A rather disjointed review of Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part II.
And why, pray tell, would I be reviewing this movie?
Well, the other night Grace and I had nothin’ better to do, so we decided we would go see a movie. But we didn’t feel like any Oscar bait, and she’d already seen the new James Bond, so she said to me, “Why don’t we go see that new Twilight movie?” And I said, “Why on Earth would we do that?” And she said, “Why not? Could be fun. In a bad movie sort of way.” So I acquiesced.
But here’s the thing: Neither Grace nor I have read the books, nor have we seen any of the previous movies. But here’s the other thing: I’m still in contact with a former student, *who I knew would provide all the relevant details. The following text exchange occurred between me and my 15-year-old BFF:
So with this marvelously funny and insightful synopsis (note that I am being entirely genuine when I say this; I don’t know why this funny, smart girl loves Twilight so), we started the movie.
The movie begins with some artsy Bergman-esque credits that I actually kind of liked/was impressed by. Then we see Bella recovering from being turned into a vampire.
Then there are a bunch of scenes with her trying out her powers and being morally conflicted about how she wants to straight up murder a mountain climber, but she doesn’t. Luckily, her vampire super power is outrageous self-control, the likes of which none of the other vampires have ever seen.
We also get a lot of scenes of Edward and Bella making out. I’ve definitely seen better love scenes, but there was something earnest about them that made a little bit of sense. This is the fifth movie these two have been in together, after all, and on screen they have an intimacy and chemistry. But I couldn’t help thinking their intimacy felt more like a brother and sister…
Anyway, the plot–I guess there’s sort of one about Edward and Bella’s half-breed baby being mistaken for an Immortal Child and subsequently pursued by Vampire Congress–moves along, and some gruesome, grotesque, grizzly fight scenes occur that end up being prophetic visions instead of real.
And then there’s a happy ending that is unfathomably cheesy involving Edward and Bella staring into each other’s vampire eyes and recalling a bunch of scenes–presumably–from the previous movies in a love montage and then some superimposed images of the last pages of the last book with words like “forever” highlighted–so that we all may know this love is extraordinarily eternal.
And then the end credits show us a bunch of characters that were–presumably–in Breaking Dawn Part I whom I didn’t recognize.
Final Thoughts:
- First let’s talk about Kristen Stewart. I have long taken it upon myself to be her defender. I don’t know why. I just like her face. And I usually think she does a good job moving her face and acting with it. And by usually, I mean in the other approximately 2 movies I’ve seen her in. However, liking her face did not get me very far in this movie. I started worrying that maybe she has a deviated septum. Why doesn’t this girl ever breathe out of her nose? Why is her mouth perpetually open in that strange, half-enticing-half-developmentally-delayed pose? I couldn’t like her in this movie, and I went in trying because I knew nobody liked her in this movie, and I always try to like underdogs.
- I feel as though a lot of the scenes that are supposed to be super significant have absolutely no effect on me because I don’t know any of these characters. Perhaps as a sequel it works and has a satisfying pay-off, but as a stand-alone movie, it makes almost no sense at all.
- And the dialogue is terrible.
- I couldn’t help thinking about why people like this sort of thing. I suppose it’s that eternal love thing people (read: teen girls) are drawn to? Surely there are better love stories that don’t involve (as admitted by a fan) stalking and attempted suicide and unnatural creatures that make very little sense within their own mythos?
*Bonus Grammar: Knee-jerk reaction here is that “who I knew would provide all the relevant details” should be led in with a whom instead because it’s the direct object of I knew. Usually this would be true, but while the who does introduce the direct object, the direct object of I knew is actually the entire noun clause “who would provide all the relevant details.” We must have a who because it’s the subject of that noun clause and not just a pronoun standing in for the person I knew. Because what I know isn’t just Kristen, it’s that Kristen will give me information.
I Started Late and Forgot the Dog. 
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