User reviews

I am neither a Twilight fan or a Twilight detractor. This said, I am indifferent to the franchise. As far as the movies, I still think, coming from someone whose knowledge of the books only comes from my sister being a fan and me reading a chapter of one and putting it down, that the best is Eclipse(not saying much) and New Moon the worst. But that is not a consolation really. Breaking Dawn: Part 1 is not quite among the worst of the year and nowhere near among the worst ever, however it suffers from some major problems that I will get to later in the review.

So what was it that got me seeing Breaking Dawn: Part 1 in the first place? The answer was its director, Bill Condon. I am familiar with his previous films and find him a promising director and writer, finding his films well written, observed and acted. Gods and Monsters is amazing and one of my favourites, Kinsey was interesting and Dreamgirls elevated by the soundtrack and cast was quite decent. Did Condon do a good job directing? For me, I am not sure. I'd say of the four Twilight movies so far Breaking Dawn: Part 1 has the most cinematic feel to it, on the other hand there is not much here that made Condon's previous films so good and I'd go as far to say it is the film of his that engaged me the least.

Are there any redeeming qualities to this instalment? I think so actually. Although there are moments of sloppy editing, I did like the look of the film. At some points it was quite Gothic, and at others it had either an evergreen or autumnal feel to it. The scenery often does look stunning, the effects are okay I guess and the cinematography especially with the close-ups of the back of the wedding dress and the final shot is some of the best of the franchise in my opinion.I also liked Carter Burwell's score. I like Burwell a lot, his music has a hypnotic and quite hauntingly beautiful quality to it. For my tastes though some of the pop tunes are on the insipid side, however the score itself was pleasant with a lot of what I like about Burwell evident.

Much has been said about the sex scene. In all honesty I was expecting it to be of hilariously cheesy quality, but somehow Condon brought a little more subtlety than I was expecting. The last thirty minutes was perhaps the most exciting Breaking Dawn: Part 1 got, as some of does have purpose and intensity, which was something that the first half of the film did not have.There are also two good performances, Billy Burke and Michael Sheen, the latter being another point of interest. Burke as always is amusing with some of the better lines of the film(though is that saying much do you think?), while Sheen, ever the great actor, adopts a menace and magnetism as Aro without overdoing it too much. Ashley Greene is also quite good, if not great.

I have to say I still don't think much of the acting of the central trio. Kristen Stewart is much better than she is in New Moon, with much less of the moping and dead pauses, but some of her line delivery is still awkward and her facial expressions for my tastes are lifeless. It doesn't help though that Bella is a rather dull character.Robert Pattinson has more to do than he did in New Moon and is less hammy than in the first film(the looking into the camera moments brought moments of unintentional laughter when I first went to see Twilight when it came out). As a matter of fact this is perhaps his best performance of the series and he is certainly the best of the central trio, but like Stewart some of the line delivery could've been more inspired.

Taylor Lautner on the other hand is getting worse and worse. He is hunky to be sure, but does that alone make you a good actor? Not to me. I will give credit and say he is better than he was in this year's Abduction, where both the film and performance were awful, but the more dramatic moments from him felt forced and overplayed, and throughout there was a very stilted nature about him. A lot of the problem is to do with the writing. The dialogue in the Twilight franchise never was particularly good, saying this though in terms of written quality this is Twilight at its most banal, its most clunky and its most cheesy. The characters are clichéd and underdeveloped too, and at the end of the day you don't care for anybody. Oh, and the talking wolves were poorly done and unintentionally funny.

The story is very bland and unengaging, not to mention thin structurally and in content. The whole of the first half reads little more than ponderous melodrama. Was the wedding lavish? Yes it was. But it was also plodding and over-extended. The second half fares better, still with the clunky dialogue, uneven acting and cheesy, underdeveloped plot points and characterisations, but as I said the last thirty minutes or so serves as the highlight of the film. But for me what killed the film was the pace. Mind you, I have seen movies with slow pacing, but they are often paced deliberately and with strong meanings, great acting and dialogue and identifiable characters. With little of that here, Breaking Dawn: Part 1 not only is dull and plodding but also uninteresting and without bite.

Overall, despite my admiration for Condon and Sheen, this didn't work. The ending is highly suggestive of a continuation, which I understand is happening. If so, I do hope it will be better than this. 4/10 Bethany Cox

The Bella of the ball has gone and dropped it, now she's ballooning, and it looks as if she might split, is she carrying a curse, that will smash the dream and burst, or will the wounds reseal, re-knit and close the slit.

It's a shame they didn't turn it into three, two hour films of nothing much would be such glee, we could watch them painting walls, watch them dry, then watch leaves fall, while under moonlight watch them swimming in the sea.

Breaking Yawn!

