From the opening scene of Jacob taking off his shirt to the surprising end of the movie, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1" was everything a Twi-hard fan could have hoped for. On its opening weekend, the movie grossed $140 million.
As in the book by Stephenie Meyer which "Breaking Dawn" is based on, Bella Swan and her vampire love Edward Cullen, played by Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson respectively, get married and set off on their honeymoon. After two weeks, Bella realizes she is pregnant and showing. Edward believes that this unprecedented and unexpected human-vampire baby could kill Bella, so the two fly home so Edward's father Carlisle, a vampire who practices medicine, can "take care of it." They find out the baby is growing faster than a human and is crushing Bella from the inside, but she refuses to give up the child; instead she suffers while the baby grows inside her.
Further complicating matters is the impending danger of an attack by the pack of werewolves who have previously lived somewhat peacefully with the vampire Cullens. Bella's werewolf best friend, Jacob, played by Taylor Lautner, leaves his pack to protect Bella when the wolves decide to kill the baby for the protection of the humans living nearby.
The most anticipated scenes of the novel were definitely the movie's most memorable: Edward and Bella's wedding scene was gorgeous, the island honeymoon scenes were picture perfect and [spoiler alert!] the birth of Bella's baby Renesmee was grueling. All which drew strong feelings of pain, fear, romance and even jealousy from the audience.
The overall quality of the film, directed by Oscar winner Bill Condon, was better than the previous movies in all aspects, most noticeably with the acting. The acting seemed to be genuine, more natural and less forced.
Pattinson and Stewart seemed less awkward in their more intimate scenes then they have in past films, possibly because it is rumored that the two are a real couple. The script by Melissa Rosenberg (who has adapted the story for all the previous "Twilight" films) seemed to flow better than usual, without weird pauses and awkward body movements.
The storyline in "Breaking Dawn" was almost seamless to the book's, minus a few details that were added in for a more dramatic effect. The movie's events were resolved by the end of the movie, but like the previous movies, there was a cliff hanger leaving fans hungry for more. "Part 2" arrives in theaters next year.
Patrice Kubik can be reached at patrice.kubik@student.shu.edu.
