When 2008’s Twilight became a big hit, additional adaptations from Stephenie Meyer’s series of novels became inevitable. 2009 brought New Moon while 2010 delivered Eclipse.

2011 introduced the conclusion of the saga – or at least halfway there. As implied by the title, Breaking Dawn - Part 1 gives us only the first half of the finale.

After many ups and downs, human Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) marries vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). This doesn’t go off without controversy, as her werewolf pal Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) feels distressed to lose Bella.

Nonetheless, the newlyweds head on their honeymoon and Bella becomes pregnant. Given the half-human, half-vampire nature of this baby, complications ensue, both in Bella’s womb and with others concerned about what this unusual offspring might mean.

If you look back at my reviews for the first three movies, you’ll see I liked Twilight more than expected. Though aimed at a young female audience, it came with enough cleverness and energy to entertain a middle-aged dude like me.

Alas, New Moon and Eclipse largely lost those positives. While they occasionally generated some decent action, they focused more on mopey romantic melodrama and failed to connect.

Should viewers expect anything different from Dawn 1? Nope, as it follows the same turgid template of the prior two films.

If anything, Dawn 1 feels even more stuck in place, mainly because it doesn’t come with nearly enough story to fill two hours. The source novel runs more than 750 pages, which implies more than sufficient content to fill two separate films.

The wedding eats up a huge block of time. A smidgen of plot info emerges in those scenes, but not enough to justify their existence as anything other than sop to fans who want to moon over the romance.

This takes us more than one-fourth of the way into the movie, and matters don’t really improve after the newlyweds go on their honeymoon. Bella and Edward finally Do the Deed but otherwise we spend a long span with their dull honeymoon.

We finally learn of Bella’s pregnancy about halfway into the flick. The tale picks up from there, right?

Not really, mainly because it continues to plod. Again, I feel surprised to learn the movie comes from such a long novel, as Dawn 1 stretches so thin.

Due to the hybrid nature of the fetus, Dawn 1 focuses on the threat to Bella’s life. Like the wedding/honeymoon of the first half, this doesn’t feel like enough to sustain a full hour of film, and the movie makes the events drag.

Of course, another element contributes to the utter lack of drama: the film’s title. Because we get Breaking Dawn Part 1, we go into the flick fully aware that we’ll find Part 2.

Could a final chapter without Bella have existed? Yeah, I guess, but such a prospect seemed intensely unlikely.

As a result, we never feel any concern for Bella’s health. Maybe we think the baby won’t make it, but we go into Dawn 1 with the virtual certainty that Bella’s pregnancy won’t kill her.

This means Dawn 1 offers a slow and tedious slog toward the inevitable. It devotes two hours to material that easily could wrap in 30 minutes or so.

Did fans dig all the mopey melodrama and the extended wedding/honeymoon stuff? Perhaps, but those don’t help Dawn 1 as a film.

It ends up as slow and turgid. Maybe Dawn 2 will complete the franchise on a more compelling note, but after three straight bad films, I lack much optimism.

Footnote: a tag scene that teases Dawn 2 appears early in the end credits.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. I felt pleased with this strong Dolby Vision presentation.

Sharpness worked fine. Only a sliver of softness ever crept into the movie, as the majority looked tight and concise.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws remained absent, and a good layer of grain implied no issues with noise reduction.

Dawn 1 opted for a palette heavy on amber/golden overtones, with a hint of red as well. These seemed well-reproduced within the stylistic choices, and HDR added range and impact to the tones.

Blacks seemed fairly dense and deep, while shadows appeared smooth and clear – well, outside of some thick “day for night” shots. HDR gave whites and contrast a boost. This became a positive image.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, I found the movie’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack to feel more than acceptable but not remarkable. For most of the film’s first half, we found little more than music and general ambience.

Matters improved during the second hour, as that segment provided virtually all of the flick’s “action beats”. This meant the soundscape opened up in a fairly involving manner, one that provided a good sense of place and conflicts.

Audio quality seemed positive, with speech that came across as tight and concise. Music showed appealing rage and clarity.

Effects offered good bite, with elements that came across as accurate and full. The soundtrack lacked the consistent ambition to become great, but it seemed strong enough for a “B”.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? Though the Atmos mix brought a bit more involvement, it didn’t seem much different than the prior disc’s audio.

While finished 2K, the Dolby Vision image nonetheless provided superior delineation. HDR also gave colors and blacks a nice step up, so this turned into a more satisfying picture overall.

