The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1
Summit Entertainment | Release Date: November 18, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
45
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
19
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyNov 17, 2011
Worthy of mention is Carolina Herrera's design for Bella's wedding dress, sophisticated and demure in the front and Pippa Middleton sexy, and proper, in the back. Read full review
75
MovielineStephanie ZacharekNov 17, 2011
It's the most imaginative picture in the franchise. Read full review
75
USA TodayScott BowlesNov 16, 2011
It is in many respects the best installment of the franchise as its stars go from sullen kids to sullen young adults, where their expressions look more natural. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 17, 2011
The latest and best of the movies about a girl, her vampire and their impossible, ridiculously appealing - yes, I surrendered - love story. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubAlison WillmoreNov 17, 2011
It may be impossible for anyone but existing fans to take this seriously, but for the unconverted, it's still a legitimately engaging, gape-worthy nutso spectacle. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 19, 2011
Here's hoping Breaking Dawn Part Two gives us more of what Part One provided in the final 30 minutes than what it forced viewers to endure to get there. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezNov 17, 2011
Part 1 does something that no other previous Twilight movie had achieved: This one draws you close and keeps you there. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertNov 17, 2011
Absorbing, if somewhat slow-paced, and has without doubt the most blood-curdling scene of live childbirth in a PG-13 movie. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 20, 2011
In any case, the last twenty minutes of Breaking Dawn are so harrowing that it's possible to forget that most of the acting is soap-operatic (the guy who plays Carlisle is aging to look like Liberace) and the dialogue from hunger. The movie's that primal. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 19, 2011
To my taste, savvy Hollywood veteran Bill Condon debuts as director of the two-part "Twilight" conclusion in satisfying fashion, delivering a voluptuous if often inert spectacle that splits the difference between high camp and decadent romance. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 18, 2011
"Rosemary's Baby" it's not, but color us stoked that a Twilight movie even strays into evil-fetus territory. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNov 16, 2011
To outsiders, in fact, Breaking Dawn: Part I will probably look like the weirdest, most expensive chastity commercial ever created. But Meyer's massive fan base will see something else entirely. They'll see a faithful, well-made depiction of the most eventful book in a beloved series. They'll see the actors they adore embodying characters they cherish. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensNov 19, 2011
One seriously sick little blockbuster. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyNov 18, 2011
It's the most jumbled and tonally confused movie yet. Read full review
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 18, 2011
Bill Condon returns fans' love and gives them exactly what they have shown they want. That is: uneven storytelling, maudlin dialog and decidedly one-note performances, even from the big names in the cast. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartNov 18, 2011
Still, it was a beautiful wedding. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliNov 17, 2011
About as loony and soapy as a movie can get. In other words, it's about as loony and soapy as the novel, and I say this as one who obsessively consumed all four installments in Stephenie Meyer's mega-selling series. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJane HendersonNov 17, 2011
Twilight fans who have followed the series will want to see "Breaking Dawn," and like Bella and Edward may find brief moments of pleasure. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisNov 17, 2011
The movie is long and uniquely bad, the last of Stephenie Meyer's four books greedily tortured into two installments. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyNov 12, 2011
In the end, given how little goes on in Breaking Dawn - Part 1 despite the major plot points, what you're left with is to gaze at the three leads, all of whom have their constituencies and reasons for being eminently watchable. The only hope is they'll have more to do next time around. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangNov 12, 2011
All the more disappointing, then, that a story so pregnant with dramatic possibilities should wind up feeling like such an unconsummated opportunity. Drawn from Stephenie Meyer's polarizing, weirdly compelling fourth novel, the film is rich in surface pleasures but lacks any palpable sense of darkness or danger. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 18, 2011
I would imagine that even those who line up for this film will be somewhat let down, if only because it's clear that most of the juicy stuff will arrive in Part 2 – which won't be released until next November. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumNov 17, 2011
What we learn in this all-pain/no-pleasure episode is that marriage feels like a life sentence, weddings are miserable events, honeymoon sex is dangerous and leaves a bride covered in bruises, and pregnancy is a torment that leads to death in exchange for birth. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyNov 17, 2011
The film doesn't have nearly the bite - ferocious or delicious - that any self-respecting vampire movie really should. It's as if all the life has drained away. Read full review
40
TimeMary PolsNov 17, 2011
This is Meyer's worst offense - her disturbingly Victorian attitudes about sex and love, which this particular movie falls modestly in lockstep with, even though it concludes years of cinematic foreplay. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'HaraNov 17, 2011
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. Read full review
40
Boxoffice MagazineVadim RizovNov 17, 2011
Sex and abortion are the main topics of this installment, which tips between dullness and total camp. Read full review
38
Washington PostMark JenkinsNov 17, 2011
The "Twilight Saga" hasn't matured along with its heroine. In fact, the latest movie regresses a bit, delivering more filler, less feeling and crummier CGI than last year's "Eclipse." Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 17, 2011
Reveals a flash or two of real filmmaking (mostly in a suggestively grotesque birthing sequence), enough to save it from pure lousiness. Read full review
38
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreNov 16, 2011
At long last, The Twilight Saga sinks utterly into camp with Breaking Dawn: Part 1. Read full review
30
Village VoiceDan KoisNov 17, 2011
Condon delivers the most authoritatively directed Twilight film so far, which only brings into sharp relief how tonally incoherent its story is. Read full review
30
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 16, 2011
Overall the film is goofy, slight, without a truly deep thought in its pretty little head. And for a movie with vampires and werewolves, the only scary thing is in the title - "Part 1," which means "Part 2" is on its way. Shudder. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundNov 17, 2011
Intended as the cinematic equivalent of an orgasm, this tirelessly hyped insta-blockbuster is loaded with OMG developments (marriage! Sex! Baby!) and seemingly regarded by everyone to include the most epic and gratifying scenes of romantic release in modern movie history. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 17, 2011
Start hating me now, Twihards, but the sexless, bloodless, padded and plodding Breaking Dawn, Part 1 is the worst Twilight movie to date. (I don't get it either.) Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 17, 2011
Breaking Dawn Part 1 confirms suspicions that all four books could've made a heck of a single movie. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesNov 23, 2011
Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Chicago, Gods and Monsters) takes over the directing reins for these final two parts; his most noteworthy contribution to the series so far is a terrifyingly staged birth scene that should turn the teen fan base off of sex altogether … which is precisely what this whole dumb, punishing series has been gunning for from the start. Read full review
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