a damp squib of a climax, highlighting franchise flaws and naivety

Rating: 5/10 (20 May 2013)

The Twilight books were a guilty pleasure, I enjoyed them (to a point). I don't pretend they were works of literary genius, or the plot was particularly clever, and don't get me started on sparkles, but they were a diversion and I bought them all and saw all the films (mainly on DVD).
This is the final instalment, the denouement of the story arc and should have been the screaming crescendo of a climax but was more or less a damp squib. Given the money that was clearly lavished on this film (and the others) it left a lot to be desired. The series' final book was split into two films which I think was a con as there just isn't enough happening in them to make four hours of viewing, they would have been TOTALLY better as one film with faster action. This film was relatively empty and jumped from point to point with little cohesion between. It got annoying. Then there's the acting, given the lack of intelligent script the actors have to act by numbers - jumping from facial expression to the next which makes the woodenness of the acting, which Pattinson and Stewart (both good actors) have been tarred with since the franchise began as if they are just reading lines rather than delivering them. Given, also, there's a lot of - invisible to the viewer - telepathy there are a lot of empty hand-on-face scenes. The CGI is prolific, and it's often hard to tell if there is anything real, which isn't necessarily a good thing as it makes the film less believable (despite being fantasy). The CGI of Renesme's face was so fake and ridiculous but the wolves are lovely again and one of the best parts of all the films, and the CGI on Kristen's face/make up is good. Regarding CGI, what was with the brief white sparkles in the love scene? Was that supposed to be an orgasm? WTH? The only other redeeming features of the film is the cinematography of the landscapes (real or CGI) and the sweeping panoramas which are legion and the fight scene at the end. It is an attractive film, the cottage in the woods very Thomas Kincaid, entertaining to a point but empty and rather dull and like the previous two-parter too montage ridden. The dialogue (what little there was) was banal and limited, and there needed to be more complexity, but that is the fault of the books as they were naively written (given the subject) but it must be remembered that this is a series for young adults not grown-ups and as such it is probably gripping and exciting. With that in mind, as a film, it's still disappointing.