My Twilight Saga – Breaking Dawn Part 1 Review

Last Friday I finally went to see the latest installment of the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1. I was skeptical about this movie, seeing I utterly despise the book it’s based on. However, I had regained hope, after seeing the leaked pictures and video in March and the trailer actually made me think it would still be worth seeing in the cinema. Of course all the fans are raving about this, and critics are hating on it, so on Friday I went to my local movie theater to see for myself.

Now, I didn’t go into the movie as a complete newbie. Like I said, I read the book over 2 years ago and till this day think it’s one of the most awful books ever written. I liked the Twilight Saga as a whole but that’s solely based on the first 3 books. The last one, in my honest opinion, is dreadful. The plot is a mess, with sudden point of view changes that make for a disjointed narrative that is all over the place, and the storyline is paper thin. The teasers and previews had my spirits raised a bit higher, but when I read a review by NME, which pretty much describes my thought on the book to a T, I went right back to doubting this whole endeavor.

I therefore went into this movie thinking that if it sucked, it at least would have a naked Robert Pattinson and a bunch of other hot guys taking of their clothes to look at. To me, that isn’t a bad incentive for watching a movie and I at least hoped it would be entertaining. And it was: it was definitely not as bad as I had expected it to be.

The storyline is still as bad as it was in the book, but because said point of view change never happens in the movie I found it a lot more bearable. I could still do without the prolife, no-sex-until-after-marriage, and weird babies being born, but the way it played out was nicely done. I think this might be the first Twilight movie that sort of makes sense if you haven’t actually read the books. Definitely a plus.

Another plus was the comedy. I loved the cheesy wedding speeches best and there are plenty of other little jokes and references in the movie that I loved. I at least laughed quite a few times during this one. I also liked many of the ways in which the movie was shot. Bill Condon did a good job at doing a tasteful rendition of a PG-13 sex scene. I liked the scenery in the wedding scene and liked how they used a chess set with pieces modeled after the book cover. The Edward character also started to make sense in this movie as he is still being his anal self, yet the layers that are part of the character in the book are finally justified and shown.

The downside of the movie is that is was a 2 hour movie that should have lasted 1,5 hours. Some of the scenes just drag on (wedding kiss/ Bella’s transformation) and are so predictable that you just want them to move on. I also think the birth scene lasted a bit too long: Edward just stood there pining over Bella’s seemingly dead body. Another downside is still the storyline. The entire 750 page book is split into two parts. Not much happens in the book to begin with, but with it split into two makes for an even more dragged out and slow paced movie.

If you like Twilight this is a must see, but if you haven’t seen any of the others: you aren’t missing anything except for naked Robert Pattinson’s bare back. So unless you find him attractive there is no reason why you would have to go see this. Only if you are interested in knowing what the last book in the series is about, without actually having to read it (which I totally understand) I would recommend you to check this out. Other than that: it’s entertaining, but nothing more than that.

Trailer: