The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

Name: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Fantasy, Romance
Released: November 18, 2011
Duration: 117 min
Rating: 45
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner

2011

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 626 Ratings

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4.6

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4.6	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 626 Ratings

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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn-Part 1

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Movie Details & Credits

Summit Entertainment | Release Date: November 18, 2011 | PG-13

Starring: Dakota Fanning, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner

Summary: Bella and Edward, plus those they love, must deal with the chain of consequences brought on by the marriage, honeymoon, and the tumultuous birth of a child, which brings an unforeseen and shocking development for Jacob Black. With more romance, passion, intrigue and action, the conclusion of The Twilight Saga begins. (Summit Entertainment)

Director: Bill Condon

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Fantasy, Romance

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 117 min

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Critic Reviews

Carrie Rickey

Nov 17, 2011

Worthy of mention is Carolina Herrera's design for Bella's wedding dress, sophisticated and demure in the front and Pippa Middleton sexy, and proper, in the back. Read full review

Alison Willmore

Nov 17, 2011

It may be impossible for anyone but existing fans to take this seriously, but for the unconverted, it's still a legitimately engaging, gape-worthy nutso spectacle. Read full review

David Edelstein

Nov 20, 2011

In any case, the last twenty minutes of Breaking Dawn are so harrowing that it's possible to forget that most of the acting is soap-operatic (the guy who plays Carlisle is aging to look like Liberace) and the dialogue from hunger. The movie's that primal. Read full review

Wesley Morris

Nov 17, 2011

The movie is long and uniquely bad, the last of Stephenie Meyer's four books greedily tortured into two installments. Read full review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Nov 17, 2011

What we learn in this all-pain/no-pleasure episode is that marriage feels like a life sentence, weddings are miserable events, honeymoon sex is dangerous and leaves a bride covered in bruises, and pregnancy is a torment that leads to death in exchange for birth. Read full review

Boxoffice Magazine Vadim Rizov

Nov 17, 2011

Sex and abortion are the main topics of this installment, which tips between dullness and total camp. Read full review

Kimberley Jones

Nov 23, 2011

Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Chicago, Gods and Monsters) takes over the directing reins for these final two parts; his most noteworthy contribution to the series so far is a terrifyingly staged birth scene that should turn the teen fan base off of sex altogether … which is precisely what this whole dumb, punishing series has been gunning for from the start. Read full review

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User Reviews

patrolsnow

Nov 21, 2011

My favorite movie I have seen in a while. Finally a movie aimed at a female market! So sick of all these comic book heroes and robots! Love a bit of old fashioned melodrama and romance.

5 of 7 users found this helpful52

Buttery

Nov 30, 2011

I adored this movie. It has moments that are so cute and sweet but then there are moments of seriousness that are dealt with really well and interestingly.

10 of 13 users found this helpful103

livetour

Nov 21, 2011

Absolutely loved it! This movie is all about sheer light hearted entertainment . Anybody who takes this seriously should really get their heads examined!! I'm talking about all those people who can not just go to the movies for a bit of fun!! Lighten up people! It is not supposed to be allAbsolutely loved it! This movie is all about sheer light hearted entertainment . Anybody who takes this seriously should really get their heads examined!! I'm talking about all those people who can not just go to the movies for a bit of fun!! Lighten up people! It is not supposed to be all serious. I like how this movie did not try to be anything other than what is is. Fun.… Expand

54 of 69 users found this helpful5415

PersonWithAHat

Nov 20, 2011

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I am still in shock based upon how gruesome and sexy Breaking Dawn Part One has been. This is the most significant departure for the series in every way. The direction, the sexual content, the gruesomeness, and the most shocking aspect of all is the acting. For once, Kristen Stewart is more defiant than ever and she looks very pale at the climax, which left a far more gruesome mark on me than when I had to witness her doing Edward. At the climax, Renesmee ( I literally yelled at the audience three times louder and louder, "STEPHENIE MEYER COULDN'T THINK OF A NAME!") gives a kick so forceful that Bella breaks her back and her legs, and the only people there to bear witness are Edward, Jacob, Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper. So, with Carlisle not there, Edward AND Jacob are forced to deliver Renesmee. Then, to make matters FAR worse, they use the only thing to help deliver Renesmee. EDWARD'S TEETH! He used his teeth to cut Renesmee out of Bella's stomach because of how fast-growing she was fast-growing in a matter of God knows how much time did she develop. Then, after delivering Renesmee, Bella is DEAD! Edward injects this **** shot of his venom directly into her heart. In a matter of day, after giving Bella so many hickeys containing his venom, she becomes a vampire and slowly improves on her posture. When she opens her eyes, THUNDEROUS ORCHESTRA!. her eyes are a rich red. My brother and I were so disturbed on how gruesomely sexy this film was. My best guess that why mom wasn't bothered for the gruesomeness on how Bella delivers Renesmee is because she gave birth to me and my three others siblings. I give this a seven for Breaking Dawn Part One for two reasons: Kristen Stewart finally trying to at least act and how much effort did Melissa Rosenberg (the screenwriter) and Bill Condon (the director) for trying to be as gruesome to still manage to make Breaking Dawn Part One a PG-13 rating… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

FilipeNeto

Mar 25, 2020

The sweetest movie in the saga.

