Bar a few outstanding releases, November has been quite a disappointing month for entertainment in my opinion, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part One is one of the pure reasons I'm of that opinion. So much could have been made of splitting the huge final novel in this thrilling fantasy-romance series into two, just as David Yates did with the fantastic two-part Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last November and July, but for some reason the writers neglected to think that we might be bored if almost the entire first half was spent sitting around at Bella and Edward's honeymoon, practically daring for something bad to happen. We do at least get indulged with some particularly visceral sexual and violent scenes (how on earth this once managed a 12A rating is beyond me!), yet these feel like the setpieces of the movie, making their brevity an indicator of how little enjoyment there is to be had in the two hour running time. Undoubtedly the best part of the film is its climax, and thankfully this is not because I was practically cheering that I managed to sit through this without leaving the cinema and asking for a refund. The final scenes, focusing on Bella's impending childbirth and the vampire-werewolf war, are suitably epic, serving to lead us into a cliffhanger that excites me despite the resolution to the war being shown in this half and being rather anti-climatic. Here we see the special effects team utilised to the full, gloriously animating those furry beasts and the birth itself, as bloody and realistic as any adaptation hardcores could have hoped for, and thus as squeam- and tear-inducing as others could not. If the whole movie was as fast-paced and genuinely captivating as its final half hour or so, then I'd be able to award Part One a much higher score, perhaps heading towards Film of the Year territory (though probably not quite there yet), because this section is every bit as engaging as The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (4/5) was. Sadly, though, I had to sit through an hour and a half of absolute drawl to get there, and thus I can't give the entire experience anything but what I have awarded it above. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part One stands as one of the most disappointing film sequels of the year- just rent it on DVD so you can skip the boring bits and catch up on the important points for Part Two, which I hope can provide the Twilight series with the send off it deserves.
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Saturday, 3 December 2011
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part One Review (2/5)
Bar a few outstanding releases, November has been quite a disappointing month for entertainment in my opinion, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part One is one of the pure reasons I'm of that opinion. So much could have been made of splitting the huge final novel in this thrilling fantasy-romance series into two, just as David Yates did with the fantastic two-part Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last November and July, but for some reason the writers neglected to think that we might be bored if almost the entire first half was spent sitting around at Bella and Edward's honeymoon, practically daring for something bad to happen. We do at least get indulged with some particularly visceral sexual and violent scenes (how on earth this once managed a 12A rating is beyond me!), yet these feel like the setpieces of the movie, making their brevity an indicator of how little enjoyment there is to be had in the two hour running time. Undoubtedly the best part of the film is its climax, and thankfully this is not because I was practically cheering that I managed to sit through this without leaving the cinema and asking for a refund. The final scenes, focusing on Bella's impending childbirth and the vampire-werewolf war, are suitably epic, serving to lead us into a cliffhanger that excites me despite the resolution to the war being shown in this half and being rather anti-climatic. Here we see the special effects team utilised to the full, gloriously animating those furry beasts and the birth itself, as bloody and realistic as any adaptation hardcores could have hoped for, and thus as squeam- and tear-inducing as others could not. If the whole movie was as fast-paced and genuinely captivating as its final half hour or so, then I'd be able to award Part One a much higher score, perhaps heading towards Film of the Year territory (though probably not quite there yet), because this section is every bit as engaging as The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (4/5) was. Sadly, though, I had to sit through an hour and a half of absolute drawl to get there, and thus I can't give the entire experience anything but what I have awarded it above. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part One stands as one of the most disappointing film sequels of the year- just rent it on DVD so you can skip the boring bits and catch up on the important points for Part Two, which I hope can provide the Twilight series with the send off it deserves.
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