As we shift to extras, we get an audio commentary from director Bill Condon. He offers a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, continuing the franchise, cast and performances, sets and locations, music, photography, effects, and related domains.

After a slow start, Condon builds a decent head of steam. He covers a good array of topics and makes this a worthwhile chat.

While the 4K features only the film’s theatrical version (1:57:05), an included Blu-ray Disc also provides an extended version (2:04:15). What does that added seven minutes, eight seconds add?

The main difference comes from an alternate opening that introduces the Volturi earlier in the tale. It seems like a useful addition.

Otherwise we find fairly minor character beats. None of them seem especially valuable. It disappoints that the extended doesn’t come on the 4K platter, but at least this set provides the longer cut, whereas the 4K sets for the first three movies drop those elongated editions.

Love, Birth, Death brings a six-part documentary. It fills a total of one hour, 26 minutes, 43 seconds and involves Condon, producer Wyck Godfrey, author Stephenie Meyer, co-producer Bill Bannerman, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, production designer Richard Sherman, costume designer Michael Wilkinson, set decorator Jan Blackie-Goodine, director of photography Guillermo Navarro, wedding dress designer Carolina Herrera, property master Michael Sabo, 1st AD Justin Muller, 2nd unit visual effects supervisor Terry Windell, VFX producer Ken Kokka, senior VFX supervisor Phil Tippett, VFX supervisors Edson Williams, John Bruno and Eric Leven, VFX editor Mike Cavanaugh, storyboard artist William Groebe, 2nd unit director EJ Foerster, animatronic and prosthetic makeup effects supervisor John Rosengrant, and actors Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Jackosn, Rathbone, Ashley Greene, Mia Maestro, Christian Camargo, Michael Welch, Nikki Reed, Billy Burke, Kellan Lutz, Tyson Houseman, Booboo Stewart, Kiowa Gordon, Julia Jones, Chaske Spencer, Bronson Pelletier, and Elizabeth Reaser.

“Love” examines Condon’s arrival on the project, the source and its adaptation, shooting two films at the same time, sets and locations, production and costume design, cast and performances, photography, various effects, stunts and action.

Inevitably, we get a fair amount of happy talk across this piece. However, we also find lots of good content and shots from the production. Those balance the fluff to turn this into a pretty solid documentary.

Jacob’s Destiny goes for seven minutes, 18 seconds. It offers info from Lautner, Condon, Rosenberg, Godfrey, Bannerman, Meyer, Stewart, and Pattinson.

“Destiny” offers a quick overview of Jacob’s path across the movies. This feels more like a plot synopsis than anything insightful.

Next comes Bella and Edward’s Personal Wedding Video. This one fills eight minutes, 33 seconds and approximates a piece that guests would’ve provided to Bella and Edward. It does little for me.

Four music videos appear. We get “It Will Rain” from Bruno Mars, “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perti, “Flightless Bird, American Mouth” from Iron & Wine, and “I Didn’t Mean It” by the Belle Brigade.

“Rain” offers a montage of Mars that depicts the good and bad of a relationship intercut with Mars as he mopes about losing his girlfriend and movie shots. The film snippets remain pretty minor so this becomes a better than average video from a song from a movie. I may feel that way mainly because the girlfriend is exceptionally hot, though.

“Years” offers a bland mix of Perri as she lipsynchs with film shots. It turns into a forgettable video and song.

“Bird” simply shows pretentiously out of focus black and white footage of the musicians in the studio. The video is dull and the song leaves me cold as well.

Finally, “Mean It” simply shows lyrics over a purple sky background. The video offers no spark, but the song seems peppy and pretty good, which makes it a relief after the dreary prior tunes.

The disc opens with ads for Breaking Dawn – Part 2, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Hunger Games and Now You See me. No trailer for Dawn 1 appears here.

As the opening half of a franchise-concluding tale, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 becomes a sluggish drag. It lacks anywhere close to enough actual content to fill two hours and just churns in place too much of the time. The 4K UHD comes with solid picture and audio as well as a commentary. Maybe the Dawn 2 will offer perspective to make me appreciate this dud, but I doubt it.

Note that as of December 2023, this 4K of Breaking Dawn Part 1 can be purchased only as part of a Best Buy-exclusive 15th anniversary steelbook collection that provides 4K UHD renditions of the first movie and the other three Twilight sequels as well.

To rate this film visit the Extended Edition of BREAKING DAWN - PART 1