Movie review: 'The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 'Part 2'

With a twist that will likely take aback even “Twihard” fans who have read the saga countless times, the fifth and final film, “Breaking Dawn — Part 2,” emerges as the funniest, most exciting and most complete of the blockbuster franchise.

Despite its financial success — the first four “Twilight” films together grossed $1 billion at the domestic box office and $2.5 billion worldwide — the series has produced few indelible movie moments despite Meyer's intriguing variations on well-established vampire and werewolf mythologies. The movies have been tough to make cinematically interesting because the best part about the drawn-out vampire romance is the authentic way Meyer relates, in first person, the conflicted emotions of her teenage protagonist, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart).

While the focus remains on making a faithful adaptation that will please “Twihard” fans, director Bill Condon and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg cannily amp up the lackluster ending Meyer penned for the saga. (A producer on “Breaking Dawn” — both halves of the two-film finale were shot over six months in 2010-11 — the author approved the movie's twist.)

Last year's “Breaking Dawn — Part 1” ended with Bella opening her blood-red eyes after her long-awaited lifesaving transformation into a vampire. The last movie starts in the next moment, as she adjusts to her supernaturally heightened senses.

Bella's already-immortal husband, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), takes her on her first hunt as a vampire, and she impresses him with her self-control as she passes up a mountain climber for a mountain lion, in keeping with the Cullens' practice of eschewing human blood.

Edward also introduces Bella to their half-human/half-vampire daughter Renesmee (10-year-old Mackenzie Foy, whose visage is digitally altered to represent different ages at different times), whose violent birth necessitated her mother's vampire transformation. Like her father, Renesmee possesses talents beyond the normal vampire scope, including the ability to convey her thoughts with just a touch. Unlike most vampires, though, the girl is growing at an alarming rate, leaving the family fretting that their newest member might be short-lived.