What not to say: The problem with Twilight author Stephenie Meyer’s finale for Breaking Dawn is that there isn’t one. The Cullens and their allies square off against The Volturi, and despite everyone gagging for a scrap, the would-be warring factions decide to talk it out and make up instead, leaving both loyal fans of the book and certain werewolves rather put out. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 director Bill Condon’s solution was simple: have the big fight anyway, while miraculously staying faithful to the book.

How he gets away with it is ever-so-slightly genius. When pale-faced precog Alice (Ashley Greene) shakes hands with mind-reader Aro (Michael Sheen) as they meet in a snowbound field, the audience (and Aro) see in real time what would happen if they did indeed fight: blood would be spilt, blood would be drunk, and Aro will be horribly killed, along with a decent chunk of his Volturi army.

Realising that trading blows will result in his own ignominious death, Aro decides to give peace a chance, and so filmgoers get the dust up they desired while Twi-hard novel-lovers get the ending they know from the books.

Did we see it coming? To be honest, not really. A solution to the book’s anticlimactic conclusion had been promised for a long while – since before Breaking Yawn Dawn Part 1 – but it was hard to see how they’d pull it off. Once you watch the film, however, the solution feels like it’s been staring us in the face all along: put a mind reader in the same place as a soothsayer-type and suddenly cinematic sparks can fly with no tricky consequences.

Back to the spoiler menu