Opposition a Redf Authinity Www, Rotten Tomatoes

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Impossible to review?

The challenges of reviewing Breaking Dawn, Part II

Rotten Tomatoes' collective reviews of the final installment of the Twilight series Breaking Dawn, Part II are some of the most 'mixed' of any recently released film. While most films on Rotten Tomatoes are fairly consistently rated as bad, good, or mediocre, the reviews are squarely split between anti-Twilight and pro-Twilight camps. The review of Peter Travers, critic for Rolling Stone, echoes the sentiments of many anti-Twilight reviews, forced to watch the film as part of their job: "It's Dead! It's Dead! By which I mean, It's Finished! It's Finished! Five movies have been squeezed out of four Stephenie Meyer Twilight books. All of them redefining cinematic tedium for a new century. And now, It's Over! It's Over! No more Twilight movies EVER!" (Travers 2012). This illustrates the problem with reviewing components of a film series: either you love the series or hate it. It is very difficult as a critic to evaluate the film as a free-standing work of art, or even to understand the film if he or she has not seen the previous installments. [THESIS]

Of course, if the critic dislikes the first film in the series and is forced to watch the next installments anyway, he will naturally grow more bitter and jaded with every successive viewing. Travers concedes that the film is not 'half-bad' or that he does not find it as unpleasant to watch as the previous films: "there's a smidge of twisted energy in the final chapter as if everyone is relieved to be done with the damn thing & #8230;you're going to hear a lot about Breaking Dawn Part 2 being the best of the Twilight movies. That's like saying a simple head cold is preferable to swine flu. They'll all make you sick" (Travers 2012). Travers does admit that he enjoys the hammy acting at times, however, although the overall tone of his review is someone determined not to enjoy a Twilight film.

Another reviewer, James Berardinelli, praised the film's humor and action: "As for the big, climactic battle... taken completely out of context, it's a lot of fun. It's chock full of surprises and visceral moments. Several characters meet grisly ends. There's plenty of wolf-on-vampire action and Dakota Fanning gets to say her single word a couple of times. The conflict is effectively choreographed and directed" (Berardinelli 2012). However, he too admitted that he was unable to enjoy the Twilight films because: "I'll probably never understand the popularity of the Twilight movies. They're haphazardly assembled adaptations of awful books. At one time, films of this sort would have been targeted for direct-to-DVD release" (Berardinelli 2012).

Breaking Dawn and the Twilight films in general are movies that film critics are afraid to like, and even when they admit a film has its good points, the critic cannot stomach giving the movie a good review. Breaking Dawn is more of a cultural phenomenon than a work of art at this point -- either you are 'for' it or 'against it.' Judging films on their individual merit is seen as beyond the point. Within the fan base, many people found Breaking Dawn, Part II to be better than Breaking Dawn, Part I, but this is only grudgingly conceded by the critics.