Breaking Dawn has been breaking box office records since its release. Sadly though, I really can't see why.

Aside from the importance of the wedding to be shown, and the last 30 minutes of it that "saved-the-bell", this movie is boring.

The only thing about the movie that I liked is the fact that, in this installment, Jacob Black owned Edward Cullen.

Not being a fan of the series, the book, nor the story, should make me expect less.

However, that is not a reason for this, or any film to be made this bad.

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.

It is a sad world in which such talentless display of acting, screenplay and direction gets any recognition whatsoever.

You do not care about any of the characters, nor is there any chemistry between the supposed lovers Bella and Edward, calling it wooden would be a compliment,instead it is a bored and effortless "going through the motions and I could not care less performance..." Exhibiting with that a huge disrespect for their audience...!

Edward is suppose to be this strong and wise immortal, but instead I see a stupid weakling who faced with any sort of danger at all would appear to rather lay down crying than to stand up for himself..., there is truly no strength of body or soul in him at all, at times it seems he'd rather be Bella... and as for Bella(KStew), it is sad to see how one merchandise has ruined the blossoming of a good actress... it almost appears the Twilight saga has sucked the soul out of her... perhaps she'll recover, perhaps she won't.

I enjoyed the books very much, to my shame. However, this latest instalment has finally managed to kill all my imagined magic this Sage might have once held for me. I finally grew up...

This film was sad... I was expecting something better, especially because Bill Condon was directing this. He directed one of my favourite movies of all time, "Gods and Monsters" alongside with other movies like "Kinsey" or "Dreamgirls". Considering this, I was very disappointed.

The original score of this film is not at all appealing and combined with the bad sound editing makes the movie difficult and unpleasant to listen to.(I mean while you are watching it, it doesn't sound good; you know what I mean). Although some people found the acting "mesmerizing", I thought it was dull and how could it be any different in a movie where almost nothing happens. The script was empty and had no sparkle whatsoever.

I consider this movie had no chance of being good from the start, because to me, the premise seems idiotic. I know it's a romantic vampire film, but at least make me believe the humans in this movie are in their right minds.

All in all, I do not think this was the worst movie in the series. I think The Twilight Saga: New Moon still has that covered. But I am fairly disappointed in Bill Condon because, not only did he choose to be part of this project, but above all, this film was not directed well.

They just can not act, I do not know why they still getting with this girl but she is terrible actor, she can't transmit her emotions and that is the first opposite for an actor, it just was boring.

Oh and Edward wasn't shining under the sun in Brazil, they forgot that part, and that's a huge mistake in vampire movie if he doe's not afraid of the sun light.

They could do better then this but before change the actress she is horrible in acting.

Cutting the movie in parts was a terrible Idea too, its not like a Harry Potter containing to much information its just a love story movie that does not transmits love.

So in a few words it was HORRIBLE AND BORING.

If you're a big time fan of the books, you have probably hyped yourself up to a fevered expectation rendering you incapable of any objectivity. This film, of it's own merit, would have never made it to the theaters. In a word, it is very "boring"... unless your hyped, it bites! (pun intended). Many of the scenes were obvious fillers with terrible dialogue. The acting was so-so from most of the lead performers, with the sole exception being Billy Burke (Charlie), who appears to be a very good actor. About half way through the film I kept looking at my watch hoping the 117 minutes would be over soon.

I am being forced at this point to continue writing when in fact I have nothing more to say about this boring sequel of a film called Breaking Dawn. According to the rules ones' review must be at least 10 lines minimum. So what you're reading right now is the completely unnecessary and unpleasantly annoying filler, mandated by IMDb.

Up front I will say that I am a huge fan of the Twilight Saga. Breaking Dawn being the last and IMO the best of the books in the series. I have read the book 6 times so far and will be reading it again.

While the film follows the book reasonably closely I was disappointed with some of the license that was taken with the adaption. The most disappointing were the fight scenes between the vampires and the wolves, anyone who has read the book will know exactly what I mean. No further needs to be said here.

The acting that has been remarked on by other reviewers in this was no different to any of the previous movies in the series as far as I was concerned and I was happy with most of the movie. People who remarked on the woodenness of the acting do not seem to take into account way Edward reacted towards Bella in the book and I was not overly concerned with it at all. The only things that brought the movie down for me were the changes that were made to the story, these spoiled the movie for me.

The movie ended at the point that I expected it to end and I look forward to the next and last installment. I only hope they do not change too much from the book, as I believe the next part is the best of the lot.

Grudging 5 out of 10 for me. I would have given it a 6.5-7 but for the changes that messed up the movie.

