clearly acknowledging the bizarre and quite frankly awful story Meyer has crafted. The awareness of this final chapter is perhaps its greatest asset, and if you're willing to abandon all logic and actual critical appreciation, then Breaking Dawn, part 2 delivers a great time at the cinema.

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I have just come home from watching this last installment of the Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn Part 2 with my wife. I don't know what is with these Twilight movies that we look forward to watching them, simply to see how bad they are. Haha! The poster showing the three main characters running did not hold much promise of a better film.

This film starts where the last film left off. Bella has just given birth to her daughter Renesmee. This supernatural birth brings Bella close to death, so Edward saves her by making her a vampire. Now, when the Volturri find out about Renesmee, they consider her a threat to their existence and hence seek to kill her. Will the Cullen family be able to protect Renesmee and themselves from ultimate destruction?

The beginning of this movie are filled with the same clunky scenes and corny dialog that we have all seen and cringed to in all the previous movies. The very long scene showing Bella's reaction to Jacob's imprinting is particularly hilarious. There was also the requisite Jacob striptease scene strictly for Team Jacob fanatics.

The climactic battle scenes between the Cullens and the Volturri were another matter though. Sure it was pure computer generated mayhem and violence. But for those who have not read the books and just followed the films, there was some imaginative storytelling at work here for a change. I am actually curious how this part of the story was written in the book. I will give this movie an extra point for this part.

In the closing scenes set in the familiar field of purple flowers we have seen before, the whole Twilight saga ends with an incredibly thick serving of cheese. I am not surprised. It ends as it started: cheesy. It never really aspired to be more, so let the Twi-hard fans enjoy this last film while it lasts. So now that it all ends, I'm pretty sure the rest of the world will also be missing Bella and her two other-worldly consorts. We won't have a next film to look forward to nitpick anymore.

'The Twilight Saga' comes to an end in possibly the most subversively underwhelming way. However, you can't really hold it against this franchise for at least being very consistent with its quality.

This movie is treating its moments of culmination as if it's been highly anticipated when, in actuality, the series has not been building up to the conclusion it reaches, which only happens due to a misunderstanding that's slowly resolved. The CGI baby is freaky, distracting, and just so perplexing that it's best left ignored. Bella apparently has a brain now, and with it a problem with Jacob imprinting on, and therefore protecting, her baby, as she's constantly leaving it in anyone else's protection other than her own. Edward has lost all of his appeal at this point, being left as one of the least compelling characters in this instalment. Carlisle, Alice and Charlie are my personal stand-outs, and are each noticeably absent or sidelined in favour of newer, more uninteresting characters. Michael Sheen's presence is felt more here than in maybe any other instalment, but still so brief that he's hardly all that interesting even though he's supposedly the primary overarching antagonist. The effects, score and camera work are on par with the previous films, which isn't saying much but there's not much else to say.

A suitable end to an overly broody, dramatic franchise, with improved acting compared to the other films, and a resolution that just let's you know it's all over now.

People are weirdly bitter about this saga. It's a great adaptation of the book. The whole series of movies does a good job. Some of these reviews are from people who've not even seen the other films let alone read the books. These movies are for the book fans. They are cast perfectly; the acting is exactly what it should be, overdramatized and slightly disjointed but perfectly in tune with the awkward Bella, hot tempered Jacob and out of his element Edward. Even the poorly animated baby still goes with the book. It's not meant to look like a real baby. People are just taking these movies way to seriously for what they are; young adult fantasy movies made for fans of a book series.

The only reason the movie is better than the book is for one reason. Even though it was a fake-out, at least they gave us an action scene instead of them showing up, they say two lines, and just leave!