Movie Review: Breaking Dawn

Breaking Dawn, the fourth movie in the Twilight Saga, opened in theaters today and I was there!  I’m embarrassed to admit that before last week, I hadn’t seen one of the Twilight movies.  Last year, I took the book and read a few chapters but didn’t finish it.  When my cousin asked if I wanted to go see Breaking Dawn, I agreed mostly because I just like going places with her!  I downloaded the first three movies from iTunes and sat down to watch them a few few days ago.  Wow!  I’m addicted.  I loved the movies and can’t stop thinking about them!

Here’s a quick refresher of the story line from the first three movies.  If you haven’t seen the movies yet, *spoiler alert*.  Don’t read anymore until you’ve seen the movies.  Hurry, go watch and then come back :)

Isabella (Bella) Swan was living with her mom (divorced from her dad).  But then her mom remarried – a baseball player that wanted her to travel with him.  Bella moved to live with her dad, Charlie, in Forks – a small town near Seattle.  Charlie is one of my favorite characters.  He’s such a dad.  Doesn’t talk much, doesn’t have a clue about how to deal with “girl-stuff” or drama.  And funny!  Well, maybe he doesn’t mean to be funny, but he is.  Bella starts as the “new girl” at Forks’ high school and quickly makes friends.  She is strongly attracted to her new lab partner, Edward Cullen.  But Edward is as mysterious as he is attractive.  Typical “bad boy”, he tells Bella she would be better off without him.  Isn’t that an instant attraction for girls?  We should listen and know better, but never do.  In contrast to the mysterious Edward is a family friend’s son, Jacob.  Jacob is younger than Bella and goes to school at the Native American reservation school, but he is seriously crushing on Bella.

When a car heads speeding towards Bella in the school parking lot, Edward appears at her side and holds off the crashing car.  Not an ordinary guy, this Edward.  When strange characteristics of Edward’s keep piling up, Bella confronts him and finds out that yes, he is a vampire.  She loves him anyway (maybe even more).  Edward introduces her to his family.  His adopted father has founded a coven of vampires that are “vegetarians”, they only hunt animals and not humans.  They also have a pact with a neighboring group of werewolves, that they will not fight each other.  Fast forward a bit, and it turns out that Bella’s friend, Jacob, becomes one of the werewolves.  Werewolves and vampires are natural enemies and the Cullens and Jacob’s pack fight against their natural instincts to uphold their pact.   When a vampire from another coven threatens Bella, the vampires and the wolves actually work together to protect her.  After breaking up, getting back together, struggling against their love, finally giving in to the inevitable, the third movie ends with Edward agreeing to turn Bella into a vampire if she will marry him.

*Breaking Dawn Spoiler Alert*  The wedding was by far my favorite scenes in the whole four movie series.  It was so beautiful!  Gorgeous wedding gown, flowers, natural scene, handsome groom….  It was awesome!  But on the honeymoon, Bella gets pregnant and the pregnancy is a dangerous one, like we’ve never seen before.  Edward, it seems, didn’t even know that fathering a child was possible for him.  But no one knows what the child will be like.  Edward’s family bonds together to help Bella make it through the pregnancy alive and then she will be “turned” into a vampire after the baby is born.  At least that’s the plan.  I can’t tell you about the birthing scene, because my eyes were closed.  Ick.  Double ick.  It was not pretty. I couldn’t watch.  It was not an easy birth.  Whew.  Jacob is still in love with Bella.  Still shirtless much of the movie *sigh*.  When his pack tries to hurt Bella and the baby, Jacob leaves them, leaves his “family” and joins the vampires to protect Bella and her baby.  He intends to hurt the baby, when he thinks it’s birth has killed Bella, but when he sees her he can’t.  He flashes to scenes of her growing up and he falls in love.  He “imprints” her and that ends the war of the wolves to kill the baby because imprinting means that they must protect her and can never harm her.

That’s a very quick synopsis, you know there’s a lot more going on.  I loved “Breaking Dawn” – excellent action scenes (the wolves fighting the vampires); excellent love scenes, honeymoon!; excellent humor – the dad and Jacob just crack me up over and over again; and cool special effects.  The only thing I didn’t like was the birth scene.  Too much for me, and unnecessary.  But I’m on the squeemish side!

Enthusiastic thumbs up for all four of the Twilight Saga movies.  I can’t wait for movie five!

I love Elizabeth Reaser, since seeing her on Grey's Anatomy. She plays Edward's adopted mother. Edward's sister, Alice, plans the entire wedding and chooses all Bella's clothes including the honeymoon wardrobe - it's fun to see Bella in uncharacteristic glam!

Edward and Bella on their honeymoon. If you married Edward, you'd be playing chess on your honeymoon, wouldn't you? NOT!

I think it was in New Moon, Edward says, "Doesn't this guy own a shirt?"