Blu-ray Review The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1
Directed by: Bill Condon Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Anna Kendrick Running Time: 1 hr 50 mins Rating: PG-13 Due Out: February 11, 2012
PLOT: Bella (Stewart) and Edward (Pattinson) get married. Before being changed into a vampire, she becomes pregnant. No one knows what to expect and now Jacob (Lautner) must choose sides between his own family and protecting Bella.
WHO'S IT FOR?: If you've seen the previous movies, you might as well watch this one to get the wedding and honeymoon scene that everything has been leading towards. If you're an outsider to the whole Twilight thing, this may not be the best place to start.
MOVIE:
Finally - a decent Twilight movie.
It took three movies and three directors, but Bill Condon has pulled off what I was beginning to think might be impossible. He has made a Twilight movie that doesn't let its vision get weighed down by the center sappy romance. And for the first time in the gothic series, the whole vampires and werewolves aspect of Twilight even lends itself to potentially scary elements.
Of course, Condon has some good timing. Breaking Dawn gives us the wedding and honeymoon anyone who has sat the previous movies has been waiting for it. It's the plot money-shot that's hard to screw up, especially with the genuine chemistry between Pattinson and Kristen Stewart.
It's also hard to not screw up the idea of keeping Taylor Lautner as uninvolved as possible. Lautner has his presence minimized compared to the last two Twilight films, and Breaking Dawn benefits from it. His whole "imprinting" moment in this movie is silly and confusing, but it is thankfully reserved till the end.
When working with material such as bloody childbirth and death, Condon doesn't try to glitter up the subject, but instead make parts of this movie gruesome and chaotic. There are even near-experimental montages that dare to disorient the viewer, and test their endurance against epilepsy.
The saga of Twilight is still silly. Yet like a movie such as Drive, Breaking Dawn shows that even the most bland story can be efficiently spruced up by a courageous director.
MOVIE SCORE: 6/10
EXTRAS
6-Part "Making Of" Documentary Edward & Bella's Personal Wedding Video Jacob's Destiny Edward Fast Forward & Jacob Fast Forward Audio Commentary with Director Bill Condon