An improvement over Part 1, but goes out on a whimper rather than on a bang

Rating: 4/10 (16 November 2012)

As said in my review of Breaking Dawn: Part 1, I am neither a fan or detractor of the Twilight Saga, though in terms of the books I only lasted the first chapter of the first book. Of the movies, for me the best was Eclipse, and the worst New Moon. In terms of Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 I'd say that it is a marginal improvement over Breaking Dawn: Part 1 and ranking the whole saga I'd put it bang in the middle, but for a finale to a film series I found it very underwhelming.
Does it have good points? Yes actually. I did think the scenery was really lovely, very evergreen-looking, and the photography did have some nice shots(some of the zooming though does get too much). I also thought that Breaking Dawn: Part 2 did have the best music score, courtesy of Carter Burwell, of the saga, and that Renesmee was just adorable. There are a few performances that were quite good. Michael Sheen does ham things up but he is gleefully fun to watch, Billy Burke is once again amusing and Ashley Greene is good as Alice. Dakota Fanning is also not too bad, I think an improvement over the previous instalments, but I have seen her give better performances in better movies.
That said, I am still not convinced by the acting of the three leads. I will say though that Kristen Stewart does give her best performance of the series, she does finally crack a smile after looking bored previously, she doesn't mope around as much and she does show some genuine concern regarding Bella's situation. However, and it doesn't help that Bella(in my eyes) is such a dull and unlikeable character, I still didn't find her entirely convincing, her eyes show no signs of life, her face lacks expression and she has a lot of flat line delivery. Robert Pattinson does have some sweet chemistry with her, but he does look constipated a lot and his facial expressions have a tendency to be on the hammy side. They are not that bad though compared to Taylor Lautner, who is unbearably wooden here as Jacob and the constant taking off of his shirt got old quickly.
On top of that, Bill Condon's direction seems rather uninspired. I am familiar with Condon and do find him a promising director/writer who observes things well, Gods and Monsters is one of my favourites, Kinsey is very interesting and Dreamgirls is decent. But there is little of what these things as good as they were on display here, so as like the previous instalment there is the sense that Condon was not in his comfort zone. A lot of things don't help though, as the dialogue continues to be clunky and almost like watching an overly-melodramatic soap opera- especially in the first half where everything is lacking in any kind of intent- and the story is plodding- though the beginning also manages to feel very rushed- in its exposition with scenes dragging on too long and very little that is exciting or surprising. The ending has no real gusto or emotional punch(though actually it still manages to be the highlight of the entire film), the fight scenes are clumsily choreographed, the opening credits go on for far too long and you just don't care for any of the characters.
In regard to the special effects and make-up, they are pretty terrible here. The computer generated wolves manage to be both cheesy and stupid in design and manner and the red glaring contact lenses look dodgy and are more at home in a cartoon. While Renesmee as a baby looks so creepily fake that it is laughable, the be-headings are the equivalent of ripping the head of your favourite toy in a rage and the white greasepaint passing for make-up all looks blotchy and artificial. The closing moments are clichéd and reek of cheese as well, and the vampires are as far away from authentic as you could come. Overall, not the best or worst of the series, but for a saga finale it was underwhelming, where it had potential to go out on a bang it was more of a whimper.
4/10 Bethany Cox