The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

I'd say, stay for the first 15 minutes then come back for the last 20 minutes, just so that you can skip all of the nonsense in between. Surprisingly, the werewolves have taken a dire turn in this franchise which is a crying shame because their presence in the two other films were refreshing and light handed. In one of the worst scenes ever, they all confront each other through telepathy which is hard to watch because the voice acting is so out of place. The wedding scene was gratuitous and the birth scene was ripped out from the pages of hell. Bizzare.

No matter what I or any one else say, there will be a lot of people who have already made up their minds on whether they are going to The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 and the most positive or negative reviews will never change that. Opinions between Twi-hards and Twi-haters are extremely polarised, but it is my duty to give an honest opinion on the latest chapter of the saga.

It has finally happened. Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart) have tied the knot and, despite some pre-wedding nerves, it seems like a success. The two lovers spend their honeymoon on a tropical island off the coast of Brazil and we get the moment we have all been waiting for: they finally have sex. But a shock is in store when Bella ends up pregnant (remember kids, always practise safe sex) and the human-vampire foetus is killing her from the inside. As the Cullens try to save Bella, the Quileute tribe set out to kill her and the child, believing it will be a threat and abomination. Jacob (Taylor Lautner) ends up being torn between his loyalty to the tribe, his hatred for Edward, and his love for Bella.

There is a new trend in Hollywood to split book adaptations into two parts. It made sense with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, because that was a long novel with a many elements that were interlinked and it needed to be told in two parts, but "Breaking Dawn Part 1" was trying to stretch the material to fit the allocated time. There are numerous montages, such as the honeymoon, which could have easily been shortened to make a single, stronger movie. The film had very little plot too; it's basically about a complicated pregnancy that just happened to feature vampires and werewolves.

There is a melodramatic tone throughout, amplified by the music, whether it was the piano-heavy soft moments, the epic score (often played over non-epic moments), or the emo rock songs. A little melodrama is fine, but it goes on for most of the movie, and when there is little hook of a story, it just becomes a drag. Even people who are fans to the series will admit that dialogue has never been its strong suit. Bill Condon attempts to make the sex scene and honeymoon to be tender, but it came off more sappy and overbearing.

"Part 1's" strength is that it is the best-acted of the series. Stewart certainly gives it a good go and Lautner gives what is a half-way decent performance. Pattinson was slumming it, but with some of the cheesy dialogue he has to say, even someone like Laurence Olivier would have struggled.

Condon does have a few moments of visual darkness, including the dream sequence in the beginning with its juxtaposition of bright white clothing and blood and Bella and Edward standing on top of a load of corpses. The birth scene was actually intense and gory. But these are counter-balanced with goofy moments, one of the most infamous being a psychic werewolf argument.

The whole wedding sequence and honeymoon plays like a young girl's fantasy, sort of idealistic. This is fine, but hardly dramatic and not likely to have wide appeal.

Previous "Twilight" movies have had some interesting side issues that could and should have been explored. This is not the case with "Part 1." There are no issues of a man resisting his urges and dark side, a young teen forced into being a vampire, an army of powerful new vampires being formed and the idea of there being a vampire council. There is nothing like that. The few themes there are include a look into Edward's past, a brief debate about abortion and the idea of imprinting, which is basically brainwashing. A better idea could be looking at somebody forcing someone else to love them. That would be a dark story.

"Breaking Dawn Part 1" is the weakest movie in the series I have seen so far and I speak as someone who is neutral to the overall experience.

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Roger Ebert, one of the most widely beloved film critics once had a quote about the infamous Larry Bishop gangster spoof Mad Dog Time. That quote went "''Mad Dog Time'' is the first movie I have seen that does not improve on the sight of a blank screen viewed for the same length of time." That's how I ultimately feel about The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1. It is a terrible film that, despite its best efforts, turns into a big pile of nothingness. What did the filmmakers want to accomplish here? Well, there are a couple thing such as money, cabbage, and oh yeah, dough. This film was made on the assumption that millions of teenage girls are going to throw down their allowance to go see it. As I went to a public theater to see this and not an advanced screening, their assumptions was right. I was the only male in the theater. No boyfriends, husbands, males by themselves, ETC. May I also mention that there was a very limited range of females under 16 in the theater. Seriously, who thinks of this crap? This film can be summed up in a simple, short explanation-it's a soap opera made for young women instead of middle aged women. I'm not trying to sound sexist or derogatory but this is the way the world works..movies are made specifically for teenage girls to throw their allowance down. Unfortunately, this one, like most of them is petrifying to watch.

