- The epic love story between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen concludes in this final installment of Stephenie Meyer's best-selling series. Dreamgirls' Bill Condon directs this second segment of the two-film adaptation. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
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Directors
Bill Condon
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Producers
Wyck Godfrey
Karen Rosenfelt
Stephenie Meyer
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Composers (Music Score)
Carter Burwell
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Co-Producers
Bill Bannerman
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Editors
Virginia Katz
Ian Slater
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Screen Writers
Melissa Rosenberg
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Others
Animator - Tippett
Art Department Coordinator - Emily Levine
Art Director - Lorin Flemming
Assistant Editor - Jason Otis Dale
Assistant Editor - Joey Amron
Assistant Editor - Shae Salmon
Associate Producer - Barbara Kelly
Book Author - Stephenie Meyer
Casting - Stuart Aikins
Casting - Debra Zane
Casting - Sean Cossey
Cinematographer - Guillermo Navarro
Composer (Music Score) - Carter Burwell
Costume Designer - Michael Wilkinson
Costumes Supervisor - Dan Bronson
Department Head Hair - Beatrice De Alba
Department Head Makeup - Jean A. Black
Executive Producer - Mark Morgan
Executive Producer - Greg Mooradian
Executive Producer - Guy Oseary
Executive Producer - Marty Bowen
Extra Casting - Elizabeth Coulon
Fights Choreographer - Peng Zhang
First Assistant Director - L. Justin Muller
Hair Styles - Bonnie Clevering
Key Make-up - Rolf Keppler
Leadman - Richard Wester
Location Manager - Michael J. Burmeister
Makeup - Stacey Panepinto
Music Editor - Adam Milo Smalley
Musical Direction/Supervision - Alexandra Patsavas
Post Production Coordinator - Lowell Dubrinsky
Post Production Supervisor - Ruth Hasty
Production Coordinator - Steve Cainas
Production Designer - Richard Sherman
Production Supervisor - Angela Quiles
Properties Master - Michael Sabo
Re-Recording Mixer - Michael Minkler
Re-Recording Mixer - Tony Lamberti
Script Supervisor - Jessica Lichtner
Second Assistant Director - John Morse
Second Unit Director - E.J. Foerster
Set Decorator - David Schlesinger
Set Dresser - Stephen Durante
Set Dresser - Cassie Catalanotto
Set Dresser - Scotty Morris
Set Dresser - Walter Dickerson
Set Dresser - Ty Landry
Set Dresser - Michael O'Sullivan
Set Dresser - Slaid Parker
Sound Effects Editor - David A. Whittaker
Sound Mixer - Steve Aaron
Sound/Sound Designer - Dane A. Davis
Special Effects Supervisor - David Poole
Still Photographer - Andrew "Buzz" Cooper
Stunts Coordinator - Scott Ateah
Stunts Coordinator - Jeff Imada
Supervising Art Director - Troy Sizemore
Supervising Sound Editor - Dane A. Davis
Unit Production Manager - Bill Bannerman
Unit Publicist - Toni Atterbury
Visual Effects - John Bruno
Visual Effects - Method Studios
Visual Effects - Soho VFX
Visual Effects - Zoic Studios
Visual Effects - Prologue
Visual Effects - Lola
Visual Effects - Pixomondo Images
Visual Effects - Hydraulx
Visual Effects - Rodeo FX
Visual Effects - Legacy Effects
Visual Effects - Spin VFX
Visual Effects - Vista Vision
Visual Effects - Tippett
Visual Effects Coordinator - Suzanne Murarik
Visual Effects Editor - Kosta Saric
Visual Effects Editor - Brad Minnich
Visual Effects Editor - Mark Wright
Visual Effects Editor - Joshua Sutherland
Visual Effects Executive Producer - Scott Michelson
Visual Effects Executive Producer - Guy Botham
Visual Effects Executive Producer - Jason Gandhi
Visual Effects Producer - Karen Murphy-Mundell
Visual Effects Producer - Daniel Chavez
Visual Effects Producer - Robin Griffin
Visual Effects Supervisor - Terry Windell
Visual Effects Supervisor - Greg Strause
Visual Effects Supervisor - Colin Strause
When it comes to
"Twilight", there is a point where one must either make the conscious decision to abandon the series forever or break from reality and commit to this uniquely weird supernatural romance once and for all. If the former is chosen, life goes back to normal. Otherwise, life still goes back to normal, but only by default. Pretty much everything is normal compared to a world where vampires sparkle in the sun, the undead procreate with the living, Renesmee is a real name, and creating an impenetrable force field with the power of love is actually possible. Whether novel or film,
Breaking Dawn means letting go and embracing the madness.
Widely considered the most controversial book of the series, fans continue to debate if
"Twilight" author
Stephenie Meyer went in the right direction while writing Breaking Dawn.
Bill Condon (the Oscar-winning director of
Dreamgirls) had a difficult task in adapting
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, in which protagonists Edward Cullen (
Robert Pattinson) and Bella Swan (
Kristen Stewart) left the complexities of high-school romance behind for those of marriage. They had intimacy issues (Edward had difficulty refraining from accidentally killing Bella during sex). They butted heads over Bella's unexpected pregnancy (the baby was unable to refrain from accidentally killing Bella during birth). The tone was relentlessly serious, but the tale was more ridiculous than ever.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 isn't really like that, and works all the better for it.
One of the biggest reasons for that improvement is that Bella has finally become a vampire. Baby Renesmee successfully killed her during birth (thanks, Renesmee!), breaking her spine and presumably removing the stick that has been up Bella's you-know-where for so long.
Kristen Stewart, no longer playing a passive, depressed schoolgirl, is allowed to be funny. Now that she isn't faced with choosing between the two hottest guys in school and pesky issues of mortality, Bella is a lot more fun to watch. The same can be said for
Robert Pattinson and
Taylor Lautner. Everything feels so much lighter this time around. In contrast to previous installments, in which the story was prone to angst-related slackness (Bella's grief coma comes to mind), this film's only real pacing problem is the Cullen family's rather lengthy period of domestic bliss.
The story picks up again when the Volturi -- a sort of vampire monarchy -- hear news of Renesmee's existence. Under the mistaken impression that the girl is an immortal child (that is, a child who was bitten and turned into a vampire too young to be able to control its killing urges, and thus threatens to expose the existence of bloodsuckers to humans), the Volturi plan to slaughter the entire Cullen clan for egregiously breaking the law. When Alice (
Ashley Greene) gets wind of this via a psychic vision, the Cullens decide to assemble an army of vampires that can hold back the Volturi long enough to explain that Renesmee is a human/vampire hybrid and does not pose the same danger. As it turns out, there are pro-Cullen, albeit non-"vegetarian," vampires around the world, each with their own unabashedly clichéd sense of style. Rather than take itself too seriously, the gathering of the vampires is a conscious, unbridled display of campiness that falls just short of a 1980s sports-drama montage. Somehow, it works.
Although the film follows the novel relatively faithfully, the finale deviates from the original story in a truly outrageous way that needs to be seen to be believed and will undoubtedly have its naysayers. Yet it remains true to the books by being entertaining in spite of itself.
Condon, the cast, and the crew of
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 have made something they can be proud of. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi