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| An official movie poster provided by Summit Entertainment |
“Breaking Dawn Part 1” is the next chapter in the book of Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart)’s love story. In this movie, the two love birds get married, go on their honeymoon, and get pregnant, which would not be too out of the ordinary except for the fact that the baby is half vampire, half human. It grows quickly and destroys Bella from the inside out and so Edward and werewolf friend, Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), try to protect Bella from the baby, enemy forces, and even herself. It turns into a commentary on abortion with their fetus versus baby debate, but in the end, Bella gets her way and delivers. The last time we see Bella she is completely thrashed on her bed, sunken in and frail from the ordeal she has gone through, and as the movie comes to a close, Bella is revived and her eyes open to see what will come next in “Breaking Dawn Part 2.”
The acting has shown a huge increase in development over the course of the saga. Pattinson, Stewart, and Lautner came off as complete amateurs in the first Twilight movie and have experienced growth with every new installment of the series. They demonstrated great characterization and a real understanding of emotions that was actually believable. It breaks your heart to see them in these awful positions, heavily weighted with decisions, and that is what good acting should do.
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| The wedding of Edward and Bella. Courtesy of HollywoodLife.com |
That might have something to do with the director, Bill Condon. With a new director for every film in the series, each movie has shown a completely different vision and style, and this follows the trend. The way Condon stylistically chose to portray the birth was very tasteful, and the method in which he chose to show Jacob “imprinting” really helped those who have never read the books understand the concept. I did not agree with everything he did, like having random flashbacks suddenly, or using credits that reminded me of movies based on comic books, but the fact that he was better than the other three before him is commendable. He brought out the best in his actors, made stylistic choices that were tasteful and helped the audience understand. He even made the movie visually remarkable with everything from beautiful wedding scenes to the disgusting, rotten look that Bella had while she was pregnant. Huge improvement to the series.
The only negative thing I can say about the movie is that the music and sound was absolutely awful. It did not fit the mood or what was occurring on screen, and was extremely distracting. There is this random flute that just pops up out of the blue, and sometimes a happy, light-hearted piano and violin combo would rear its head at the most serious moments and it was just entirely inappropriate for the sound team to orchestrate it like that. Music is supposed to suck you into the story and the music that was chosen for this film definitely took me out of it. The sound was the only thing I really hated in the film.
“Breaking Dawn Part 1” was so impressive because of the huge improvement it has shown over the other movies in the series. The movie was satisfying to those who have read the books and it leaves anticipation for the final part of the saga’s release. It was not comparable to any Academy Award winning films or anything, but as a follower of the books and the movies, all I was looking for was a good time and improvement and that was provided.
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