No jumping on bandwagon for me - 8 stars.........Fantastic

Rating: 8/10 (4 December 2012)

If you didn't like or see the first movie, watching Breaking Dawn part anything is probably going to be a waste of time. This is where the bad reviews for the Twilight movies come from - non target audience being dragged to the cinema by a friend or partner with all the hype and success promising a great experience, only to find enjoying the sequels requires much more long term investment in the previous movies. It is also, understandably, not everyone's cup of tea. That is fine but I feel it has been overlooked as an epic coming of age story by, shall we say, older film critics.
These critics seem to focus on all the wrong aspects like - occasional plot inconsistencies, dodgy CGI and wooden acting. This franchise is definitely guilty of all these things but no more than any other franchise that is stooped in myth and fantasy.
Although I am a middle aged man I loved the first movie, Twilight, and saw past the fact that it was predominately made for a younger female audience. The potential for building on the characters and story that were introduced seemed huge. The main human character (Bella) meets the vampire family that don't eat humans but then comes up against vampires that do. She is in love with Edward Cullen vampire and he loves her more than anybody has ever loved anybody in a story since Romeo and Juliet. He defends her against these nasty vampires.
New Moon is the second movie which explores the issues with a human being with a vampire - issues like being eaten or turned into a vampire by accident which would be hard to explain to her dad (Charlie). Edward leaves Bella for two thirds of the movie but this is even more dangerous for her as they are so in love and she becomes self destructive. In this movie we are introduced to the existence of werewolves and a kind of Vampire council based in Italy called the Volturi. This is also where we are introduced to the possibility that Bella might become a vampire.
The third instalment, Eclipse, takes it all a step further as baddie vampires come to get Bella again with a huge "new born" army and goody vampires and werewolves (natural enemies) put there differences aside to fight this army off. The end of Eclipse is the same as the end of New Moon where Edward asks Bella to marry him and she pulls a face.
Breaking Dawn part 1 - they get married and I nearly cried. The scenes in the Breaking Dawn movies are hugely satisfying after the build up from the previous three movies. The wedding, and the consummation of, is moving to those that care and the progression of the story towards Bella becoming a Vampire is handled really well. She becomes pregnant on the honeymoon but the baby is half vampire so it is a tough pregnancy to be honest. Anyway, Edward has to turn Bella into a vampire as she dies in childbirth - all while the rest of the vampire family fight werewolves outside. It is real edge of your seat stuff - the werewolves are not happy as they feel the peace treaty has been broken by the creation of a vampire child and the will Bella / won't Bella make it is almost too much to bare. One of the werewolves (Jacob) loves Bella though, and is by her side throughout the pregnancy. When the CGI baby vampire is born he then imprints on the baby. This is a werewolf thing that I don't understand but it means he is going to become the child's protector until she is an adult then I guess a bit more. Its well weird but I got passed it.
Part 2 - my expectations were that I was going to see Bella become accustomed to being a vampire and experience it through her eyes. I was hugely interested in how this would all be explained to her dad and also how Jacob's relationship with Edward and Bella's new born child, Renesmee, would evolve. I was not disappointed with how it was all dealt with and came away satisfied by a shocking ending. We have all heard about this twist towards the end and to say I was gripped throughout in anticipation for this is an understatement. The growing of the half human half vampire Renesmee also created a whole new brace of questions. These questions were of concern initially as gaping holes in the plot would have been left had they not been answered satisfactorily - thank god they were. I was worried about this movie slightly as I feared that they would just gloss over really important stuff and focus to much on the major fight scene towards the end. This was clearly going to happen against the Volturi having seen the trailer. Luckily there was far more to the action than the trailer let on.
In summary the whole cast, headed up by Kristen Stewart (Bella) and Robert Pattison (Edward), looked fantastic and fitted the roles perfectly. Kristen's nervous acting - particularly in the first movie - was part of the character and her style adapted as she progressed through to her finally becoming a vampire. Robert's reportedly "wooden" acting can be explained by the fact he is a 109 year old vampire and is essentially walking dead so is supposed to be a bit reserved and vacant - perhaps lacking the normal vibrancy you would expect from a normal human teenager. Only Michael Sheen, as the head Volturi, takes a different approach by being camp but in a very sinister way. The way he laughs in Breaking Dawn Pt 2 steals the show as far as acting is concerned but then you would expect nothing else from him would you?