The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

Rating: 5/10 (28 November 2011)

From director Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls), the final instalment was going to be a big deal for the fans of the Twilight series, based on the books by Stephanie Meyer, but it would be the same story as the final Harry Potter, split into two parts, this is the first part. Basically Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is getting ready to marry her true love, vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), much to the dismay of Bella's one off werewolf love interest Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). The happy day comes along, and though she was noticeably nervous Bella and Edward do get married, and Jacob shows up in time to show his happiness for her at the reception, but also he anger at the fact that they may consummate the marriage. The newly joined couple spend their honeymoon in the tropical paradise of a private island villa in Brazil, and both of them, although hesitant, do have sex together for the first time. He spots that she is bruised and says he will never have sex with her again, but after doing nothing but some games of chess, running about through the forests, and jumping of cliffs into waterfall pools, he does eventually give in to temptation. Two weeks later however Bella wakes up feeling unwell and like something is inside her, it may be impossible but she already pregnant with a foetus growing at an extraordinarily fast rate, and they have no choice but to rush back to Forks. She refuses, even with the pleading of the Cullens, to have an abortion and wants to keep the child, and she gets Rosalie Hale (Nikki Reed) to help her take care of the coming baby's every need. Sam Uley (Chaske Spencer) of the werewolf clan wants Bella and the child to be killed, Jacob refuses to help and he leaves the pack to protect and help his former lover in any way he can. The pregnancy continues and Bella grows increasingly sick and her health deteriorates, she may die, and the group decide that the most likely thing to help is to feed the baby blood, so the mother to be starts drinking it, and it does work. Eventually Bella goes into a highly painful labour, she gives birth to a daughter that they give the unusual name Renesmee, but she is still dying of the complications, and the only way to help is Edward injecting with his curse and turning her into a vampire. She seems to die before the effects of the vampire curse can take over and make her immortal, and angered Jacob changes his mind about the baby, trying to kill it, but there is something about the baby that stumps him, an "imprinting". The other werewolves find out that Bella has apparently died, and they also try to kill the baby, but they are stopped by this imprinting too, this is a law in the pact between vampires and werewolves. The final moments see baby Renesmee safe and sound, and the vampire venom did in fact course through the body of Bella, and her eyes open to reveal her pupils red, and we also see Aro Volturi (Michael Sheen) learning she is now a vampire, and he says that his dispute with her and the Cullens in not over. Also starring Billy Burke as Charlie Swan, Peter Facinelli as Dr. Carlisle Cullen, Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen, Jackson Rathbone as Jasper Hale, Anna Kendrick as Jessica Stanley, Maggie Grace as Irina Denali, Jamie Campbell Bower as Caius, MÃ­a Maestro as Carmen Denali and MyAnna Buring as Tanya Denali. The three leads as with the other three films are likable enough, the screen time between Stewart and Pattinson is good, the story is much more simple compared to the previous instalments, and there are many moments to keep you interested, e.g. Bella and Edward having sex for the first time, Bella pregnant and starting to drink blood, and the slow transformation. I personally do not understand why the critics only give this first part in the final of the series two stars out of five, I thought it was actually quite cool and the most interesting of the whole series, if I really had to pick (I'm not a Twihard LOL), a good romantic horror fantasy. Worth watching!