Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1

Dec05

Title: Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1

Director/Stars: Kristen Stewart (Actor), Robert Pattinson (Actor), Bill Condon (Director)

Genre: Fantasy

Watched: December 3, 2011

Summary: Cringe, Laugh, or Barf

Besides the shameless grab at our wallets (splitting the movie into two parts) BDP1 is certainly the most cringeworthy episode yet. First of all, from a structural point of view, the first half has no conflict. Therefore no plot.

It’s not that nothing happens. We have a lovely wedding video and then a fully censored honeymoon. But plot requires conflict, and the only two bits of that we have here are a brief Jacob/Edward chest thumping and Edward’s steadfast foot dragging at the notion of banging his wife more than once. This section of the film is pure wish fulfillment again. The perfect wedding, the perfect honeymoon. Plus a few bruises and one unwanted demonic pregnancy.

But the second half is perhaps even worse. Here we have manufactured wolf/vamp conflict that really no one cares about and a bit of a minor quandary for Bella and Jacob. Edward (and pretty much everyone else in the film) just does their thing. The inciting incident occurs at the midpoint. And the entire movie, BTW, lacks a villain. Unless you count the very weak antagonism of Jacob’s pack leader Sam. Yeah, no villain.

I’m not sure what the second half is. Special effects allow Bella a credible impersonation of a pregnant concentration camp inmate. Edward frets. Jacob does a lot of running back and forth in the woods listening to the CGI call of the wild. The birth was disturbing, but also felt censored.

Kristen Stewart, however, does a pretty impressive job with this role. Even more than the previous films this one focused on her. We have long, long shots just of her face — like walking up the isle — and she manages to bring Bella’s character to life. I’m not sure I want Bella to be alive, but it’s actually a really solid acting job considering the script. Oh, and she’s looking even better in this film (first half). Bikinis in Brazil are better than jeans and hoodies in Forks. Way better than the Twiggy-supreme look.

Love the claw prints!

Let’s see, can we list some of the more amusing moments: Edward breaking the marriage bed. His cheesy confession to having killed in the “old days” — except wait — it was only molesters, rapists, and murderers. He’s just too pure for any genuine vampire feasting. The way the Brazilian house keeper is magically an expert on vampire babies, even though none of the vampires know anything about them. The wolf voiceover argument and growl fest. That one really takes the cake. The Volturi camp at the end of the movie. And so, so many more.

I was enjoying myself during the film. I laughed a lot. A real lot. But it was “at” not “with.”

And it’s worth checking out this Cracked magazine review of the whole series too.

Read my Twilight review or New Moon or Eclipse or BDP2.

For more Film reviews, click here.

Or discover my own paranormal novels.

By: agavin
Comments (11)

Posted in: Movies

Tagged as: Bella Swan, Bill Condon, Breaking Dawn, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Twilight, Twilight Saga, Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Twilight Saga: Eclipse, Twilight Saga: New Moon

http://twitter.com/UltraLewis Jack Mowat

Congratulations on surviving your viewing of the movie.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
Melinda VanLone

The conflict is there, it just isn’t as obvious as it should be. Edward wants her to abort the baby. She refuses. Instant conflict. There’s a lot more fighting about it in the book than was presented here. Add in the wolf pack thinking they should kill the baby the second it is born, and the vamps refusal to let that happen. There’s plenty of conflict, and in this case a lot of detail they simply left out from the book. I’ll agree, however, that there is no way this book should have created two movies. Obvious money grab on this one. It feels like nothing is happening because they had to stretch to fill an entire movie with only half the story. All of the books in this series are light on plot as they are romance at the core, so focused more on characters (whether you like vampire romance or not lol). Seems to me all four books could have been covered in two movies and would have been more satisfying. Well, for those who like romance anyway .
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  While that is all true, the process of cutting the novel resulted in nearly no plot in the first half. Plot, formally, is the tension resulting from conflict obstructing the desire of the protagonist. In the first half, Bella wants to get married and go off with Edward, but nothing obstructs that. Only — and it is minor — the 2 minute Jacob visit. Later (much later) after she has gotten laid she wants to get laid again, and Edward provides minor and passive obstruction to that desire. It is only when she gets pregnant with the demon child (roughly 1.25 hours in) that there is an inciting incident, a complication leading to further obstruction of desire. To have an entire half of a movie with nearly no plot (again events themselves are not plot without conflict, but this struggle between desire and what’s happening) is really really sketchy story construction. Instead we have what is basically Stephanie Meyer rubbing one out (deliberately being crude for amusement value ) over her dream wedding and honeymoon. That’s a daydream, not drama.
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  This is a pretty interesting article on plotting I saw today on the very topic, including the need for an antagonist (which BDP1 doesn’t really have).
http://www.booksandbeyond.net Fran Coleman

I am a fan of the series. The books. The movies have been one let down after another. Twilight was not as bad because it was movie 1 & we were pretty stoked to see it on screen.
New Moon was another story altogether! OMG! All Bella/K Stew did was bite her lip and stutter. As if the stutter added the emotion necessary to put us in the moment. EPIC FAILURE. It was pretty damned bad.

Then I realized it was not really the craptastic actors it was the screenplay (too)! Their words were losing something in translation. Plus the actors couldn’t really put the emotion into them needed to make an impact. Eclipse got a bit better. Now onto Breaking Dawn, my fave in the book series.
I thought it started OK, the wedding scene was nice. The speeches were funny. I liked seeing a bit of Edwards “bad boy” past. I guess he was a Champion to the People by only feeding on scuzz balls (kinda like Angel from Angel) I thought there were a few scenes that needed serious jazzing up. Like the honeymoon. That whole bed thing lasted 2 seconds! HUH?! No thrusting under the sheets, no groans, no sloppy kissy noises? Jeez. Then their honeymoon itself coulda been edited. It added nothing to it.

It was odd the random maid knew more about vamp/human hybrid kids than the entire freakin Cullen Clan! Instead of all the dramatic shots of the computer screen showing deformed vampy babies they shoulda called Juanita the Maid! Why all the drama when she obviously was in the know.

There was a scene when Jasper had his shot at fame with a one liner and he BLEW IT! We all laughed at how awkward and ridiculous his acting was.

The wolfy telepathy CGI scene WAS supposed to be intense and probably could of been but it was kinda comical.

All part 1 was is a loong ass trailer for part 2. There WILL be action in part 2.

I do think Bella’s transformation into vamp kicked ass. Seeing the venom work its way through and heal the broken bones and watching her physical transformation seriously kicked ass. They made her look dog butt ugly so the transformation turned her into more of a beauty than she really is. Kinda cool trickery.

They needed to play up a part of her turning, when she was under she was actually feeling the burning and felt like she was in hell but couldn’t scream or move because the morphine paralyzed her. The book was pretty descriptive with that scene. Plus Edward NEVER said “Hey guys her heart is beating again” all he did was half assed CPR and then Jacob went to Kill Nessie and we saw shots of their future (which was cool too) and then the little showdown and then that was that. You woulda figured he woulda been like HOT DOG BABY BELLAS BACK! Hmmm… I mean jeez she did die horrifically.

The Volturi scene was odd. I know they killed off their other human wanna be vampire secretary now they had this new chick and she was killed off. Good help IS hard to find!

Thanks for allowing me to share
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  Lol. I like (and mostly agree) with this comment. But I’m perhaps much more cynical about the series in general.
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Ellieholmes

i love twilight a big big fan all my room is twilight made this picture me self
- http://all-things-andy-gavin.com Andy Gavin
  
  A fine collection of romantic stares
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