Global Issue Review: Abortion - The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

Abortion, something which literally everyone is arguing about and no-one comes to the conclusion, “Let’s focus on issues that are actually relevant and for which an argument won't block anyone's access to healthcare.” Some movies discuss this issue fantastically, such as Alexander Payne’s Citizen Ruth, or Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, or even Jason Reitman’s Juno. Of course, in filmmaking, Newton’s Third Law (Every action has an equal and opposite reaction) always comes into play, and so we have a movie so bad in its depiction of abortion that it’s almost laughable.

Ragging on the Twilight movies is like the snack known as the Twinkie – it will never decompose and go away, even in the event of nuclear war. Even in 2020, we have YouTuber’s like Pseudo-Intellectual’s Lauren Chen using Twilight in video essays about abusive relationships in literature, and it will be used like Machiavelli’s The Prince for centuries as the study of something that is intriguing in how this thing could even exist given time period and authorial context. But beyond the books/movies seemingly glorifying domestic abuse, necrophilia, bestiality and non-consensual shirtlessness (which sounds more like the description for Michael Shannon’s character from The Shape of Water than a teen romance), the final book/2nd last movie also decides “Let’s talk abortion, in the most worst way possible!”

So in the movie, the character of Bella gets pregnant with a human-vampire hybrid. Everyone’s freaking out, it’s a monstrosity, an abomination, it’s also some of the most terrifying CGI put to film which even Jeff Bridges from TRON: Legacy is laughing at.

This is what Alita: Battle Angel looked like when Iron City was just a glint in Ed Norton's eye. It's just... wrong. And it gets worse.

So at some point between the audience’s drinking game for the shirtless shots in the film, the Cullen household discusses the issue. Some call it a “fetus”, others call it “just a little baby”, Bella’s like “I can’t decide what to do”, and rinse and repeat for an interminable hour-and-a-half. At the end of the film, no conclusion has been reached on either the thematic elements or the actual story, and the audience has suffered alcohol poisoning from the aforementioned drinking game.

This issue feels so shoehorned into this movie, it’s like watching Pacific Rim and suddenly having a half-hour detour into pay gaps between male and female Jaeger pilots, as in “what the f^ck does that have to do with anything, you’re about to be attacked by a giant space turtle and a methed-up axolotl” (or in the case of this film, CGI wolves and vampires who sound like spiteful cats).

It feels like it’s just there for political relevance, with no real effort put in, just so that the author can pretend to be deep. And the movie is terrible in its depiction of everything involved. No-one has a conversation without exploding into Twitter Troll speech that seems to physically conjure hashtags, the issue is resolved without any real conflict, and Bella, the actual mother of this child and her responsibility, tells her friends to make the decision for her before presumably going to her room to stare chastely at shirtless Edward while lip-biting. It’s so terribly written, with no consequences and no conclusion on anything, that it deserved to take that year’s Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay. And that year had Jack and Jill. Yikes.

The language of memes is perfect for this review.

So in terms of dealing with its issue of abortion, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 gets a 0. It lacks any conclusion, it’s shoehorned in and honestly offensive to people invested in this issue.

In terms of actual filmmaking, it’s shocking that so many talents can be wasted on this tripe. You have Academy-Award winning director Bill Condon, the creator of Jessica Jones – a series that deals with issues of PTSD and toxicity beautifully – writing your script, amazing actors such as Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Michael Sheen (as well as Rami Malek and Wendell Pierce in the sequel) and a bunch of Oscar winning/nominated crew members on technical, and what you get is a tepid, phoned-in affair from everyone involved. I’m giving this movie a 2/10, because at some point in the soundtrack, there’s Radiohead, and I can’t stay mad at the band who made the excellent “Creep”.

Thanks, John Oliver.

So what do you think? Is Twilight deserving of continued roasting? Please answer this in the comments below.