The long-awaited end, for the worst reasons.

Rating: 5/10 (26 March 2020)

This film is the latest in a saga of five based on a series of "best seller" books. I never read the books (nor do I intend to), but if Edward and Bella's story should be epic it won't be thanks to these films.
The plot of this film is summarized as follows: after a difficult delivery in which she truly dies, Bella ends up being a vampire, as she longed for. Now, you need to learn to control your bloodlust and your newly acquired powers and abilities, as well as to disguise your new condition when necessary. At the same time, and just when everything seems to be going well, the Cullens will have to defend themselves against a false accusation in the face of the relentless Volturi, who are on their way to probably kill them all.
Bill Condon continues to provide direction and gives the film a good sense of direct connection to its predecessor, as well as a good, closed and well-done conclusion. In clear contrast to the film that precedes it, this is the least romantic, with the novel giving way to a more interesting plot where adaptation to a new life, followed by the threat of war, are the strong points. It was also the most interesting and appealing film in the saga, the most cinematic and the most epic, in my opinion. The rhythm was more worked, but it still drags a lot in moments that seem unnecessary. The climax is, of course, the confrontation between the Cullens and the Volturi, and the ending is quite good and puts a clear and definitive end to the saga.
Despite everything, the film still has problems, parallel and endemic to the whole saga. Looking at the big picture, now that I have seen all the films, I really think that the fault lies more with the incompetence of the screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, and not so much with the successive directors, although the lack of firm hands and the inconstancy in this field (with each film to be made by a different director, in practice) did not help the quality of the whole. Parallel to the whole saga, a warm and boring story that can only be saved thanks to sub-plots of action, suspense or danger, with bad dialogues and bad material given to the actors. Never as in this saga of five films has it been so clear to see the damage that a bad screenwriter can do to a film or, in this case, an entire film cycle!
Another problem that this film presents, and which is also parallel to the whole saga, is the poor performance of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, two actors who, in my view, should never have been placed here. There were casting errors. Stewart is much better in this film than in all the others, but she remains an actress without expression, and that will be something she will have to change and improve in future works if she wants to succeed. Pattinson has achieved minimal chemistry with her, but he is still far short of what he should have achieved, even individually. Taylor Lautner, who started the saga well and grew, ended badly. From a serious actor playing a nice character, he has become a bunch of muscles that, when he takes off his shirt, turns into a furball. The secondary cast maintains the positive level of previous films. Billy Burke and Ashley Greene are very good, as are Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Maggie Grace and Booboo Stewart. On the Volturi side, Dakota Fanning was fine but had little to do and I didn't like Michael Sheen. I think he put too much pressure on the stereotypes of the European noble vampire when thinking about his character. Rami Malek makes a brief appearance, but shows ability and talent.
Technically, the film has ups and downs. The CGI wolves don't look as good and realistic as in the first films, the fight scenes look like contemporary dance due to excessive choreography and the bloodless deaths are not credible. I am not an apologist for a bath of liters of false blood, but as the people say, "neither eight nor eighty". Another problem is Renesmee ... the baby looks so unreal and fake that they could have used it on a children's toy instead. Carter Burwell's soundtrack has space to stand out and is very good, standing out in the initial credits (longer than usual in the franchise) and in the finals, where Christina Perri's excellent song "A Thousand Years" stands out. Good scenarios, props, costumes (especially Volturi uniforms) and very good images of large-scale landscapes complete the technical work.
This film ends the less successful and less epic saga of the epic sagas. Dragging for five films what could have been easily done in four, it lacks everything, starting with a duo of central characters capable of moving and moving us. The introduction of elements of tension and danger to temper excessive sweetness and mask the flaws of the actors, but they did not make this film (or its predecessors) good films. They just helped them make it bearable.