For most of us, November signals
Thanksgiving and gratuitous amounts of football, but in recent years, the fall
month has also set the stage for a new Twilight
release, so for the past few weeks, Twi-Hards have been absolutely losing their
minds in anticipation for Breaking Dawn –
Part 2. Now, my regular readers know
just how much I hate Stephenie Meyer’s romantic fantasy novels, but I have sat
through the other four entries of this frustratingly successful franchise, so
solely for the integrity of this blog, I knew I would have to endure the fifth
and final chapter of the film series.
Beyond the usual buzz you would expect alongside such a heavyweight
blockbuster, a less-than-desirable spotlight was shone on the film’s young
A-listers when the story broke that Kristen Stewart cheated on Robert Pattinson
with Snow White and the Huntsman
director Rupert Sanders. That kind of
celebrity gossip may not sound like an important marketing consideration, but
when a public fall-from-grace shatters the illusion of cinematic romance for
devoted fans, the studio has to consider the backlash of mass perception. Controversy aside, there weren’t any
delusions that Breaking Dawn – Part 2
would do anything but hit the box office with a sledge hammer…the global
phenomenon was about to conclude, so the only question was whether the story
could conclude on a critical high note.
Overall
Recommendation: Medium
I realize that early critics
declaring Breaking Dawn – Part 2 the
best of the Twilight series is an
accolade that really doesn’t carry that much weight, but even I have to admit
that the final installment has its entertaining moments. Admittedly, it was a long shot in hoping that
Kristen Stewart would develop a personality as an immortal, but thankfully, the
narrative focuses on the infinitely more interesting extended vampire families
and gives them cool abilities beyond the tendency to bedazzle in direct
sunlight. Don’t get your hopes up too
high, because as usual, a majority of the acting is forced and truly god-awful;
funny thing is that such a criticism never seems to affect the female
demographic as long as Lautner takes his shirt off. In terms of the final battle, members of the
audience who were dragged to the theater will undoubtedly be surprised and entertained
by the amount of action and gratuitous violence depicted, but that kind of
payoff is still ruined by the overly-sappy and altogether hollow ending. Bottom line, The Twilight Saga could have ended on a far worse note than Breaking Dawn – Part 2, but the franchise
still cannot rank against other far superior literary adaptations…suffice it to
say that the films are finally over, and it is not altogether awful to see how
things end.
