Book to Film Review: Breaking Dawn Part 2

About the film

Breaking Dawn Part 2 is the fifth and final instalment in the Twilight Saga series of films. It was released on 16^th November and it has a run time of 115 minutes. The film is rated 12A due to scenes of a violent nature, scenes of a sensual nature and partial nudity.

Plot

As a new vampire, Bella is just getting to grips with the new things that she can do. Not only that but she has a daughter now as well, Renesmee. Her blissful married life to Edward doesn’t last long though as news of the baby spreads. With fears that she is an immortal child, something banned long ago, the Volturi are informed and descend upon the family. The Cullen’s must call upon all of the friends they can think of to help them prove that Renesmee grows, although quicker than a normal child and that she was conceived while Bella was still a human. The Cullen’s and their friends prepare for the biggest battle they will ever face.

What I thought

I’ve watched every Twilight film released at the cinema and Breaking Dawn Part 2 was no exception although usually I go on opening night and I couldn’t this time. If you have read my review of Part 1, you will know I was not a fan. Not by a long shot. Still, I had quite high hopes for Part 2.

Unfortunately, the film does not begin well. Now that Bella is a vampire and married to Edward, she has a lot to learn. First things are to learn to hunt and to act like a human around others. The scenes of Edward and Bella doing their vampire thing were terrible. I know it must be hard to film anything sped up to such a quick speed but these scenes were utterly pathetic. In fact, I think they had been done better in previous films in this series. Then there is the hunting which looked even worse. Bella jumping on top of a massive tiger did not look even remotely real and I thought it looked very disjointed.

Bella and Edward now have a daughter named Renesmee, which I thought was a stupid name in the book and I still do now. When Renesmee is a baby, a robot is used instead of a real baby and a face imposed (I assume) onto it. The baby didn’t look anywhere close to real and I don’t really understand why they used a robot apart from maybe to deal with the aging issue. I was glad when a real girl began to play this role and although she doesn’t really have many lines, she did a great job of doing what she had to do.

Many of you may already know that I disagreed with both Kristen Stewart as Bella and Robert Pattinson as Edward. Neither were my ideal choices for the roles and I have constantly moaned about them both. I thought that because Bella is now a vampire, and this gave Kirsten Stewart more to do, she would be a better actress. Wrong! Although she doesn’t sit around moping and sighing heavily anymore, she is still a bad actress. Her lines were delivered without much conviction for the most part and I still wanted to slap her. I was also disappointed with Robert Pattinson who I do actually like in other films. With him, I figured that as he didn’t have to be careful anymore around Bella, he would act a little less stiff and be more relaxed but he doesn’t. Very disappointing from both actors here.

Luckily the film does have a few redeeming qualities though. I have said before that I didn’t like the wolves in Breaking Dawn but this time they were much better. I thought that they looked better, more like wolves, and moved much better too. Overall, the wolves had been vastly improved and I was glad there was no strange talking between them this time around. One thing I really did like about this film was the inclusion of other characters. Maybe this was because it meant I didn’t have to listen to Bella and Edward the whole time but still, I liked it. The new characters are all extremely interesting and I loved being introduced to each one. Another good aspect was the fight scene. Although this took up a large amount of time in the film, it was well worth doing. The fight scene is elaborate and extremely well-choreographed with some surprises thrown in here and there.

As you can see, for the most part I did not like this film at all. While there were some good things done, mostly it was a let-down. After doing so many films now, you would have thought that Stewart and Pattinson would have grown into their roles by now but alas, it is too late for them to improve now! I really did think that this would be one of the best films in the series but it just wasn’t for me. Don’t hate me everyone who loved it!