Oh its all very dramatic this Twilight nonsense. Everyone knows the story, girl bites her lip a bit, mumbles some and then meets a sparkly vampire dude who bites his lip and mumbles some, then they get married, he knocks her up and her vampire baby bites its way out of her womb. Lovely.
Throw into the mix a mix up, some murderous powdery Italians, some werewolves, The Dracula Brothers TM, and a bit where the protagonists forget they've got a baby and have sex a lot and that's Twilight in a nutshell.
For objectivity's sake I have read all the books (as I have read almost all teen fantasy series novels - The Mortal Instruments next up) and Twilight is by far my least favourite. Their world isn't as bright and fixed as its peers, possibly because they are supernaturals living in a normal world, not the other way round like Harry Potter or His Dark Materials. The lack of humour is also to its massive detriment. HDM is humourless, but its magical quality and vast universe compensate for it.
The intensity of their relationship is unrivalled though, however sometimes uncomfortable to read, the dialogue and action between Edward and Bella was always going to be the aspect that translated most coherently into film and the film's raison d'etre.
I went into Breaking Dawn: Part 2 with little to no expectation. I found BD:PT1 laboured, tedious, and cringe making. Watching a sex scene surrounded by excited 14 year olds was not my favourite moment. But I admired they way they turned Bella from normal schoolgirl into a grotesque withering food source (for her baby).
Seeing Bella's further transformation into vampire-lady was moderately disappointing. The books allude to vampires being deadly seducers, painfully beautiful and irresistible but all I saw was Bella with a blow-dry and some high heels.
Being a new mother myself, I found the lack of desire to hold or care for her baby a bit strange and unbelievable to watch. Likewise the explanation of the child's abnormal growth rate to her human father was odd - he is introduced to Renesmee as a 6 month old (looking) child one week, and she's 7 (ish) a few weeks later.
The middle was meandering but interesting, the 'gathering of the vampires' engaging and their super powers exciting. I still found I was lacking though for the want of any meaningful discovery or realisation of life journey with their new family.
The ending for me, was a moderate triumph. I can see why they fabricated the battle scene as one of Alice's visions, because without it, there would have been no climax. It was a clever way of getting the audience on the edge of their seats - an audience no doubt who will have read the books a thousand times over saying to themselves in disbelief 'but...but...but....he cant be dead....this isn't how it's supposed to happen!'
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