This film was based on a series of "best seller" books about the romance between a vampire and a young human. I never read the books (nor do I intend to), but if Edward and Bella's love story was supposed to be epic, something didn't work. Despite this, thisThe sweetest movie in the saga.

This film was based on a series of "best seller" books about the romance between a vampire and a young human. I never read the books (nor do I intend to), but if Edward and Bella's love story was supposed to be epic, something didn't work. Despite this, this film was, like its predecessors, a box office champion, teenagers consumed it well and the studio rubbed its hands with satisfaction.

The plot boils down to this: after defeating Victoria and her army, Edward and Bella decide to get married, much to Jacob's sadness. But something goes wrong on the honeymoon in Brazil and Bella reveals symptoms of pregnancy, which makes no sense since vampires shouldn't be able to have children. The speed of development of the fetus and the aggressive way it is sucking the energies and nutrients from Bella's body makes everyone fear for her life, and for the nature of the being she carries.

The new director is Bill Condon, who to me is a stranger. Unlike its direct predecessor, it replaces the action and the fight scenes with a certain cinematic sense and a growing tension that helps to mitigate the excessive sweetness of the story and make the film tolerable. In fact, I think this is the most sweet and sugary film in the saga, which was a negative point. The action reaches its climax in the delivery scene, one of the best in the saga, and the ending was very well achieved. The pace of the film is also much more balanced than its direct predecessor, although it is still slow.

Despite everything, the film still has problems inherited from previous films. Each film accentuates the feeling that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were casting errors. With a few exceptions (the wedding scene, the sex scene, the birth scene) there is almost no chemistry between them. There is, in fact, a general improvement in their performance, but Stewart still has to work on her lack of facial expression. Pattinson has also improved a lot and helped to give strength and passion to Edward and Bella's romance (finally!). Taylor Lautner, who started the saga well and grew, eclipses itself throughout this film, perhaps the result of the loss of relevance of his character. The actor is not to blame, he proved to be better than he is here, but he cannot do better when the material given to him by the screenwriter sucks, and that was a constant problem in the saga films. If there was anyone who, throughout the entire saga, signed a certificate of incompetence and imbecility, it was Melissa Rosenberg. The secondary cast maintains the positive level of previous films. Billy Burke and Ashley Greene are very good, as are Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Maggie Grace and Booboo Stewart.

Technically, the film maintains the good CGI, visible in the work of the wolves but is more discreet in its visual and computational resources than the previous film. The soundtrack this time is signed by Carter Burwell and is very good. Good scenarios, props, and very good images of large-scale landscapes complete the technical work. I particularly liked the cinematography of scenes with the wedding or the sex scene, one of the most beautiful I have ever seen in cinema, without excessive nudity, proving that it is not necessary to show "the thing happening" to make a good sex scene in cinema.

This film is the most romantic in the franchise, and the initial half is just honey, making us sick to the point of almost giving up on seeing the rest. It greatly improves the medium to the end, with the introduction of elements of tension and increasing danger to temper the excessive sweetness and to mask the failures of the main actors.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

oscarr

Dec 25, 2011

Overall Movie: 2 Acting: 5 Storyline: 0 Based on countless sex scenes and a bunch of fake drama, the Twilight series has officially collapsed. Not to mention that I don't care wether either Bella or Edward die. That's how good the acting is.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

Nero97

Jan 9, 2012

I can't believe someone had the courage to make this terrible movie. What were they thinking?? Probably they wanted to make people throw their money out, because this movie doesn't worth any cent.
Terrible...horrible, what next? They really have the courage to make part 2?? Really??
I hateI can't believe someone had the courage to make this terrible movie. What were they thinking?? Probably they wanted to make people throw their money out, because this movie doesn't worth any cent.
Terrible...horrible, what next? They really have the courage to make part 2?? Really??
I hate the twilight saga so bad...i went to the cinema with my friends to see how bad this would be. Looks like i was wrong. It's not bad...IT'S TERRIBLE!!!!!!… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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17	#17 Most Discussed Movie of 2011
44	#44 Most Shared Movie of 2011