The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 delivers the franchise's most spectacular action sequence and its most shocking moment in a finale of considerably more dramatic force than the source novel's more sedate ending had suggested was possible. Bill Condon's 2012 film earns its exhilarating register through craft rather than mere spectacle, and its central twist gives the saga's conclusion a momentum and an energy that the more straightforwardly staged source material could not have achieved. It is a film that gives the franchise's accumulated emotional investment the send-off it deserves, and the most audacious creative decision the saga made.
At a Glance
Director: Bill Condon
Runtime: 115 minutes
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Michael Sheen, Lee Pace
Release: 2012
Critics Rating: ★★★ (3/5 stars, an audacious conclusion with a genuinely surprising twist)
Audience Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 stars, the saga's most satisfying conclusion)
Plot
Bella, now a vampire of extraordinary power, adjusts to her new existence while she and Edward raise their rapidly developing daughter Renesmee. When the Volturi, misled into believing Renesmee is an immortal child, march on the Cullen family, vampires from around the world gather as witnesses to Renesmee's true nature. The handling of the confrontation's resolution is the picture's central dramatic achievement, developed with an audacity that the source novel's more straightforward conclusion did not attempt. The gathering of vampires from around the world gives the saga's mythology a global dimension the earlier entries had not developed, and the treatment of this assembly as a community of mutual support gives the franchise's conclusion a warmth and a generosity the more narrowly focused earlier entries had not always achieved. The screenplay's most intelligent structural choice is its use of the witness-gathering as a genuine dramatic process, giving the film's middle section a momentum and a purpose the more episodic earlier entries had not always maintained.
Characters
Stewart's Bella is given the saga's most complete character arc, her emergence as a vampire of extraordinary power giving the character a confidence and a physical authority the earlier entries had not possessed. The contrast between the more uncertain Bella of the earlier films and the assured, capable figure she becomes here is handled with a conviction and a physical ease that makes the transformation feel entirely earned. Pattinson's Edward is given the saga's most emotionally complete arc, his relationship with Bella and Renesmee giving the character a domestic warmth and paternal tenderness the more romantically focused earlier entries had not fully developed. Sheen's Aro is given the saga's most dramatically significant villain arc, his decision to march on the Cullens and his eventual retreat giving the character a complexity and a menace the earlier entries had not fully explored. Sheen plays Aro's theatrical menace and his eventual humiliation with a comic timing and a precision that make him the saga's most enjoyable screen presence. Lee Pace's Garrett and Jamie Campbell Bower's Caius, alongside the assembled vampire witnesses, give the confrontation sequences a scale and a visual variety the more domestically focused earlier entries had not attempted.
Meaning / Themes
The central concern is the relationship between family and community. The gathering of vampires from around the world to stand as witnesses for the Cullen family gives the saga's mythology a global dimension the earlier entries had not developed, and the treatment of this assembly as a network of solidarity gives the franchise's conclusion a warmth and a generosity the more narrowly focused earlier entries had not always achieved. Bella's emergence as a vampire of extraordinary power gives the saga's central character arc its most complete resolution, transforming the more passive romantic heroine of the original into a figure of agency and strength whose protection of her family gives the franchise's central values their clearest expression. The picture is also the saga's most direct statement about the relationship between identity and transformation, and Bella's emergence as a fully realised version of herself gives the franchise's central arc a thematic coherence the more episodic earlier entries had not always maintained.
Direction
Condon pitches the film at a register of escalating tension that gives the Volturi confrontation genuine stakes and forward momentum. The central twist shifts the confrontation's register from the solemn to the genuinely shocking with a speed and a precision that give the sequence a dramatic force entirely disproportionate to its duration, and it is the most effective single moment of dramatic invention in the franchise's history. The saga's conclusion, returning to the meadow of the original film, gives the franchise a send-off of appropriate emotional warmth, connecting the ending to the beginning with a visual and emotional coherence the more episodic earlier entries had not always maintained. The final montage, in which Bella shares her memories with Edward, is the saga's most purely romantic closing passage, a conclusion of warmth and sincerity that gives the franchise's central relationship the farewell it deserves.
Condon's direction is the saga's most controlled, maintaining the escalating tension with a coherence and a momentum the material's dramatic range requires. His handling of the central twist is the picture's most precise directorial achievement, staging the revelation with a force and a clarity that give it an impact entirely disproportionate to its duration. The action sequences are the saga's most physically ambitious, staged with a clarity and a scale the more atmospherically focused earlier entries had not attempted. Carter Burwell returns to score the film, connecting it to the original's atmospheric register while developing it with a grandeur appropriate to the franchise's culmination.
Breaking Dawn Part 2 received mixed to positive reviews on its release and was a major commercial success, grossing over $829 million worldwide to become the saga's highest-grossing entry. Critics praised the central twist and Stewart's performance while noting the structural debt to its predecessor. It is now regarded as the saga's most audacious conclusion, a film whose central twist is consistently cited as one of the most effective pieces of dramatic invention in the franchise's history, and whose reputation has improved as the saga's cultural reassessment has gathered pace. The picture's commercial success confirmed the franchise's enduring hold on its audience and gave the saga a conclusion whose energy and invention the more cautious earlier entries had not always promised.
Final Verdict: The saga's most audacious conclusion and its most exhilarating entry. Stewart's Bella is given the franchise's most complete character arc, Sheen's Aro is the saga's most enjoyable screen presence, and the central twist is the most effective single moment of dramatic invention the franchise produced. It is a conclusion that gives the saga's accumulated emotional investment the send-off it deserves, and the one entry that makes the franchise's commercial ambitions and its creative instincts feel entirely aligned.