The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 2012

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: While parting involved no sorrow, it was sweeter than expected. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: The 'Twilight Saga' has no upmarket aspirations. Seeking neither critical applause or peer-review awards, these movies, like those of Tyler Perry, seek only to provide unabashed satisfaction to those who believe in their characters. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Despite the slow start Mr. Condon closes the series in fine, smooth style. He gives fans all the lovely flowers, conditioned hair and lightly erotic, dreamy kisses they deserve. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Full of pauses and intense looks and vague standing around ... Read more

Genevieve Koski, AV Club: A messy, unwieldy slab of film product that's targeted directly at fans of the book series, with little regard for anyone else. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Condon and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg aren't afraid to play fast and loose with Meyer's story, and that's a good thing. You just wish they'd done it more often. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: This fifth and mercifully final installment features so much idle anticipation that it's unclear whether we're watching a movie or an Apple product launch. Read more

Amy Nicholson, Boxoffice Magazine: Every frame of silent, lip-biting, pent-up tension in the series has been holding its breath for this -- a 600-minute soap opera suddenly exploding into a Grindhouse slasher. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: With so many scenes of well-dressed vampires sitting or standing, stiffly, while Taylor Lautner or Robert Pattinson or Kristen Stewart passes another micro-slab of dialogue like a kidney stone, [Sheen's] overacting's greatly appreciated, thanks. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: Good riddance "Twilight," may it be an eternity before you're relaunched or rebooted. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It made me realize that, as narratively lumpy as they can be, I like the Twilight films because they're really about the eternal movie romance of vampires at play. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Film.com: While "Breaking Dawn - Part 1" was zany enough...to almost work as a stand-alone, "Part 2" relies on mad rushes of exposition to explain exactly what's at stake here. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: The final installment of the immortal Bella/Edward romance will give its breathlessly awaiting international audience just what it wants. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: The dialogue remains spotty and sappy, the effects still haven't caught up to modern-day standards, but "Twilight's" popularity is such that even when it falls short, it doesn't seem to matter. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: Rather than repeat past mistakes by handling author Stephenie Meyer's supernatural love story with kid gloves, this "Twilight" cuts loose and is as playful as a puppy. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The first "Twilight" film that could get non-fans' hearts pumping turns out to be the last. Read more

Bruce Diones, New Yorker: A feast of ripe dialogue and bloodsucking action. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: After the laborious exposition of "Part 1," "Part 2" is able to reap the benefits, tying together some disparate threads and providing real action at the end. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: "Breaking Dawn, Part 2" expands with a full intensity of force, stronger and more epic than the films that led to this impactful finale. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: Finally, someone took the source material at its terribly written word and stopped treating the whole affair so seriously. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Easily the trippiest and goofiest of the five addled adolescent vampire romances based on the Stephenie Meyer books ... Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: I'll probably never understand the popularity of the Twilight movies. They're haphazardly assembled adaptations of awful books. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: The fifth and final entry in the historically successful "Twilight" franchise is the most self-aware and in some ways the most entertaining. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I must admit if you're going to bring the series to a close, "Part 2" does it about as well as it can be done. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: You're going to hear a lot about Breaking Dawn Part 2 being the best of the Twilight movies. That's like saying a simple head cold is preferable to swine flu. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It's a movie so dull you might start yanking on your own head after about an hour. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The very title Breaking Dawn, Part 2 hints at what the movie, sadly, reveals to be the case: The Twilight franchise has overstayed its welcome. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Finally -- finally! -- the Twilight franchise embraces its own innate absurdity with the gleefully over-the-top conclusion, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Breaking Dawn, Part 2" doesn't end the series on an especially strong note, but it ends it. Let's count our blessings. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's not a good film, but viewed from a cockeyed angle, it's a great guilty pleasure, and director Bill Condon is in on the joke. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, the fifth and concluding chapter of the young vampire romance franchise, manages to find a pulse as it profitably clicks the turnstiles one last time. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Tellingly, it's when Condon and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg veer away from Stephenie Meyer's turgid text that Breaking Dawn, Part 2 actually comes to life and turns into something bold and outrageous. Read more

Guy Lodge, Time Out: A riotous showdown ... finds an absurdly ingenious way both to preserve and subvert the contentiously passive climax of Meyer's novel. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: As billion-dollar Hollywood franchises go, this is one of the drawn-out dumbest. The stake through the heart comes not a moment too soon. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Fans of the series, which has made more than $2 billion worldwide, will no doubt find it all terribly romantic and deeply meaningful. The rest of humanity will remain unmoved. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: This second of two Bill Condon-directed installments clears a low bar to stand easily as the franchise's most eventful and exciting entry. Read more

Melissa Anderson, Village Voice: It's about as exciting as watching David Blaine play Stratego and makes you miss the power of the first four films all the more: the uncontainable yearning of the Bella-Edward-Jacob triangle. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: If anything, this series has gotten dumber and more inert as it has progressed, with this last one finally reaching over into an extended wallow in camp. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: As for you, dear reader, the symptoms of our long national nightmare should begin to fade as you're heading out of the theater, dissipating by the time you clear the concession stand. Read more