THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN - PART 2

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012)
Grade: B
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Mackenzie Foy, Peter Facinelli, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Michael Sheen, Maggie Grace and Dakota Fanning
Premise: Edward and Bella's young child, Renesmee, is immediately in danger upon her discovery by the Volturi, according to an ancient decree that vampires cannot have children due to the newborns' instability and reckless bloodlust.

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and strong violence (including multiple decapitations)

And it's time to exhale. After five movies in five years, over $2 billion in worldwide box office revenue, and multiple parodies and spinoffs and imitations, The Twilight Saga has come to a close. May the rejoicing (by cinema purists and manly men) and weeping (by most women and an admittedly fair number of men) begin!! Director Bill Condon's Breaking Dawn - Part 2 wraps up the story of vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and his great love, vulnerable-human-turned-immortal-vampire Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), having covered in five films what author Stephanie Meyer depicted in four lengthy best-selling novels.

I'm not gonna lie: it's a little hard to believe it's over. I got on the Twilight bandwagon shortly after the release of the first film in November 2008, read the first three books and saw two other movies, but, bored and slightly irritated by the rampant cheesiness and schmaltziness of both the books and the movies (but mostly the movies), I didn't bother to read the fourth book, Breaking Dawn, or see last year's Part 1, also directed by Condon. But, coming into the theater to see Part 2 after finally breaking down and admitting I kinda wanted to see it, I decided to set expectations aside and watch and just hope the romantic stuff didn't get too gooey. While I snorted and sniggered my way through a fair amount of cheesy dialogue and amusingly-obvious special effects (and rolled my eyes during a putrid romantic scene or two) I was actually rather impressed. Certainly, Part 2 made for a breezier, more entertaining time at the movies than the talky Lincoln, which I saw yesterday. And while it won't prove an Oscar winner and didn't leave me wanting more installments, I'm glad I saw it. It's a pleasant feeling.

Plot: Part 2 picks up right where Part 1 left off, with Bella Cullen (a thankfully more coloured and expressive Stewart) now a mother and a vampire (for the uninitiated, Bella married her vampire lover, Edward Cullen, in the last version, became with child and would have bled to death during labor if not for Edward's biting her and setting her on the fast track to immortality). While she's still getting used to some of her new characteristics--like crushing super strength and an all-consuming thirst for blood, human or animal--life is as good as it's been for Bella since she met Edward (Pattinson). She doesn't have to keep her distance or tread carefully around him, his kindly surrogate father (Peter Facinelli), or her new "siblings" (including Kellan Lutz's Emmett and Ashley Greene's Alice), she's now super-fast and graceful, and her daughter, Renesmee (played as a toddler and child by Mackenzie Foy) is healthy and happy and growing quickly.

*NOTE* Since she was conceived by an immortal vampire and a human, Renesmee has inherited some characteristics from each, and grows at about ten times the rate of a normal child.
*NOTE #2* Renesmee's name is a combination of Bella and Edward's respective mothers' names, Rene and Esme.
*NOTE #3* Remember Bella's werewolf friend and ever-smitten second-rate crush Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner)? Well, he's still around. Why would he still be around since he's officially lost out on the girl of his dreams? Because, in keeping with the werewolf "tradition", he has recently "imprinted" psychologically and emotionally on the woman deemed to be his future mate...Renesmee.

Well, as Renesmee grow, Bella hones her new powers, reaches out to her doting but confused father (Billy Burke), and Jacob's constant presence is increasingly accepted by Bella/Renesmee's extended vampire family. But trouble arrives in paradise when a fellow vampire (Maggie Grace) traveling through the area spots Renesmee and then hastens to tell the Volturi--the ruling vampire regime--about her. After all, the Volturi, led by Michael Sheen's charismatic Aro and Dakota Fanning's quietly-sadistic Jane, uphold vampire law, and vampire law dictates that immortal youngsters are not tolerated due to their tendency to be unstable and destructive (they're usually decapitated and burned like all criminal vampires). When Bella's surrogate sister Alice gets wind of this (she can see the future), she warns the rest of the family that they have "until the snow sticks" to gather evidence of Renesmee's mortality and credible witnesses...before the Volturi come to kill her and anyone who tries to defend her.

