I just saw the part 2 of "Breaking Dawn" (in my country it opened on November 14) and I was very impressed. I loved this skillful and very faithful adaptation of the final chapters of "Twilight" saga. WARNING: this review contains limited SPOILERS and also some slightly dirty jokes...As probably everybody already knows, this film begins with Bella Cullen (former Bella Swan) making her first steps as a newly created vampire, very soon after the extremely difficult birth of her daughter Renesmee. Things that happened at the end of the previous part are discreetly reminded to us by the extraordinary opening scene, in which we can enjoy the beauty of state of Washington, listen to the perfectly adapted music and finally watch how the nature changes when winter comes and all of this is somehow connected to Bella's transformation. I was very impressed by those first scenes it is rare to see the opening credits put to such a good use.
Bella's first days as newborn vampire are a delight to watch. Unlike many Kristen Stewart haters I think she is a pretty talented actress. However until now Bella's character was less active than others and therefore Kristen Stewart did the right thing adopting a discreet, introverted approach to this role in previous parts. But as a vampire Bella is paradoxically more "alive" than ever before and in this film Kristen Stewart acts in a much more assertive way and she does a great job! Also, with the help of some make up and computer improvement of images, she is suddenly more beautiful than ever. Clearly the un-death becomes her... She also can finally let her husband make love to her without fearing that she will end as Bella-jelly on the rocks... (sorry I couldn't resist). And finally, as a newborn, she is also the strongest vampire in the coven, for a time at least something that Emmett will learn in great detail...)))
The joy of other members of Cullen clan who see Edward finally happy with his recently deceased young bride and his newborn half-undead daughter (yes, I know this sounds complicated, but really, this is how the story goes) is a very pleasant thing to see. There is of course one enormous elephant in the room the weird attachment Jacob (your friendly neighborhood werewolf) developed towards Renesmee, to great annoyance of Edward (no father appreciates a potential son-in-law who can lick him) and an even greater fury of Bella, as no mother wants her precious daughter to be an underdog...))) Jacob's "puppy love" was considered as very shocking by many reviewers of books but here it is shown as something perfectly safe and quite respectable...
But soon appears a threat to Edward and Bella's happiness and in fact to the very existence of the whole Cullen coven. As we already know since the part 2, between the vampire royalty, the Volturi and the Cullens there is bad blood (pun very much intentional). In this episode the escalating tension will finally reach the breaking point...
The description of the developing crisis, the mobilization of hostile armies, the confrontation and finally the rather unexpected but clever resolution of the whole problem were well described in the book and are even better shown on the screen. Volturi-Cullens conflict is a great moment of cinema!
Those who read the second part of the last book in the series certainly remember that there are NO action scenes in it and those who saw the trailers had to notice that there is one HUGE battle scene, with the Volturi Guard fighting Cullens, Denalis and their other vampire and werewolf allies. The film however remains a VERY faithful adaptation of the novel... Confused already? Well, I can not reveal details, but believe me, there IS an easy explanation. Also, adding this extremely well shown furious battle helped this film in fact it helped it very much...
The way this huge battle is described reminded me very much of Iliade and the fights between heroes of Troy War. I will not describe here anything from the battle in "Breaking Dawn, part 2" but it is somehow similar to the description of events by Homer. In Iliad, we can read that Sarpedon, a valiant Trojan ally, was killed in fight by Patroclus. Later, Hector avenged Sarpedon by killing Patroclus, but then was himself slain by this latter's best friend, Achilles. After that Paris, Hector's brother, killed Achilles with a poisoned arrow, before being himself shot and killed by Philoctetes. In the great battle scene in this film, fights between successive heroes and champions follow a somehow similar logic. I loved this long scene greatly.
There are many other delights in this film, especially when vampires invited by the Cullens arrive. American and European nomads are very little shown, with the exception of Alistair on another hand the Egyptians and the Irish coven appear a little bit more, and the powers of Benjamin are particularly impressive in the film...
Amazonian amazons are absolute eye-candy especially Zafrina is an impressively hot creature. In the film only two amazons, Zafrina and Senna, are present (the third one, Kachiri, is not even mentioned). The girls from the Denali coven are even hotter, especially Kate and Tanya. All those who liked "Dexter" will be delighted to see Christian Camargo playing Eleazar, the only male of the Denali coven. Garrett, the nomad who will later join the Denali coven, provides tons of humor as a vampire who never fully recovered from the Independence War (he still passionately hates everything British).
And then there are of course Vladimir and Stefan from the Romanian (or rather Transylvanian) coven. Those two are a show in the show! In principle they seem to be very serious and even deadly dangerous but their faces and their speech are simply irresistible! Every time they appear, the whole theater would puff and giggle... Oh, it may come as a surprise to you, but if you really want to FULLY appreciate those two vampires, read "The cat in the hat" before going to cinema no, this is not a joke and I am not crazy believe me, there is a connection...)))
All those characters provide great fun, especially in the scene preceding the great confrontation, when something like twenty vampires and one werewolf sit around a campfire at night and tell scary stories!!
There are however some characters missing in action. When the Volturi appeared I was very surprised that unlike in the book the wives, Sulpicia and Athenodora, were absent. Even worse, Felix, the hulking chief enforcer/executioner of Volturi does NOT appear in this film and this is a great pity! Also, Wendell Pierce, who plays the somehow mysterious Mr Jenks, should have more screen time at the very least a couple of minutes...
I would greatly advise to watch the final credits to the end as they are a farewell for all the series. Many girls in the cinema were very moved by those last moments and that included my wife...
I positively loved this film it is a very, very good conclusion to the extraordinary adventure that was watching "Twilight" series. After surviving James, Victoria, Riley, the army of newborns, the conflict with the werewolves and even the confrontation with the Volturi, at the end of this film the two recently married lovers could finally begin what is the REAL GLORIOUS adventure, both for the mortals and the undead spending life together and raise the children...
"And now forever?" asked Edward. "And now forever" whispered Bella. The Fate didn't say anything this time she was having a busy working lunch with the director of the next "Hunger Games" film...
I will say that I cannot imagine a better way to end this story. It was everything I could have hoped for, except the promise of yet another book and movie!
It was so thoughtful to include the full cast of all the movies in the credits at the end of the movie. So great to see all those faces again.
What an amazing four years this has been for all of us fans! After reading the books, I dreamed about having them made into movies. I even pictured Kristen Stewart as Bella! None of it has been anthing but delightful.
Thanks to Stephenie Meyer for writing the only love story I've ever been able to appreciate, to Melissa Rosenberg for turning it into fabulous screenplays and all the other magical movie people for giving us the lovliest fairytale of our time.
Go see Breaking Dawn Part II I think that this may be the best in the Twilight series. I found the movie to be a great end to the series wrapping up all of the loose ends and giving fans a chance to appreciate the entire experience of the series. I thought that the story came out excellent, I was glad that the trio was able to get things fixed between them. The fight scenes were excellent as well and very believable, and if you like possible futures this gives off some very good, but heart-wrenching ones. For werewolf fans you get some very good scenes and vampire fans, this is going to really going to get your interest. I am looking forward to getting this on dvd when it comes out. For series lovers see this you're going to love it.It is to bad they choose to make so many out takes and do not let them be on one disc.
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