If you think of twilight as just a part of the day, you’ve been living under a cultural rock for the last five years. Love it or hate it, Stephenie Meyer’s saga has haunted fans and critics alike for years now. But with the release of this fourth and final Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn: Part II, the saga has finally come to an end.
The plot of this last installment is as predictable and laughable as ever, honing in on Bella’s new life (or living death) as a vampire, wife and mother and her character’s encounters with the rest of the supernatural world. As with any other film in the saga, the movie isn’t about the plot so much as it is about a particular cultural moment and our relationship to it.
I’ll admit I’m a Twilight fan. You can roll your eyes, but hear me out. As a teenage girl I fell in love with the books that made me believe my soulmate was waiting for me around the next corner. Unfortunately, my Edward (or in my case, Jacob) has yet to turn up. The beauty of the books was that you felt like you got to be a part of an epic romance.
The movies failed to deliver this sort of powerful escape. From the midnight premiere of the first movie my senior year of high school, I knew being a Twihard was going to be tough. The worst part was knowing the mockery was well-deserved and secretly wanting to join in. The movies were just so bad, and they never got any better.
Masochistically, I returned to the midnight premiere every year. It became a ritual. Between the books and the movies, I invested a lot into my Twilight fanhood. I amassed a slew of great memories from attending those fantastically awful midnight showings.
Breaking Dawn: Part II is no better than its predecessors. I had to suffer more than one embarrassing “good god this can’t be happening” moment while watching it unfold on screen. Whether I had these feelings because I had such low expectations going in or whether because it was just a terrible movie is difficult to judge. If you’re hoping the movie-making machine behind Twilight magically got it right this time around, abandon hope before entering the theater. If you’re not a Twilight fan, don’t waste your time.
If you are like me, and you will always remember Twilight as a part of your late childhood, go and enjoy the last installment. As the credits roll and the screen broadcasts pictures of all the characters from the entire saga, tears may fall as you remember how you yourself have grown from your first Twilight book to your last Twilight movie.
The series has been a big part of our childhood and our generation. I won’t miss having to defend my taste in the movies, but now that there’s no Twilight on the horizon I realize the last film marks the closing of a chapter of my life.
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