Riddled with the same problems which have plagued the earlier films, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 does little to convince Mark to come back for Part 2...
For one thing, it confirms that David Slade's Eclipse, the previous instalment in the Twilight saga, is highly likely to be as good as the series will ever get. If you don't care about the series by now, you never will, but Breaking Dawn Part 1 is definitely the point at which you'll be left behind if you don't really, really want to know how it all wraps up.
With respect to fans of the films who aren't into Stephanie Meyer's execrable novels, it's only fair to recommend that you wait until after you've seen it before reading any more of this review. The film is pretty critic-proof, and if you already have your mind made up to see this, nothing I can say will influence you. Then again, perhaps you should be warned, that this is the one where the series takes a long walk off a short pier, into the depths of Gothic romance and body horror.
Having endlessly deliberated for the previous
three films, and simultaneously teased poor Jacob the werewolf (Taylor Lautner) beyond endurance, Bella (Kristen Stewart) finally ties the knot with Edward (
However, the honeymoon comes first, and a halting attempt on Edward's part to take her virginity. The experience is sufficiently rough on a compliant Bella that it turns him off having sex again before she's turned. But seeing as how contraception apparently doesn't exist in the Twilight zone, matters are further complicated by Bella unexpecte
dly becoming pregnant with a vampire-human hybrid.
It becomes apparent that Bella's human frame is too fragile to carry the baby to full term, and the foetus actually prevents the possibility of a safe conversion. Despite getting weaker and weaker, Bella decides not to abort the baby, which invokes the wrath of Jacob's wolf-pack. Nobody seems quite certain about what kind of abomination will be delivered, but they're sure as hell going to fight over it.
As with Eclipse, the plot sounds so much better when you just describe it out of context. But the problem staples of the series are all here, and are somewhat intensified by the escalation of events.
Bella Swan is a character onto whom female readers can project, seeming to have deliberately been left vague over the course of these films as she digs her way into deeper trouble with her supernatural suitors. And apparently, the most valuable thing about her, as far as the plot is concerned, was her virginity.
Think about what that says, for a moment. Meyer's books, which have promoted abstinence all along, basically go so far as to say that even once you're married, having sex will ruin your life. The most diabolical thing comes out of Edward's reaction, which is basically of disgust. He outright blames Bella for the fact that he obviously didn't realise how his penis worked, and she dotingly apologises.
The series which has, all along, embedded messages that stalking and emotional domineering is just more loving than your average bloke, is now outright portraying a relationship in which a woman accepts sole guilt for a stupid mistake they shared together. Incidentally, that seems to be all they've really shared in three films. How, after three films of blue-balled caution and abstinence, did they fuck up this badly?
If these problems reach their apex in Breaking Dawn Part 1, it's not like they weren't there all along. These are the reasons why Twilight should be derided, and it's too often derided by people who haven't bothered to watch these films, in a way that is unfair to the fans. It's easy to like the idea that women have made this franchise successful, voting with their cash to see more of this kind of thing, in a market that's dominated by the deadening succession of Michael Bay movies, and the titillation of 13-year-old boys.
But I think the worst thing about the film is probably that, to the unprepared fan, its running jump into sometimes surreal Gothic set-pieces might feel like the filmmakers joining in on the joke. Even amongst fans of the books, Breaking Dawn is regarded as the point where Meyer went a little doo-lally, and with the same bottom-clenching sincerity that typified the first three films, it lapses into self-parody far too often.
For someone free of such attachments, but with at least a working tolerance of Twilight, the gothic elements hold much enjoyment, not all from unintentional hilarity. The film culminates with some of the most visceral body horror you'll ever see in a 12A certificate film. Having shown so little of Bella's deflowering, it's doubly surprising that they go as far as they do with the gore. Without giving too much away, it makes the comically OTT labour scene in Knocked Out look like the stork delivery from Dumbo.
Elsewhere, the early wedding scenes bring out the best supporting elements of the series so far, particularly Billy Burke, as Bella's long-suffering dad, Charlie, and Anna Kendrick, as snarky high-schooler Jessica. These two repeatedly outshine the leaden leads, bringing much warmth to otherwise thankless roles.
While it goes without saying that there's no obvious reason for following Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows in splitting Breaking Dawn into two movies, the first hour is at least as consistently good as Eclipse, before it all goes south with the reprehensible treatment of the pregnancy plot. But really, Breaking Dawn Part 1 feels like it might as easily have been the ending to the series, rather than the first of a two-part story.
I felt similarly about Eclipse, and but I can't deny that this has some of the series' best moments, along with some of its worst. Sparse threads are woven to suggest what Part 2 might hold, next November. For instance, two new Cullen cousins, played by Maggie Grace and MyAnna Buring, appear in the film for as long as it takes to establish that they'll play into the final instalment, and then completely disappear.
And, I suppose, there's the looming spectre of Michael Sheen and his coven of vampire royalty, who arrive far too late to the party in Part 1. If there's any reason to see Part 2, except out of morbid curiosity to see what else is left to be done, it's to see more of Sheen getting away with camping it up, and so obviously enjoying it.
But if the over-arching idea behind the Twilight
Its foray into body horror is technically impressive and surprisingly grisly, but only so far as to mask the really nasty stuff- the increasingly ignoble gender politics. Happily, the more ridiculous elements probably break the spell before any real damage is done to anyone's feelings.
