yes, i really am giving it 10 stars!

Rating: 10/10 (28 November 2011)

This review contains SPOILERS!
I'm probably one of the very few ppl who will give this movie 10 stars. I respect that many don't like it, but am saddened that hating on this particular series has become somewhat of a trend.
I'm a fan of the entire Twilight series, the movies as well as the books, even though I can understand why it is considered immature and boring by some. I just think that not everything has to be taken so very seriously and some kitsch and romance can be nice once in a while. I honestly believe there are far worse movies/books out there that haven't been as brutally trashed as Twilight.
Breaking Dawn Pt 1 is, as all the Twilight movies, very well adapted from the book. One thing I'v always liked about the Twilight movies is that they keep so closely to the books, which only rarely happens. The cinematography is pretty and often dream-like which I think fits the mood of the books, especially considering Bella's strange dreams throughout the series. (I loved the dream sequence with the white dress and the blood, which I think was a nice way of introducing the darker mood of the second part of the movie.)
Personally, I liked the slow pace and the contrast between the beautiful wedding/idyllic honeymoon and the dramatic turn where Bella finds out she's pregnant. I know that many ppl comment that a pregnancy is not something to be depicted in such a dramatic light, but we should keep in mind here that it's not a normal pregnancy and that the emotional strain for everyone involved is great and painful. In my opinion this is shown very well by seeing Bella get worse in every shot and the general tension inside the family mirroring the tension growing in the wolf pack. Once again the somewhat slow pace represented Bella's inability to do anything and was cleverly interspersed by the action going on outside, especially with Jacob and the pack (as was the intention in the book, where we don't even see Bella most the time during her pregnancy and get to see everything through Jacob's eyes.)
I also liked that for the first time the telepathic link of the pack was depicted as we so often read about it in the books instead of just mentioned on the side. I think it's important to show the pressure Jacob is under, torn between his family and the love he has for Bella.
Moreover, I disagree that there is no valuable message or meaning in this movie. In my eyes the point is not, as so many like to mock, to practise safe sex and not get pregnant. The point isn't even the pregnancy. For me it's all about the struggle of loving something that has the potential to destroy you. It's about giving everything to your child because you want it to live and in trying to make other people understand that. It's also about Edward: he is depicted as someone who isn't ever satisfied with himself, who thinks he's a monster and therefore every part of him, including his child, must be a monster too. One of my favourite scenes is when Edward finally hears the baby and tells Bella that 'I always thought it was like me, but it's like you' where he finally accepts that there is no monster, simply a part of them both that loves them and wants to be loved.
Lastly, I would like to touch on the subject of imprinting that so many ppl seem to find distasteful but has always been one of my favourite things in the Twilight series, especially Jacob's imprinting on Renesmee. Maybe it's because I'm a hopeless romantic, but I think the way imprinting is explained for me is just another way of saying that wolves mate for life. I don't think that it can be compared to brainwashing and especially love the fact that Jacob himself doesn't agree with it at all until it happens to him with Renesmee. It's basically like falling in love, ppl can't choose who it happens with in real life either, after all. And I also find the concept that the bond adapts according to the needs of the ppl involved very sweet and once again not so very different from relationships in real life as they tend to change over the years as well. So I don't really understand the problem. It's not like wolves that have imprinted lose the ability to feel affection for anyone else - it's not like Jacob will suddenly love Bella any less, just differently. Also imprinting is not about being controlled and losing one's will, it's simply about caring for another person and wanting to make them happy. And considering the plot, I think Jacob imprinting on Renesmee was the perfect way of ensuring that he gets a happy ending as well while also including him in the family - i would have absolutely hated for him to be unhappy till the end.
To conclude, I just want to say that I enjoyed the movie a lot and am very much looking forward to the second part which I'm convinced will be even better.