The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn─Part 1

If red chess pieces mean nothing more to you than that, then stop reading.

I’m writing this from the point of view of someone who has read the books (it was part of my “wallow in misery” agenda at that time), has watched the previous movies, but is not a huge fan.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn─Part 1 is not bad, but there's still room for improvement. Twihards would probably adore it. Non-fans’s level of appreciation for this movie would be congruent (what?) to the amount of background they know about the story. Like the previous films, so much is implied in several scenes it’s easy for one who knows naught (again, what?) of the story to get lost.

Book cover photo for How To Not Look Pretty When You're Expecting 

As a result of the split, the movie feels a little prolonged—and the second one will probably have the same feel to it, too. Where the already-too-plotted Breaking Dawn is split for the two movies is just right. The obvious climax is clearly the childbirth—not the bed scene, as some would argue. And it’s a pretty convincing climax.

Book cover photo for Teen Wolf Drama King

Because a chunk of the first half of the final book is written in Jacob’s points of view, the convenient “Edward can read minds” helped filter and translate thoughts into dialogue. But still, there’s a lot of unnecessary silence or pauses in between. Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner are, well, still Bella, Edward, and Jacob like before—part awkward, part sweet. The rest of the cast is just so-so, trying their best to play their roles with just short phrases or background music.

My attention to detail (very convincing yucky zombie makeup, too little abs exposure, too loud background music for wolf-talk, science docu-like vampire transformation, forward-flashback style imprinting, etc.) is not important.

A nice improvement from previous makeups.

They always have a change of clothes under their furs now.

Allow me, though to rave at the beautiful house for their honeymoon—love, love, love! Also, it’s a nice touch that the movie used some music from the first film. It’s the more effective nostalgic touch than having a montage of past scenes.


The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn─Part 1 gets a seven out of ten (really, what?), for I went to see it with minimal expectations considering the franchise’s track record (and, in all fairness, it was not bad at all). And for having to wait a whole year—as opposed to, I don’t know, maybe six months like what the other franchise did—for the last installment.



*photos from allmoviephotos.com and its Youtube trailer.



You may also want to check out Sting Lacson's review of Breaking Dawn─Part 1, or the other reviews for The Twilight Saga, such as New Moon and Eclipse.