Breaking Dawn Part 2 Review

After the joyless slog that was Breaking Dawn Part 1, one can be forgiven for expecting the worst from the final installment in The Twilight Saga.  Indeed, in the seemingly endless parade of adaptations getting split into multiple chapters, no split was as unnecessary as chopping the Twilight finale in two.  Breaking Dawn was a horrifically anticlimactic novel that failed to satisfy Stephenie Meyer's legions of loyal fans; getting one good movie out of the mess was unlikely. Two, impossible.

But take heart, Twi-hards, because by some miracle, Breaking Dawn Part 2 manages to right some of the wrongs of its source material while also satisfying the purists in the crowd.  Much like the Deathly Hallows movies, the finale of the finale here is the relatively compelling, action-packed, emotionally resonant film that suggests its predecessor could've been chopped down to a lengthy first act in a single, longer film.

Griping aside, I'm glad to see Twilight end its run back at the moderate high point that Eclipse achieved a few years ago.  Breaking Dawn Part 2 succeeds where some of the other films have failed because it keeps its tongue in its cheek, nodding to how ridiculous certain aspects of the premise are, parodying Kristen Stewart's infamous lip-biting/shoulder-shrugging "acting," and providing the finale that fans of the books were denied.  The film is a lot of fun, especially in a theater packed with fangirls waiting on the edge of their seats for the first glimpse of Taylor Lautner's impossible body.

Perhaps most surprising is that Breaking Dawn Part 2 doesn't feel like half a film.  It starts right where Part 1 left off, with Bella's blood-red vampire eyes opening up to a world full of sharpened sensations, which makes for a better beginning than ending.  This is the story of a newborn (coincidentally, just like the newest season of The Vampire Diaries), and all the weird, uncomfortable events from Part 1 are barely important, as any pertinent details are mentioned and discussed in enough detail here to fill in the uninitiated, if such people exist.  Part 2 has its beginning, middle, and eternal end, demonstrating how disposable its predecessor was.

Not that the script is terribly well-written, with its quick cause-and-effect and easy solutions to not-so-easy challenges.  The film glosses over the trials of Bella's transformation; somehow she's able, apparently moments after turning, to resist the temptation of human blood and kill a mountain lion.  There are no growing pains here, which is meant to illustrate how at home in her new, cold skin Bella is, compared to what an awkward human she was.  It's quite silly.

However, the contrast is well-drawn in Kristen Stewart's performance.  She's not acting at the top of her game (look to Adventureland or The Runaways for that), but K Stew is finally able to instill Bella with confidence, swagger, and grace, characteristics that should've been subtly implemented throughout the franchise, if only to make Bella at least mildly appealing to anyone not existing in the weird fantasy world of the films.  Stewart brings warmth and worry to Bella as mother, and ferocity to Bella as protector; finally, there's a mildly compelling character at the center of the drama.

Twlight's best acting has always come courtesy of its supporting players, and Breaking Dawn Part 2 is no different.  Though series MVP Anna Kendrick is MIA, Michael Sheen is back as Volturi leader Aro, and he has fun in the part, cackling and evil and weird.  Lee Pace joins the fray as Revolutionary War veteran Garrett, a brutish prick who provides some of the film's best moments and biggest laughs.  And per usual, Billy Burke is bumbling and adorable as Bella's father, and he's even more bumbling and adorable when dealing with Bella's sudden identity shift and quickly-growing daughter, Renesmee.

Renesmee poses one of the franchise's most interesting challenges, and for the most part, the film handles her well.  As a hyper-aware baby, she's creepily stuck in the Uncanny Valley, as the filmmakers chose to use CGI rather than an actual baby (I have to wonder why the special effects in this franchise are still so thoroughly unimpressive; maybe for consistency's sake?).  Even when Mackenzie Foy takes over, there's something unnatural about her appearance; she truly looks like the daughter R Patz and K Stew would conceive, but the porcelain quality of her skin makes her look like a doll.  Sure, she's supposed to stick out as this super-unique, troops-rallying shining star, but she seems to exist on a different plane than the other characters.

As for the "romance" between Renesmee and Jacob, it's done as well as one can hope, I suppose.  When Bella learns about Jacob imprinting on her newborn daughter, she voices the audience's discomfort (it's a funny scene), but even so, anytime Lautner casts an adoring glance at the kid, it's hard not to experience a pedophilic chill.

Many of the Breaking Dawn Part 2's biggest shortcomings are legacy issues that have plagued the franchise from the beginning.  The poor special effects, clunky writing, laborious pace, and disjointed story-telling have been present since the first film opened back in 2008, and little has been done to rectify these problems.  Thankfully, the grave self-seriousness that made this list even more glaring is toned down, making for a movie that's easier to accept as the fun, ridiculous, estrogen-fueled ride that it is, and ought to be.

Though it's a fine movie at best, Breaking Dawn Part 2 is a great end to the franchise.  Through a neat (maybe cheap) trick, the film manages to provide a finale that improves on and follows the book.  The film's final scene pays tribute to the series as a whole, and even as a non-fan, I might've teared up.  (Might've.)  The credits include all of the actors who have appeared throughout the franchise, giving fans the chance to cheer on Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, and all the other faces that came and went over the course of the five films.

The Twilight Saga has been a wildly inconsistent series, but fans can celebrate that the franchise is ending on a good note.  Breaking Dawn Part 2 satisfies in most of the ways that count, and after some films that failed to satisfy in any way, that's a major victory.