Breaking Dawn Part 2: The Acceptable Finale

Breaking Dawn Part Two, the final movie adaptation of the Twilight saga directed by Bill Condon made its theatrical debut November 16^th. The movie finale was highly anticipated by Twilight fans around the world. Rumors had been flying around the Internet that the ending of the movie was different then the book and even hinted that Suzanne Collins was going to continue with the series.

To set the record straight, yes the movie is different from the book BUT the endings are the same. The movie just shows something that you don’t necessarily see from Bella’s point of view in the book. But other then that I would say that the final movie adaptation was very accurate to the book in terms of events and such. But the one thing I have never really liked in all of the adaptations is the choice of actors for a majority of the main characters.

Image Property of Summit Entertainment

I have never really been a big fan of Kristen Stewart’s acting especially in the Twilight movies. In the books Bella is just a quiet girl who falls in love with a vampire. I feel like Stewart made Bella look a lot more helpless and awkward then described in the books. Keep in mind in this last installment Bella is now a vampire so she is not exactly helpless but still awkward. But one thing I do think that Stewart acted out well was the mother daughter bond between Bella and her daughter Renesmee. I was very curious how it would look on the big screen because due to the fact that Renesmee ages very quickly, I was worried that the two would look more like sisters instead of mother and daughter. I also thought that the chemistry between Stewart and co-star Rob Pattinson (who plays Edward) was well done as well. But I guess it helps that the Pattinson and Stewart are dating in real life.  

Rob Pattinson’s acting in the Twilight movies is acceptable. Pattinson brings Edwards undying love for Bella to life effortlessly. In the movie and the books, a lot of Edward’s character revolves around his feelings for Bella. I was hoping in the movies we would be able to see more to Edward’s character and learn that there is more to him then just a lovesick vampire.

Taylor Lautner fits the description of Jacob exactly and had a majority of the Twilight fan girls going crazy every time he took off his shirt. His acting on the other hand wasn’t great, but at the same time wasn’t horrible. In this movie we find out that Jacob has imprinted on Bella and Edwards daughter Renesmee. In the movie when Jacob was telling Bella about this I could feel that Lautner was uncomfortable talking about being in love romantically with a baby. In the books Jacob isn’t really that uncomfortable so I know it’s a thing that the actor was actually feeling, not acting. I also feel like Jacob seemed a lot whinier in the movies then in the book. Other then these two things I thought Lautner did an alright job.

I really liked the choice of actors for the Cullen family. My personal favorites were Ashley Greene as Alice, Peter Facinelli as Carlisle and Kellan Lutz as Emmett. Each of these actors brought the characters from the book to life perfectly. From Alice’s bubbly personality to Emmett’s cockiness each character was brought to life exactly how I imagined them in the book series.

Image Property of Summit Entertainment

We don’t see too much of the Volturi coven in the movie or in the books but the storyline revolves around them a lot. The Volturi coven is a group of big bad vampires who are pretty much in charge of all vampires. The two performances from the Volturi coven that really stood out to me were Michael Sheen as Aro and Dakota Fanning as Jane. Aro is the leader of the entire Volturi. He is the big bad guy throughout the series. Aro is the type of bad guy where on the outside he just looks like a creepy guy but he can be truly terrifying when you realize what he is capable of and Sheen did a great job bringing this to life. Jane is a younger vampire in the Volturi with the ability to inflict excruciating pain on anyone whenever she pleases. Whenever Jane did so in the movies the expression on her face would almost give me nightmares at night.

Finally, my favorite acting performance throughout all of the Twilight movies would have to be Billy Burke playing Charlie Swan, Bella’s dad. Charlie Swan was my favorite character in the movies. He is a broken man who’s ex wife had left him and was used to living alone until his teenage daughter (Bella) moved in with him. Burke’s performance in all of the Twilight movies blew me away. You could tell that the Charlie was depressed but trying to hold himself together for Bella, but at the same time he is trying to be a cool understanding dad. Burke’s performance was hands down the best acting performance in the whole saga.

Image Property of Summit Entertainment

I wasn’t exactly a big fan of the special effects in Breaking Dawn Part 2. I feel like they could have been done much better especially since it was the last movie in the series and they probably had the budget to do it. The biggest effect that bugged me throughout the movie was Renesmee growing up. I see why they used special effects for this instead of just hiring a bunch of different actors because Renesmee grows up so fast it would be extremely obvious if different people were playing the different stages of her life. Instead they just used animation for different stages of Renesmee’s life and hired one actress to play her at the age we see her most in the movie. This really bugged me throughout the movie though because it was always extremely obvious whenever Renesmee was animated and it would just bug me so much that it was hard to pay attention to what was actually happening in the movie.

Overall in the end I think that director Bill Condon did an alright job with the last movie installment of the series. It could have been much better, but at the same time it could have been much worse. He stayed true to the book but also made it more appealing to a visual audience.

What do YOU think???

Written By Marcie Culbert