Bella enjoys her new life as a vampire while she fights to balance her hunger for blood.   The biggest problem of Edward and Bella is that their daughter Renesmee is growing super fast and the Volturi think they have made an immortal child.   The Cullens seek to gather witnesses to stop a fight they may not be able to win.

BREAKING DAWN Part 2 continues to prove to me that they shouldn’t have spilt the book into two movies.   I wonder how the book is to the movies (I only read TWLIGHT and NEW MOON thus far).  I did really enjoy TWILIGHT and ECLIPSE while I think NEW MOON is OK and yet a little flawed.  

BREAKING DAWN Part 1 is a bloated movie that runs on for too long.  Part 2 is also too long while adding a few problems for everything they do right.   The special effects for super vampire speed are really badly done compared to the other TWILIGHT movies in addition to some editing that could have leaned this movie down.  I do think Summit Entertainment should have left BREAKING DAWN as one two and half hour film with a different director instead of two overlong films.   Then you have the inclusion of too many chick flick pop songs as they try too hard to sell this final installment as a chick flick that just happens to have sparkly vampires and smelly wolves.    The first three directors knew how to balance character and story more than Bill Condon does for the TWILIGHT movies, but it may be partly out of his hands due to Summit’s error in judgment in splitting the final book into two movies.  It worked for HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HOLLOWS, but it just doesn’t quite work for this one.

However, BREAKING DAWN Part 2 does have some good character moments and some interesting new characters (who hardly have anything to do) while Kristen Stewart does her best performance as Bella out of the entire series.  Michael Sheen camps it as the leader of the Volturi (and it shows he is really enjoying the role) while Dakota Fanning shows the right emotions without saying anything at all.   I do think the search for witnesses’ part does feel too much like a religious experience where people must witness how special the child is.   I love the climatic battle sequence, but the final twist at the end was the final straw and I feel it was a big cheat.   As a result, there are two many things I hate about the final movie compared to what I liked about it.   I think BREAKING DAWN Part 2 has to be one of the worst movies I have seen this year and maybe they could have made a good movie out of BREAKING DAWN as one film and edited at least an hour out of the bloated running time with a different director at the helm.

This movie review is (c)11-16-2012 david Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com