I hate Twilight a lot. But nobody can say I am unfair towards it. The third film was actually entertaining and less infuriating. Breaking Dawn Part 1, is different altogether. It is just a horrible product shoved out with no regard for its audience. Bella and Edward get married and go on honeymoon, this last for over an hour. She gets pregnant, which shouldn't be able to happen, and some potentially evil demon baby is sucking the life from her. The films biggest crime is that nothing happens for so long. This series has had a tendency to drag on and on. With New Moon seeming totally unnecessary. What happens here, is that we get one book split into two films. This film has about 30 minutes of material in it. Characters have the same conversations they've had a thousand times before, with nobody evolving. Bella and Edward feel the same way they've always felt, as does Jacob. The sex scene is embarrassingly juvenile, with a quick cut to something from a parody. The film doesn't let up in the absurdity department, as some animated wolves have a conversation with each other, but with mindless growling and dialog, it sounds terrible. What any other film would have shortened into a montage is played out to a variety of banal songs that all sound the same. Finally we get towards the end and the graphic, grotesque birth scene is barely shown at all. It leaves us with a finale in which a wolf "imprints" himself onto a newborn baby in a scene more disturbing than anything The Human Centipede could muster. If you like characters that whine about everything, actors that have no emotional range, and watching slideshows of other people's honeymoons, then you may enjoy this laughable effort.

To rate this movie I think I should split my opinion in two: The twilighter side and the neutral side. Read the part that better mirrors your attitude.

NEUTRAL: The movie has no cinematographic value at all. Just a lame, slow, in places disgusting report of how a vampire-human marriage could be in the first part, and a badly directed (with some very awkward moments) plot development in the second part. I could not help noticing the derisiveness of some scenes; e.g. the one in which the transformed Jacob addresses his other fellows (I thought the movie was turning into a joke at that very moment!) and the one in which Bella makes the bloodshake fall to the ground and kind of breaks her back. A praise goes to the actors: the acting is not bad, is not bad at all considering that, in my opinion, nothing better could have been done (Kristen Stewart's performance is not bad and I found very convincing the character of Jacob). Another criticize goes to the movie slowness; in fact, those who are not very fond of Ed and Bell's love story might probably find the fully detailed and slow part in which the two get married really annoying. Finally, I would rate this movie, in this case, with 4,5 out of 10.

TWILIGHTER: I do think very few fans will be disappointed by this installment. Let's be onest, I was almost crying during the scene of the wedding (and I'm a male!!!) mainly because of my affection for the series (I was platonically in love with the story when the first Twilight movie came out). That's the truth: this movie's been made just for those who have always followed and liked the Twilight saga. I don't expect anyone to suddenly turn up and say: I've never given a *** about this series but I've found the movie absolutely awesome! This movie is for us Twilighters all around the world. Because all those scenes have an emotional meaning only in case you are very fond of the series. In this case I can and want turn many blind eyes (may I say it? haha) in the name of my affection for the saga. I enjoyed the Ed and Bell's wedding night, all those particulars (they even play chess!) that made me feel good during the projection of this movie. In this case I would rate the movie with 9 out of 10.

That's all, according to my opinion. Thanks for reading.

As a grown woman with many life experience years behind me, I fell in love with the books and I really like the movies. Breaking Dawn, pt.1, delivered for me. I have come to love the actors who portray the beloved characters. The movie was very entertaining and I plan to see it again. Was it perfect, no. Could it have been better, maybe. Did it satisfy me, yes. Did the director and actors translate the book to film, I think so. Am I going to waste on second tearing any part of it down, no. It is an escape. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I laughed at times, I cried during the wedding scene, and I held my breath during the sex scene. I eagerly await the final film and will be sad when it's over. Kudos guys, you did well.

The movie is not to the level of expectation. Although, the book is better, it is hard to represent everything in visual. The worst part of the movie is releasing it as two parts. Anyway let bygones be bygones. The performance of Kristen is fantastic. But the rest of the team don't support her performance. The nocturnal fight can be made better with little increase in brightness. Twilight series is in the high level of expectation to the people who don't read book. Let us expect some good plot in conclusion.

One famous critic says the following. " Based on a portion of the popular teen romance book "Breaking Dawn" this slow-moving film has long periods of inaction and generates little suspense, making it the worst film in the "Twilight Saga" films so far. This movie seems to be a mere multimillion dollar bookmark, marking time until the overarching story is finally concluded in the last film. Short on plot developments and long on inaction, the characters spend much of the film waiting for something, anything to happen.

This third film in the Twilight Saga opens with the marriage of the human Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) to the vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). This is followed by the honeymoon in South America. A good deal of time is spent in transit to and from South America. Although a private jet is involved in this trip, most of the traveling scenes are in cars or limousines. These are awkward sequences where nothing really happens. When the newlyweds finally have sex, the act is underplayed, and not repeated during the honeymoon. Once again, the chastity theme comes to the fore as the husband broods over the safety of his wife and his wife's bruises resulting from his partial loss of self-control during sex.

