The Twilight Saga : Breaking Dawn - Part  2

Review by Anthony Morris

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: as the fifth film in a five film series, this is not the point to jump on board the Twilight saga.

In a lot of ways the story really ended with the end of the last film: Bella (Kristen Stewart) had finally gotten her wish to become a vampire at the fangs of Edward Cullen (Robert Patterson), the love triangle between Bella, Edward and werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner) had worked itself out with Jacob "imprinting" on Bella and Edward's half vampire, half human baby Renesmee and all’s well that ends laughably.

But there’s still a whole half of the final novel in the Twilight series to go, so this kicks off with Bella enjoying her new vampire powers – she even almost eats a cute deer, but luckily a cougar comes along so she can eat that instead – while Jacob desperately tries to explain to everyone that "imprinting" isn't anywhere near as creepy as it sounds and Edward gets to finally enjoy some hot vampire sex, which in some cases can go for a decade non-stop.

Even better, Renesmee, being half vampire, grows up superfast so Bella doesn’t really have to deal with annoying baby stuff and Jacob isn't going to be all old and yucky before she's old enough to submit to his wolf-like charms.

Fortunately for those wondering exactly what the point of this film is past a super-happy ending for all the characters, the evil-ish Vampire High Council, the Voltari, get word of Renesmee and, thinking she's a run-of-the-mill vampire child, which is a massive no-no (vampire kids tend to wreck up the place when they have a tantrum, which is not good for vampires trying to lay low), decide to teach the Cullen family a lesson.

The Cullen’s put together a team of "witnesses" to explain the kid is not going to go off the rails, everyone seems to have super-powers and the stage is set for what turns out to be a surprisingly satisfying ending to the whole series.

Make no mistake, this is just as nutty and wobbly as all the other films: the special effects are often dodgy, everyone aside from the main trio often seems incapable of even straight-to-DVD-standard acting, and so on.

But over the five films Twilight has been pretty consistent in being basic-level entertaining – the awful second film aside – and this neither lets the side down nor makes a late break for quality.

More than just about any other based-on-a-book franchise, Twilight has been about keeping the books' fans happy: whatever anyone else might think, on that level it's mission accomplished.

3 out of 5

The Twilight Saga : Breaking Dawn - Part  2
Australian release: 15th November, 2012
Official Site: The Twilight Saga : Breaking Dawn - Part  2
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Maggie Grace, Dakota Fanning, Ashley Greene, Michael Sheen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone
Director: Bill Condon