Breaking Dawn (part 1)

I know that this comes in a little too late considering that the movie was released sometime last year, but then again, there is nothing wrong with a little "recap in 10", of what was going on in part 1 before we rush over to the cinema for the part 2 of the final installment to the Twilight saga.

1. Bella finally made up her mind and got married to Edward.

2. They went off to a private island for their honeymoon.

3. Bella got pregnant. Surprise!

4. The wolf pack wanted to kill the fast growing fetus in Bella and thus ultimately killing Bella in the process.

5. Edward jabs his poison into Bella.

It's amazing how one can take these 5 lines and turn it into a novel. What's more amazing is the fact that one can even turn it into two parts movie of two hours each!

But does the content in the book truly allow that?

Unlike the prior Twilight films, which offered self-contained and mostly engaging story lines (albeit still guilty pleasure melodrama), the first half of Breaking Dawn is a mishmash of moments that fail to build tension or further develop any of the fan-favorite characters. The basic plot follows the marriage of bloodsucker Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and his bride-to-be Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) as they prepare for their nuptials. While the wedding is a grand and joyous affair, not everyone is happy; cast-aside Werewolf/ex-love interest Jacob (Taylor Lautner) attempts to deal with not just Bella’s choice to marry Cullen, but her decision to become a vampire as well. As the wedding bells fall silent, the newlyweds unexpectedly threaten the tenuous alliance between Cullen’s vampire family and Jacob’s Werewolf clan – causing former friends, as well as reluctant allies, to choose sides.


In general, the events in Breaking Dawn – Part 1 are, simply put, underwhelming. While die-hard fans may find the extended honeymoon sequence cathartic – since the films and books have often been criticized for being too “tame”. Instead of pulling in the cast of colorful personalities that have helped balance the book and film series with humor – in spite of all the melodrama from the three leads – Breaking: Dawn: Part 1 revels in spending all of its time indoors with characters arguing about what to do next, instead of actually doing anything screen worthy. While some fans will no doubt defend the film by saying Breaking: Dawn – Part 1 is just being true to the source material – it’s the responsibility of filmmakers to take a printed story and make it sing as a two-hour movie. This could have been accomplished by making a couple of the “action” sequences significantly more exciting, or a few of the pivotal character moments more convincing, in order to help break audiences out of the repetitive funk the storyline wallows in for the majority of the proceedings.

Instead of striving for a more competent film experience, Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is simply pandering to the existing fan-base with almost nothing of value to anyone who isn’t already in love with the characters. Where more inspired filmmaking could have potentially found ways to thrill or engage a non-fan audience, the filmmakers of Breaking Dawn: Part 1 - specifically oscar-winning director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) – were overly eager to “give the people what they want,” which essentially amounts to a lot of Bella on Edward action and some combination of Jacob with his shirt off moping around. Potentially interesting character beats (such as an early admission by Cullen) have no gravity and are simply abandoned/glossed over in favor of warm embraces and pouty looks.

The Twilight films have never been known for high production values, or even particularly stand-out performances (despite the claims of impassioned Team Edward/Jacob fans), and those trends continue with Breaking Dawn: Part 1. The film looks cheap with bland CGI werewolves and vampire effects – and for a series that is raking in plenty of money with each release, it’s surprising to see such flat visuals at this point. Similarly, despite a stable of up-and-coming actors that includes Stewart, Pattinson and Lautner, as well as critical darlings like Anna Kendrick and Michael Sheen, none of the actors are given any room to deliver a stand-out performance.

Given the amount of quick cuts – with basically no extended takes – it’s almost as if each actor is competing with one another onscreen for close-up shots, one line at a time. It’s unfortunate, because despite all the anti-Twilight detractors out there, the franchise leads have shown that they’re capable of offering strong performances when a director attempts to get something more interesting out of them (Stewart in Welcome to the Rileys and Pattinson in Water for Elephants). In that sense, it’s disappointing to see that capable performers and intriguing premises haven’t matured the Twilight series from film to film.

While The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 succeeds in transferring the pivotal events from its source material onto the screen, it fails at translating those events into a competent two-hour experience. Fans of the book and movie series will no doubt enjoy watching the film – though, it’s still hard to imagine that they won’t, deep down, find a few of the book’s more decisive moments to be overly cheesy, or even downright laughable. Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is not a competent piece of filmmaking and stands as potentially the worst installment in the series. Hopefully, given the much more intriguing plot points saved for Part 2, the final installment will end the series on a high note.