So the bride and groom are on their honeymoon on a fancy island resort, but they are still waiting for something else to happen, namely the act of turning Bella into an vampire. Why they don't just go ahead and get it over with isn't explained very well. When Bella's other boyfriend, Jacob the werewolf (Taylor Lautner) finds out about this human-vampire honeymoon idea, he thinks it is crazy. While everyone is waiting for Bella to become a vampire, something else happens. Bella becomes pregnant. This, of course, requires more waiting to see what happens with the pregnancy.

After more limo scenes, the bride and groom head back to the family compound in Washington where they spend the rest of the film waiting to find out what happens with the baby. More waiting, more interminable chastity. Just like any marriage. There is a brief flurry of action at the end of the film when another battle between the vampires and werewolves starts to flare up, for no good reason, by the way. During all this, amazingly, nobody bothers to tell Bella's father that she might be dying, or that she has decided to join the undead vampires anyway, even if she survives the birth. Instead, Bella lies to her father, telling him she is at a spa in Switzerland. I guess everyone decides that Bella's father has no right to be at his daughter's side as she fights for her life. This is just heartless and wrong, but it is just one of many wrong things in this twisted story.

I'm not going to go into the film's ending, but almost all of the plot and what little action there is in the film is back loaded into the last few minutes of the film. The film's running time of nearly two hours is overlong. It is more like one hour of plot padded out to two hours. Surprisingly, the one character who undergoes much of a change in the film (until the last second of the film) is Jacob. While most of the characters in the film are passive and childlike, Jacob actually grows up and becomes an adult in the film. He takes a stand against the leader of his wolf pack and starts his own pack. Unfortunately, this doesn't last long. He reverts back to passivity because of something called "imprinting" and once again loses his will. Completing the image of loss of will, he even falls to his knees as if he were worshiping the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

I get the feeling this film is similar to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One." It seems to be an artificial creation, manufactured to make an additional $700 million that the studio would not have gotten if they had just made one "Breaking Dawn" film instead of two. If you are going to make movies of a series of books and you plan to make the movies true to the books, then do that. Don't try to manufacture additional movies by splitting a book in two. It doesn't work. At least it hasn't worked with the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises. This film rates a D."

There is not much happening altogether in this film. They put way too much focus on the wedding and the honeymoon, thus wasting precious time. But I guess all those teenage girl fans wanted a full portrayal of the big romantic wedding.

In all of the previous films, I liked the acting of most of the cast a lot. But in this film, everyone except Bella, Edward & Jacob is marginalised to such an extent that there cannot be much said about them. As an audience you just don't get to see enough of any of them to really develop a connection with or care about them.

Altogether this is an OK addition to the franchise, by no means worse than the disappointing/confusing 2nd or 3rd films. I assume I will give this film either a 5 or a 6 (out of 10), but I think I will withhold my final vote until I have seen part 2. I know some might say that they are released as separate films and therefore should be treated as such, but as the original book is ripped into two halves here, I think it is fair to reserve the final judgement until I have seen the two films in conjunction (seeing that, as I haven't read the books, I will need to have seen both films in order to make sense of it all).

I watched the first movie in the saga because my wife loved the books. I must say, the acting was good, except for Stewart who is a cold fish. She looks confused or depressed. That is the scope of her acting abilities. The character development was good. The plot was good. And there was enough suspense, mystery and action to make the movie solid.

New Moon introduced the werewolves and Volturi, which added new mystery and suspense. But the Volturi were never heard from again.

In Eclipse, no werewolf makes an appearance until over an hour into the film. And you are already snoring within 40 minutes.

Finally, Breaking Dawn. In the first hour we see a wedding and honeymoon full of pathetic dialog, weak acting, and ZERO imagination. It was slower than a Lifetime production, with less romance, mystery, intrigue, suspense, and action. Stewart's character states it was the best night of her life, yet still not even a smile. She would be fantastic if casted as a corpse.

After watching Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the CG werewolves look like they were rendered in 1991. They look to be about 1200 pounds. They snarl and human voices are heard... but their bark is worst than their bite as no one dies or even gets injured. There movements and interaction with their environment look extremely fake.

The final 10 seconds of the film hold the only suspense or intrigue in the entire movie. These greedy bastards just want teens to pay for two movies when they could have rolled it into one. They could have started the movie with "I Do", shown a quick scene of Bella getting knocked up and getting morning sickness, then the 15 minute finale. This movie was simply a 20 minute prelude to Part Two stretched into 2 hours.

Get your neighbor to rent it, borrow it for 30 minutes and watch the last 15 minutes and you are ready for Part Two.