The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

I can’t say I’m a fan of these films and, unless you’re of a certain gender and of a certain age, there’s actually very little the average movie fan will get from them. That’s not to say they shouldn’t have a place in film history, as they provide entertainment for the target audience and, if that’s your business plan, these films can be classified as a commercial (though not critical success). Starting immediately where the last film left off Bella (Kristen Stewart) is now a vampire and having given birth to her and Edward’s (Robert Pattinson – his entire dialogue in this film must work out to about one word per page of the script) baby, the couple find themselves under threat of punishment from the Volturi (headed up by Michael Sheen, slicing the ham far too thick). In order to protect themselves the Cullen’s start to round up a clan of other vampires. This is hardly done in the style of The Blues Brothers or Seven Samurai, mind. Instead, every ten minutes there’s an introduction of new characters who look like they’ve just walked off a photo shoot for a fashion magazine. On the plus side it does raise some unintentional guffaws. Speaking of that there is a wry sense of humour on show, but the whole franchise has taken itself far too seriously and a touch of humility would have actually helped aid a more positive critical reaction. This was filmed back to back with the last part and so all the problems of that film and frankly, the series as a whole, remain. The special effects remain terrible for a collection that has raked in so much money (I assume the phrase continuous improvement wasn’t banded around the offices of Summit Entertainment much in the last few years), the acting is wooden (somewhat ironic for a series concerning vampires) and the plot holes remain huge, especially when we “see” from Bella’s point of view what it’s like to be one of the blood suckers as her amazing smell, sight, strength, speed etc. pretty much makes a mockery of any struggles the vamps have had so far. Despite all this, this is arguably the best film of the lot. It doesn’t drag too much, storylines are resolved and there’s cracking fight scene which more than makes up from most of the other badly edited ones from the previous movies. Plus, it’s unlikely you’ll see a film with as many decapitations (albeit bloodless ones) as this contains for quite a while. Best of all though is an astonishing third act twist, which is one of the best pieces of rug pulling of the year and is an audacious piece of storytelling by Condon and screenplay scribe Melissa Rosenberg (especially as I’m told it differs from the book, so most of the audience will be the marks). It’s frustrating as well though when you wonder why such effort couldn’t have been put into other areas of the film as opposed to the join the dots process that the final presentation became.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict

Fans will probably enjoy this last act, but for the rest of us it really has been a “saga”. Rating: 6/10.