Born Movie Reviews

Movie Review written by: Born Movie Reviews

RT Critics Rating: 2.5/10

Born Movie Reviews' Rating: 2/10

When looking at the entire franchise of the Twilight saga, Bill Condon is arguably the most talented director out of all of them. Then would you believe me if I tell you that he somehow made the worst entry of the series? After the good path that Eclipse left us a year earlier? Well, what can you expect when Breaking Dawn is illogically split into two movies, mimicking what Warner Bros. did to Harry Potter? For Harry Potter, we understand why we need two movies. Hell, the studios originally planned to split each entry into two movies ever since Goblet of Fire. So here you have Breaking Dawn Part 1, the longest dragging entry of the Twilight saga.

Part 1 begins with Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward's (Robert Pattinson) wedding and follows them as they spend their honeymoon on the Cullens' private island. Yes, they make love. The plot soon unfolds as Bella discovers she is pregnant with a baby that is growing at a strangely fast rate.

Before I continue, let me ask a question: Does that plot sound like it should run for almost two hours? I don't think so.

Breaking Dawn Part 1 is melodrama at its worst. The acting has not improved. The dialogue has not improved. The awkward moments are surprisingly still here. Even worse, this time around the narrative is much slower. If you found Twilight or New Moon slow, this entry makes the previous episodes feel like vampires with their abnormally fast speed. Without a doubt, Breaking Dawn Part 1 feels like the longest movie in the franchise, despite the fact that its running time is actually the shortest of them all. The worst part about it is, even the directing could not save this film from its shallow substance. I don't blame Bill Condon. I blame the screenwriters, the actors, and the producers who took this film, which had much potential after Eclipse, and went as downhill as they could have possibly went.

However, this movie is indeed the funniest one out of the series so far. Funniest? Yes, funniest. But unintentionally funny. Unlike Eclipse, which had some form of awareness in its sense of humor, Breaking Dawn Part 1 acts as if the filmmakers behind it were all sharing ideas on how they can sporadically throw in some funny moments. Although I did legitimately laugh at times, I notice it and ask myself "Why is this movie making me laugh?" Well, it can make people laugh over how bad it is, possibly.

In addition, the character trio this time around is more bearable, due to the fact that Jacob has officially handed Bella over to Edward. However, this film did not focus on the trio, but rather the couple only. Hopefully Part 2 will stress on the three actors better.

As usual, the film looks cinematically great as an adaption of the novel, however the last twenty minutes are what saved this film from having the lowest rating. For once, Part 1 begins trying to build up the narrative into the finale. Remember, this is the penultimate film of the entire franchise. However, unlike Deathly Hallows Part 1, this took way too long to build itself up. It fell into the hole labeled "Cliche Flaws of the Twilight Franchise" and attempted to crawl back out in the last twenty minutes. This is where Breaking Dawn Part 1 annoys me the most, making it undoubtedly the worst Twilight film in the entire saga -- yes, even worse than New Moon. If you want to split a book into two movies, you need to do it correctly.

Going back to the Harry Potter series, the first part of Deathly Hallows is clearly an incomplete movie. It left us at the cliffhanger, with no ending, a complete buildup towards Part 2. The two movies were designed as puzzle pieces that were meant to come together as one. Part 1's full potential is not reached unless you watch Part 2 immediately afterwards. Part 2's full potential is not reached unless you watched Part 1 first. Not convinced yet? The Lord of the Rings trilogy did the exact same thing. Each film was made to connect with the next. Here, coming back to the Twilight saga, you can clearly name Breaking Dawn Part 1 something else. This does not need to be a two-part movie. Instead, this feels like a quintology. You can call this Breaking Dawn and the upcoming one something else.

In conclusion, Breaking Dawn Part 1 is a terrible disappointment, the worst Twilight movie in the entire series. Turns out the filmmakers did not know what made Eclipse work better than its predecessors. For its goal as a movie, Part 1 is designed in the wrong direction once again, focusing on the couple and letting the audience holler at the screen. No attempt at cinematic approach was made here. For a film that does not demonstrate skillful filmmaking that Bill Condon is good at, a Twilight film that is slow, and a penultimate entry that barely does any buildup to the finale, Breaking Dawn Part 1 is going the wrong way at its worst.