Directed by Bill Condon
(PG-13)
**
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Fans of the Twilight “supernatural soap opera” are eating up its hit finale, but most everyone else will likely find it “a cheesily made waste of time,” said Michael O’Sullivan in The Washington Post. As an eternally young vampire and his formerly mortal lover, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart again bring little to their roles—“other than vague malaise”—as this time Edward and Bella seek to protect their half-vampire child from a rival vampire coven. Director Bill Condon provides a “modicum of sly camp,” filming each group scene as if the actors were poseurs in “a particularly smug fashion shoot,” said Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. But the movie feels as aimless as its four predecessors until the climactic battle scene rattles us with a rush of decapitations. At least that “muscular” finale for once provides a sense that there’s something at stake in the series, said Chris Hewitt in the St. Paul, Minn., Pioneer Press. If you’ve never read the Twilight books, it’s still hard to figure out what Edward and Bella want, “other than to loll in meadows and kiss” while the soundtrack plays folky music.
