What can be said about Breaking Dawn that hasn’t already been said about the other films in The Twilight Saga? It’s just as anti-feminist as its predecessors, the dialogue is just as clichéd and trite, and the actors are still turning in sub-par performances. There is something new about Breaking Dawn, however: it’s more boring than ever before.
Edward (a tortured vampire acted by Robert Pattinson) and Bella (a character even more soulless than her bloodsucking significant other, acted by Kristen Stewart) are getting married. There’s the usual complication, in the form of Bella’s other supernatural love interest, the werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner)– as well as some new setbacks. These include Bella getting knocked up with a human-vampire hybrid, a child that looks set to eat its mother from the inside, out.
My distaste for the Twilight franchise has been documented extensively on Trespass (you can read my reviews of New Moon and Eclipse) but in the past I have always conceded, at least, that the franchise often features a killer soundtrack and stunning cinematography. No more. The sweeping aerial shots of landscapes have been removed, replaced instead by the worst CGI seen in the series to date. Turning the last novel into two films was a bad decision. The film is plodding and plotless. Despite the fact 
that the majority of the story revolves around Edward and Bella finally getting into bed and consummating their relationship, the film is sexless. Probably because Edward starts shaming Bella for wanting to have sex whilst on their honeymoon, and refuses to be intimate with her in case he hurts her – because a man couldn’t be expected to control himself, clearly.
Breaking Dawn is an offensively bad film, yes; but it is still most offensive in its anti-feminist subtext. Or rather, text. Where the previous films pushed a pro-abstinence message, in Breaking Dawn Bella has to wait until she is married to have sex – and then is immediately impregnated with demon spawn that almost kills her. It’s not just pro-abstinence, it’s anti-sex. This supernatural soap-opera is just as melodramatic and over-the-top as ever before – but this time it is also violent and disturbing, incorporating the worst voyeuristic aspects of medical dramas. Watching a sickly and deathly-skinny version of Kristen Stewart slowly dying on-screen for the sake of a pro-life message is not my idea of a good time.
I would call this installment a heart-breaking experience, except that I held no love for the saga in the first place. What I will say is this: beware of Breaking Dawn, beware.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn- Part 1 was released in Australian cinemas November 17th
Director: Bill Condon
Cast:Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner
