The 33rd annual Golden Raspberry Awards — or Razzies — were held yesterday in Santa Monica, and for the first time in the series’ history, the Twilight Saga took the top (dis)honor of Worst Picture. Excluding the initial installment, each of the Twilight movies have been nominated for this award, but the final sequel, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, has seemingly been chosen as representative of the whole franchise. Kind of like the negative parallel to how Return of the King won Best Picture for the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Breaking Dawn – Part 2 also won Razzies this year for Worst Actress (Kristen Stewart, whose award also credits Snow White and the Huntsman), Worst Supporting Actor (Taylor Lautner), Worst Screen Couple (Lautner and Mackenzie Foy), Worst Director (Bill Condon), Worst Ensemble and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel. It lost its nominees for Worst Actor (Adam Sandler was chosen for That’s My Boy over Robert Pattinson), Worst Supporting Actress (Rihanna won for Battleship over Ashley Greene) and Worst Screenplay (That’s My Boy was preferred). The film had also been up against itself in the Worst Screen Couple category, with Pattinson and Stewart losing to Lautner and Foy.
Having seen all of the Twilight films, and enjoyed a few, I will admit that Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is the worst of the bunch, a disappointment especially following the surprisingly clever and entertaining Breaking Dawn – Part 1. And unfortunate since it did appear they were out to improve the franchise. But worst of 2012? That’s not only doubtful, it’s completely incorrect. Picking Twilight over, say, The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure, is obviously to get the Razzies more attention. Of course, it’s working. And following a number of years of Twilight films not winning, thanks to truly worse pictures (and worse sequels/remakes) like Jack and Jill, The Last Airbender, Sex and the City 2 and Land of the Lost.
In spite of being mostly a bore and having one of the most frustrating endings of the year (though still not as bad as The Devil Inside), Breaking Dawn – Part 2 at least has one thing making it worth watching, which is the gory, batshit-crazy battle sequence — or maybe it was just worth it to hear the Twi-hards in the audience gasping over and over. There are plenty of movies released in 2012, including most of the Razzie nominees except Battleship (which is dumb fun), that have no redeeming value whatsoever.
Do you think Breaking Dawn – Part 2 was really the worst movie of last year?