Breaking Dawn Part 2 Blu-ray Review

By: Lynn Barker

Finally…Forever can start! Bella has been wanting to vamp out for ages. Once she does, it’s a hot time with spouse Edward but problems with their daughter Renesmee bring the Volturi down on a whole army of vamp and wolf good guys.

Story Goes:

Bella’s red vamp eyes are open and she’s learning to hunt and control her emerging “shield” power. After she gets over the disturbing fact that Jacob has imprinted on her daughter Renesmee, she and Edward have time for some serious love-making in their new little woodsy cottage.

Bella is stronger than Emmett

All seems well among the supernatural beings of Forks but when Denali clan member Irina sees Renesmee, she assumes the Cullens have broken the ultimate vamp “no-no”. They’ve created an immortal vampire child. Irina rats to Aro of the Volturi and, when Alice sees that the entire Volturi army will attack, the Cullens start gathering their own army among world-wide vamp loners and covens.

Alice and Jasper disappear for a while but Bella learns that they were busy getting passports and paperwork for Jacob and Renesmee, indicating to Bella that she and Edward won’t survive the big battle to come. Bella practices her shield power and resigns herself to giving her daughter to beloved Jacob for protection.

The covens, wolves and Volturi gather in a huge field where they all battle for their futures.

Ready for battle

Special Features

Forever: Filming The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2- This 7-part doc really puts you on set with cast and crew! You can watch it alone or on a small screen while the movie is playing (Picture in Picture mode).

“Rebirth” – Kristen talks about her excitement at finally being a vampire and her worry that she wouldn’t get it right. You hear from director, producers, Stephenie Meyer and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg and the Director of Photography tells us about designing the effect as Bella now sees everything around her differently.

Vamped out and glammed up Bella and Edward

We see Kristen on a cool zip line sailing high over the ground and “biting” a big pillow meant to represent the cougar Bella attacks. It’s fun to see Kristen toss Taylor around and check out her new, classy, clingy wardrobe. No more slouchy flannel shirts!

“Renesmee” – We are told exactly how real babies were given the aged-down face of actress Mackenzie Foy who plays Renesmee at approximately age 8 to 11. Then the computer wizards age her up to 18 for future vision scenes. You see Mackenzie hanging out with Taylor on set, playing games. Fun

Renesmee visits Grandpa

“The Cottage” -  Alice gifts Bella and Edward with a lovely little cottage in the woods all their own. Stephenie says she wanted everything in it when she was on set. We see how it was created and get some detailed info on the love scenes between Bella and Edward.. some giggling on Rob and Kristen’s part. Rob calls it “Not too graphic but strong” and we see how it was edited to be PG-13

“The Gathering” –Is all about casting the many visiting vampires who form the Cullen army and a few Volturi as well. We meet each actor and see their screen tests. They talk about their characters.. It is really fun to get to know these talented actors who were in smaller but effective roles!

The covens gather

“The Field” – an exploration of staging the big battle at the film’s end. At first, filmmakers thought they would shoot it outside in a real field but lighting problems, weather problems etc. forced them to choose a giant indoor rodeo arena and shoot against a huge green screen with mountains and trees put in later by computer.  Fake paper “snow” filled the set and messed up more than one actor’s contact lenses.

Edward and Bella in their meadow

The cast talks about the sweltering heat and having to pretend it didn’t bother them, the boredom they faced standing for hours until they created games and a fun dance-off with the Cullen gang choreographing a dance and cracking up the director and the Volturi actors.  This is a very fun extra to watch.

“Battle Sequence” – We see the many stunts required and wire-work combined with computer-generated action for the big fight. Melissa talks about re-working the story so that the end contained action but still held true to the book. Very creative.

Filmmakers talk about creating the look of Bella’s shield and placing Mackenzie on a “Jacob Wolf” furry saddle where she was tossed around pretending to be on Jake Wolf’s back while he was galloping.

Jacob and Renesmee share Christmas

“Forever” – the final scenes of the film with Bella and Edward back in their meadow. This focuses on putting the flashback footage together and creating the final tribute credits to the actors in all of the films. Actors say goodbye and talk memories. Stephenie says she may pick up the characters and write more at some point.

Two Movies At Once -  Cast and crew discuss the various locations and confusion of making Parts 1 and 2 simultaneously. Bella would be human and dying in the morning then a glamorous vampire in the afternoon. Actors credit their director Bill Condon with putting them in the headspace they needed for each scene. The final picture wrap breaks out the champagne.

Music Video: “The Forgotten” by Green Day – Intercutting the band with scenes from the film.. This is the beautiful ballad that runs over the end credits of the movie. Very nice.

Jump To feature – Let’s Team Edward and Team Jacob fans jump to scenes featuring their fave hero.

Director’s Commentary – Listen to Bill Condon’s remarks while watching the film.. A few fun as well as technical things.

Wrapping Up

In my opinion, in the Twilight saga, the first film and the last are the best.  Part 2 of “Breaking Dawn” has it all; emotion, romance and some kick-butt action as well. I feel that the way the screenwriter was able to include action in her ending and still be true to the novel was genius. I applaud the decision to wrap up by paying tribute to not only Bella and Edward’s past from film to film but to give each actor in all the films a separate “card” under the end credits. Great.

Into the final battle

As I’ve always said, you are either a fan of these films or you aren’t. If you are, you simply must collect this last movie which is an excellent wrap-up for the series. The extensive extras on this particular Blu-ray provide a great insider look at the making of the film complete with many lead actor comments and some fun behind-the-scenes footage. I have nothing to complain about and would give this Blu-ray set with digital Copy and “watch it anywhere” capability 5 stars. 

Breaking Dawn Part 2 Blu-ray Rating:

Breaking Dawn Part 2 Cover Art

Note that an “Extended Edition” Blu-ray of Breaking Dawn- Part 1 is also available starting March 2^nd. It contains 8 extra minutes of extended and added scenes and is also well worth adding to your collection and watching with director Bill Condon’s optional commentary.