TheTwilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

Director: Bill Condon
Writers: Melissa Rosenberg, Stephenie Meyer (author)
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Release Date: November 18, 2011
Length: 1 hour 57 minutes

    It’s been exactly three years since the first of the beloved teen books from Stephenie Meyer was transcribed to screen in what can only be described as an insanely guilty pleasure. With less than perfect visual effects, a slightly cheesy script, and a theme of romantic melodrama, Twilight (2008) was the film shunned by critics but eaten up by teens. A year later, the sequel New Moon seemed to take a step up the ladder in direction, cinematography and special effects, and less than a year later the unknown director David Slade gave the best Twilight yet with Eclipse, the film that brought the entire franchise to a solid level of filmmaking. Twilight was critically terrible, New Moon was just O.K. and Eclipse was pretty good. So, wouldn’t it seem like the final film of the series, Breaking Dawn would reach the top level and be the one to blow us away entirely? 

    For strictly moneymaking purposes, Breaking Dawn was split into two parts, which means that The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 was mostly an introduction to the conflict of the fourth novel of the series. In part 1, the eighteen-year-old dreary Bella (Kristen Stewart) is preparing for her wedding to the ancient and tortured Edward, who has been waiting since the day he met Bella to “begin forever” with her. The teenage Bella has only agreed to marry Edward upon one condition, that he will finally turn her into a vampire, so she can truly be with him forever. The film follows Bella and Edward on their supposedly blissful honeymoon and Bella’s werewolf best friend Jacob with his problems with his pack. (better known as shirtless Taylor Lautner). 

    While on their South American holiday, where Edward has bought an island for just the two of them, Edward hesitantly sleeps with Bella for the first time. When Bella wakes up with bruises all over her body due to Edward’s unintentionally great force, Edward becomes furious with himself for letting himself hurt Bella while Bella is densely overjoyed and somehow successfully seduces Edward once again. Two weeks into their honeymoon, Bella unexpectedly wakes to throwing up and starts to show signs of pregnancy just seconds before she feels an overpowering kick in her stomach. A terrorized Edward calls his father Dr.Carlisle Cullen, who concludes that Bella is somehow pregnant and the vampire fetus is growing at an accelerated rate. The pair rushes back to Forks, Washington, where Bella becomes weaker and weaker, with her bloodthirsty baby eating her from the inside. With Bella nearing death, almost everyone accepts the fetus as not a baby but something trying to kill Bella that must be terminated. However Bella’s maternal instincts begin to kick in putting Edward, Jacob and the rest of the Cullens in a state of panicked disbelief. 

    Out of all the directors to take on a film for the Twilight franchise, Mr. Bill Condon has the highest critical track record directing films like Kinsey with Liam Neeson and the 2006 Oscar’s hit Dreamgirls. However, it’s easy to say that Condon has given us the worst and by far the least rewarding Twilight yet, and that is saying something, in comparison to the first one. Filled with the highest amount of laughable melodrama from any Twilight yet, ghastly distracting theatrical music, and a lack of plot because it is clearly only half a story, the film defines the word awkward perfectly. 

    Perhaps it is only romantic melodrama that we can guiltily indulge in since one of the few enjoyable aspects of the first one were the moments during the romantic development of Bella and Edward that the fans of the book could giggly gush over. In Breaking Dawn Part 1, all the melodrama is that of a soap opera, “I want to keep the baby” - Bella, “You can’t keep that fetus, it’s killing you!” - Edward, “I can’t see Bella’s future anymore!” – psychic Alice, “I’m going to kill you Edward, if your baby kills Bella!”, gasp, gasp, gasp, etc…While the drama rises, those cute loving moments cease to exist in this film. There are constantly long slow shots of Bella and Edward, and instead of the audience giving giggles of delight, they are giving laughter out of embarrassment. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this particular book was that the two lovebirds were sharing an adorable getaway, but on screen, the attempt of passionate moments is almost painful, including the cringe worthy three-second fiery sex scene. Condon does not exactly help with repeatedly long shots of facial expressions including what seemed like a twenty-minute shot of Bella’s nervous facial expression walking down the aisle. 

    However, what I believe made the film as unbearably melodramatic as it was, was the annoying never-ending music by composer Carter Burwell. He may as well copyright “Dun Dun Duhhh” because every time a character said something the least bit theatrical, in came Burwell with arguably the most over-the-top film score ever. Right off the top, you first cannot focus on what the characters are saying and second cannot take anything they say seriously because of the hormonal violin accompanying them. Another plus the first film had was an actual fantastic soundtrack with artists like Metric, Muse and Iron and Wine. This latest installment has taken another unnecessary direction toward more money with no talented independent bands for Breaking Dawn Part 1, but Bruno Mars singing the headline song for it. 

    The fault that almost immediately prevented Breaking Dawn Part 1 from being at all credible, was the split of the book into two separate films. The stupid decision Summit Entertainment made was clearly done in lieu of the last Harry Potter film’s success as two films, however Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows had strong reasoning for being split up. Although there was a clear bonus in profiting from two films, the lengthy Harry Potter novel had too many events to be included into only one film whereas Breaking Dawn is not nearly long enough to be spit into two parts. This is why by the end of the film, argument after argument becomes so repetitive when every single person is trying to convince Bella to give up the baby. 

    All of these elements make it almost impossible for there to be any enjoyable or convincing acting. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, despite the circumstances are at their best in the franchise, especially with Stewart for once having a smile on her face since the films began, while Taylor Lautner still knows how to brood as much as possible. I admit, part of going to this film is to make fun of things here and there, but you still go to engulf yourself with the transformation of those books that you were once so obsessed with. However, now that many Twilight fans are becoming older, less attached to the franchise, and less accepting of bad movies, at a certain point in the film, you just give up trying to take it seriously. 

    With the mistaken split of the story, the tasteless music, and the overall direction of the film, there is pretty much no hope for the final film, Part 2. Twilight fans can now move on to the next savory teen book adaptation, The Hunger Games, which looks more promising than the Twilight franchise ever did.