Summary

• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 is considered the worst in the series due to its inconsistent tone, poor visual effects, and lack of a satisfying ending.
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 ranks slightly higher because it covers important story elements like Bella's wedding and transformation, despite its cringe-worthy dialogue.
• New Moon is the most problematic Twilight movie, highlighting Edward's manipulative behavior and Bella's co-dependency, but it sets the stage for development in Bella and Jacob's relationship.

The Twilight Saga wasn’t well-received during its initial release, but with time, it has gathered a wider fanbase, who continue to debate which are the worst and best movies in the saga. Vampires are traditionally depicted as tragic, romantic, but dark creatures, but in 2005, Stephenie Meyer changed the world of vampires with her unique vision of these. Twilight introduced the audience to Edward Cullen, a vampire who fed off animal blood and whose skin sparkled under the sunlight.

Edward Cullen fell in love with Bella Swan, a mortal teenager, and to make it all more complicated, Twilight also had Jacob Black, a werewolf and Bella’s best friend, who was also in love with her. In 2008, Twilight made the jump to the big screen with Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, and Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black, becoming an even bigger phenomenon than the books. Although the quality of the Twilight Saga was inconsistent, the movies achieved their goal of entertaining the audience, and surely, some movies were better than others. Here’s every Twilight movie, ranked worst to best.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2

The closing chapter of the Twilight Saga is, sadly, its worst. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 focuses on Bella’s transformation into a vampire and the Cullens’ struggles to keep their clan safe, as the Volturi are going after them following the news of Reneesme’s birth. Breaking Dawn - Part 2 introduces more vampires, as the Cullens need as much help as they can get, and so the audience gets to see Lee Pace, Rami Malek, Noel Fisher, MyAnna Buring, and more in full vampire mode – and yet, the movie falls short.

Breaking Dawn - Part 2 doesn’t feel like part of the Twilight Saga, with a different tone that is not drama nor action or comedy but tries really hard to be all those at the same time. The visual effects and make-up in the Twilight Saga got worse as the movies progressed, with Breaking Dawn - Part 2 having the worst – for example, the wolves got so big they weren’t believable, and proportions kept changing throughout the movie, especially during the battle against the Volturi. Of course, there’s also the infamous CGI baby Renesmee, which didn’t look believable back then and will never do.

Breaking Dawn - Part 2 is a slow burn, with the first two-thirds focused on Bella adapting to her new life as a vampire, and with the long-awaited battle against the Volturi happening in the final third – except the battle wasn’t real. Breaking Dawn - Part 2 could have fixed the book’s bad ending, but instead, the writers decided to do something worse and pretty much wasted the audience’s time with a very exciting but very fake battle.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 was all about Bella and Edward’s wedding and the preparations for her transformation. However, what no one was counting on was Bella getting pregnant and all the problems that would bring. One of the most criticized elements from Breaking Dawn - Part 1 was Jacob’s attitude throughout the whole story, which was quite toxic, and while dialogue was never a strength in the Twilight Saga, critics found it especially cringe-worthy in Breaking Dawn - Part 1.

Still, Breaking Dawn - Part 1 ranks slightly higher than its successor because it covered two details that the previous movies had been building for years: the wedding and Bella’s transformation. Breaking Dawn - Part 1 ends with Bella dying after giving birth and Edward injecting his venom directly into her heart in order to transform her and bring her back. Believing she didn’t survive, Bella is cleaned and dressed, but the venom begins to work in her body, healing every single wound and broken bone, with the movie closing with Bella opening her eyes, now blood-red.

New Moon

The second installment in the Twilight Saga, New Moon, focused on the break-up between Bella and Edward and everything caused by that. The break-up leaves Bella depressed and isolated, but she slowly begins to open up and spends more time with Jacob, whose attraction to her only grows. Bella begins to see Edward every time she goes through an adrenaline rush, prompting her to seek thrill-inducing activities, and it’s through one of those that Alice believes she has killed herself – and Edward, overcome by guilt, decides to end his life as well (in his own way, of course). Alice and Bella travel to Italy to stop him, and the Volturi learn about Edward and Bella’s relationship.

New Moon is the most problematic Twilight movie due to how much Edward’s manipulative ways show, and how Bella seems unable to break free from her co-dependency. Still, she gets points for trying, which in turn makes way for proper development for Jacob and for the movie to establish Bella and Jacob’s connection and relationship. While some like not seeing much of Edward throughout the entire movie, others feel his absence hurts the movie.

Twilight

Being the first installment in the saga, it’s undeniable that Twilight has a unique spark that made the audience (especially those not into the novels) much more welcoming. Twilight can be easily considered a teen romance, as the core of the movie is Bella and Edward’s first encounters and the evolution of their relationship. Twilight also told the audience the basics of vampires in Meyer’s world, which made it easier for the sequels to carry on with their stories without having to stop and explain what was going on – except in New Moon when the Volturi made their first proper appearance.

Having Catherine Hardwicke as director was one of Twilight’s strengths, as she was able to tell the story through Bella’s eyes, truly giving it a teen romance vibe but with sparkly vampires. In retrospect, Twilight was able to settle a very important detail that the rest of the movies forgot about: this is Bella and Edward’s story told through Bella’s perspective, which is why it has a feeling of newness and excitement.

Eclipse

Eclipse followed Bella as she was haunted by Victoria, who was still looking for revenge after the Cullens killed her companion, James, in Twilight. In order for her revenge to be successful, Victoria armed herself with her own group of vampires, all of them newborns and desperately looking for blood. Eclipse is considered by many to be the best novel of the Twilight series thanks to its exploration of more mature themes and a much more exciting story, which the team behind the movie managed to bring to the big screen.

Eclipse blended drama, romance, action, and comedy but without forcing it to drop jokes every few minutes. The story also gives Bella more to do and think about other than her relationship with Edward, as there’s also her high school graduation, her future, and her and Charlie’s safety now that the newborn army is attacking Forks. Eclipse also gave the audience a proper (and real) battle with a purpose: the Cullens and the wolf pack against Victoria and the newborn army, to stop them from killing Bella, the Cullens, and keep murdering innocent people in Forks and its surroundings.