What Works?
Quietly, it seems, the Twilight Saga has come into its own. Thanks to Bella's marrying Edward and Jacob's connection to Renesmee, Part 2 is freed from the I-love-him, but-I-love-him-too whining that made the previous installments so insufferable at times. And the "white-face" makeup used to make the vampires look pale and immortal has thankfully been applied with less ferocity this time around--Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Ashley Greene and Peter Facinelli all have more color than they've had in the four other films combined (regrettably, this pleasing development does not apply to either Kellan Lutz's Emmett or Michael Sheen's Aro, both of whom look like they're dying of some hideous disease). Taylor Lautner also keeps his shirt on for almost the entire movie (the girls in the audience only had one chance to squeal and whistle during a de-shirting), another check in the "Thank Goodness" box. And, because Part 2 has an actual point and needs to take several steps to get there, there's not a lot of down time, so Pattinson and Stewart have less time to sit around murmuring and cooing sweet nothings to one another.

The latter also allows Part 2 to get past the clunky and awkward "acting" done by the main two in the other chapters. There's a lot to be done, and a lot of new faces to familiarize the audience with (or at least introduce them to), so this film doesn't rest nearly as much on the slight shoulders of Stewart or Pattinson. Part 2 isn't going to get any closer to snaring an Oscar nomination than the other installments in the franchise, but decent contributions are given by nearly all involved, including Stewart (having fun, for once), Peter Facinelli, Michael Sheen (clearly having a ball), and the earnest and surprisingly poignant Billy Burke.

The last third of the movie also builds up to a breathtaking action sequence that is nearly as awesome as teenage boys have figured this series could be all along if all the vampires and werewolves stopped whining and moaning and just had at each other. Chalking this movie's popcorn factor far beyond any of the previous films', this battle royale contains some cool mano-a-mano duels and a few stupendous twists (the audience in the theater gasped as a whole at least once, and I heard multiple people gasping "What!? But that's not in the book!"). On that basis, as a guy, I must admit that this movie left me rather satisfied.

What Doesn't Work?
Not all of the actors are free from the stale-white face makeup that heightens the cheese factor in these parts, and no vampire-playing actor is spared the blood-red eye contacts, which go from distracting to gross and back, depending on the actor. And there are enough gooey exchanges between Stewart and Pattinson for you to get antsy hoping for the action to start. And Taylor Lautner--though spared the unenviable task of devoting the whole of his screen time to either showing his abs or pining for Stewart--has lost his luster. Once this series' breath of fresh air (back in the New Moon days), he is here more annoying than anything. Some of the CGI is iffy, and, of course, the requisite slate of dialogue contains a few howlers ("How DARE you nickname my daughter after the Loch Ness monster!"). The good news is....this is finally over.

Content:
There's no cussing and, apart from one early scene of partial nudity and heated kissing between Stewart and Pattinson, nothing more than playful innuendos to offend/disturb younger viewers. The big battle does contain a lot of dismemberments (ripping the heads off their foes is a favorite vampire pastime, if you didn't know), but, of course, there's nary a drop of blood spilled. Ironic for a vampire movie, huh? Mostly, if your preteen or young teen daughter wants to see this movie with her fellow young Twi-hard friends, there's nothing that's gonna give them nightmares.

Bottom Line (I Promise): I'm not saying this is official (and it doesn't matter that much, anyway) but The Twilight Saga might just have ended with its best, most entertaining installment. Busy and brisk enough to do away with most of the angsty material that held the other films back, Part 2 is actually kinda cool.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012)
Directed by Bill Condon
Screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg; Based on the novel "Breaking Dawn" by Stephanie Meyer
Rated PG-13
Length: 115 minutes