Victoria is dead, there is no longer any threat to Bella. So she and Edward get married, while on their honeymoon they do the dirty deed and oops, Bella gets pregnant. Vampire pregnant, which means the fetus is growing at 5 times the normal rate and is killing her from within. The wolf clan cannot have this, as it breaks their treaty somehow and they come to kill the baby. Now Jacob must team up with the people he hates, the Cullens, in order to protect Bella.

While this premise does sound interesting, it's a shame that the producers wanted to milk this poorly conceived franchise for every penny they can get. Instead of making one film, they split the story into two and Breaking Dawn Part 1 clearly suffers from over stuffing and filler. Nothing happens until the last twenty minutes of the film. We know they get married, we know they have sex and we know she gets pregnant. It takes way too long to get these plot points across. The wedding, the honeymoon and the pregnancy could have all happened in the first 30 minutes, but it's instead stretched to an obscene length.

Books have more room to breath. The world is created an the writer has hundreds of pages to tell their story. Films don't have this luxury, so when a film comes out based on a book, you need to chop out the stuff that's simply not needed or wouldn't translate well to the screen. Since the people behind this film want to make more money, they split the last film into two. WB did the same for Harry Potter, but I can forgive them because there is actual story to tell in that film, here there is nothing. She doesn't get pregnant until 50 minutes into the film. Which means we are stuck with boring characters either being jealous of what others have (Jacob) or two people having sex over and over (Edward/Bella). The amount of time that was dedicated to the honeymoon is insane. What should have been a ten minute sequence, at most, takes about 30 minutes of screen time.

Once Bella starts dying, the film tries to get into motion, but it's too late. When she goes into labor, that's when something finally interesting happens and the rest of the film makes for some of the most thrilling moments in the entire series. A standoff between the Cullens and the wolves is finally shown here, something that people have been waiting for since the first film. The tension between the two families finally explodes. This is exciting stuff, this is what people have been waiting for, but the film still suffers from bad CGI work when humans interact with the wolves. So the fight sequences, as exciting as they are, never really reach their full potential.

The final frame of the film is so obvious half way through that I actually chuckled to myself when it happened. I still can't shake the feeling that the conflict of the whole series finished with Eclipse and what we have left is an overstretched denouement. Am I excited for the next film? Not really. Half the job of Part 1 is to get you excited for the next, this film fails horribly at that. What's left to happen? An after the credits sequences is shown where we are given a glimpse of what to expect, but I'm too far drawn away from the conflict by that point.

Breaking Dawn is not the worst in the series, but clearly not the best. Had the film been one piece instead of two, then it would have been exciting. The simple fact that it drags on for so long is proof that splitting the film in two was a mistake, creatively. Financially, it's smart. Because young teenage girls will flock to anything, case in point -- this entire series.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The fourth film in the mega-popular series has Edward (Robert Pattinson) and Bella (Kristen Stewart) getting married and shortly afterwards the female virgin becomes pregnant, which could cause her death, which doesn't sit too well with werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner). Obviously a 32-year-old male isn't the target viewer for this film but I must admit that it was a major step up from the previous two installments. I might even go as far to say that this here was the best of the series in a bad way. I say that because I'm sure teenage girls will be weeping all over themselves through the first hour of this thing but, as an adult, I couldn't help but laugh at it. The first hour deals with the screen's most popular duo getting married and of course the girl losing her virginity. I know this is a big thing to Twi-hards and teenage girls but the execution here is just laughable and especially the moments leading up to the act. The entire thing is just directed so over-dramatic that I couldn't help but laugh. It also didn't help that the dialogue was just downright awful and at times embarrassing. With that said, these bad moments actually make the film rather entertaining. Both Pattinson and Stewart are pros at these characters by now and it's also clear that Lautner continues to work out and this must cause him to skip his acting classes. As usual the CGI is pretty bad but I guess this is to be expected. Still, I found the story to be rather compelling and the entire thing kept me entertained from start to finish. Yes it drags on too long but you have to admit there's some pretty weird stuff going on here and especially during the second half.