The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Press reviews

'Darker, sexier, sharper – a neat next step.'

'Edward may finally change Bella, but it's Mr. Condon who resurrects her. '

'It runs on like some vast non-stop sentence, a narrative at full tide under a full moon. Happily, director Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters) has the gothic chops for this material and Guillermo Navarro's cinematography is bravura.'

'As a stand-alone movie it's a mixed bag.'

'The acting's better than it's ever been, but with the best will in the world, this can't get past the fact that the story's demented.'

'It raises more laughs at the back of the stalls than hairs on the back of the neck.'

'While there's a fair bit of padding, the three leads together are still very watchable and the final shot is a perfect cliffhanger for the series' finale, 12 months from now — let's just hope it's better.'

'Flat performances, dodgy plotting and rubbish talking wolves aside, this is a weirdly grim addition to the supposedly tween-friendly franchise, less fairy tale than misjudged horror show.'

'Twilight is a pathetic female fantasy.'

'a rather good original idea has dwindled into self-parody'

'a formless, gormless soap opera: it's a humourless, incoherent bore that lives down to the very worst stereotypes associated with the franchise.'

'The ongoing emo-operetta of this drama now sweeps us away on a new riptide of mawkish euphoria.'

'The pacing of this saga has virtually limped to a standstill. Melissa Rosenberg's clunking script prompted gales of derision when I saw it'

'The pacing of this saga has virtually limped to a standstill.'