If you’re a fan of the books already, like me, you’d probably like Breaking Dawn no matter how crappy it actually was. That was my case, although I can still admit that it was a crappy movie. Although it did have its moments (I cried at the wedding), overall I was a bit disappointed. Breaking Dawn is my favorite book of the whole series, and I had been impatiently waiting for the movie to release for years, and when it was finally time to see it I was so excited and my hopes were up way higher than they should’ve ever been.

        My first and number 1 complaint: The movie was way too fast paced, and the scene transitions were not smooth at all. Which is why I was a little shocked to read several critic’s reviews saying the movie was slow. Here was my experience: I’m sitting there, watching the trailers, and then the nanosecond the last trailer ends, the Breaking Dawn logo suddenly appears, and in the next instant Jacob is already running off shirtless in the rain. Where is the anticipation? Where is the intro? For example when New Moon opens, the title is very slowly revealed. I remember being at that opening night, girls were screaming in excitement, like being teased into the movie. At least they could have built up to something first is all I’m saying, maybe wait a while to show the title. And I was okay with the invitations being received being the intro, even if all the drama that went into it between Bella and her dad was skipped completely, but I was a little disappointed we didn’t see any Mercedes Guardian.

       Next, the wedding (we’ll just skip over Bella’s extremely disturbing pile of dead bodies dream). Pretty good scene, although Bella’s nervousness was almost putting me into a panic attack myself. I guess that was a good thing since I actually felt what she was feeling. I have already admitted I cried during this scene, and I’m not a wedding crier. It was very sweet and beautiful, and I’m overall really pleased at its presentation. If I had been watching this alone I probably would’ve been bawling.

        Alright, so after the wedding and Jacob’s little temper tantrum, we are suddenly in Rio (though non book readers or people who don’t know Rio landmarks don’t know it’s Rio until later). This is cool and all, but again with the smooth transition thing. The last thing we saw before Rio was Edward driving away. So did they drive all the way to South America? Actually this sounds pretty anal, but it would have flowed better to me if we would have at least seen a plane flying through the air or something.

       After some dancing, we are speed boated to Isle Esme where Bella prepares herself for some moonlight skinny dipping with Edward, leading to you know what. I actually enjoyed these scenes. Bella frantically brushing her teeth and shaving her legs was humorous, and the sex wasn’t awkward to me the way it is in a lot of movies, it was again very sweet, and even funny when Edward continued to destroy the bed. The rest of the honeymoon was nicely done, except I was disappointed we didn’t see any coral reefs, exotic birds or sea turtles from the book.

       Next, we move onto Bella’s shocking discovery that she is pregnant. My complaint in the back of my mind during this was that the book made it seem like her baby bump was noticeable. I really didn’t notice anything when she did her mirror examination. After they leave, it’s suddenly two weeks later and Bella is a balloon. Jacob finds out, werewolves freak out, and Jacob leaves the pack. Boom, boom, boom. I just won’t comment on the pacing on these scenes since I’m not sure how I could have made it any better. But I will say that it was very hard to understand the wolf voices. I’m sure they could have made that better somehow. Anyway, Jacob comes back and Bella turns into an anorexic zombie who drinks blood from sippy cups. I didn’t really have much problems with the scenes leading up to Bella’s C-section except for what they DIDN’T include. In the book, while Jacob and Rosalie are forced to stay in close proximity, there is much hilarious bickering and dumb blonde jokes between the two. At one point, Rosalie makes Jacob some food put into his own special “doggy bowl” complete with “Fido” written on it, which Jacob later throws at her head, and then in which Rosalie roars, “You got food in my HAIR!” This was easily the funniest moment in the entire book for me, and I cannot believe it didn’t make it into the movie. Number 2 biggest disappointment right there.

       Finally, the insane birth scene. Awesome, they kept something the way the book made it. The completely wrong scene to do that with. I was 80% sure they would censor the really gruesome stuff for the movie. Boy was I wrong. It wasn’t just gory, it was chunky placenta gory. After the baby’s out, Edward continues to mutilate his corpse bride in his attempt to save her. Really glad I took my happy pills before the movie at this point. Meanwhile, it’s Cullens vs Werewolves outside, y’know, because there just has to be some action in a movie. After Jacob mourns for his lost love, he decides to take revenge on the thing that killed her. He sneaks up behind Rosalie with the baby, about to strike, until the baby suddenly meets his gaze. Instant love, how sweet, now the Werewolves are forced to back down since they can’t hurt someone one of their own has imprinted on. I really liked the whole imprinting collage, and the baby was crazy adorable. And finally, we see Bella as she silently transforms into a vampire. Pretty cool, except for the one awkward part where her torso suddenly pops up. And then, boom! Blood red eyes pop open and the movie ends, very Avatar-esque.

       So, to wrap up this overly long review, if you’re into romance, you probably will like this movie, at least until the birth scene. If you’re a Twihard, you might be a little disappointed. Still, I will probably go see it a dozen more times, buy the ultimate fan edition DVD and count down the days until Breaking Dawn – Part 2, because I’m just crazy.