by Sydnie Parker, A&E Editor

“Breaking Dawn: Part 1,” the fourth installment in the now hugely popular “Twilight” series, can be best compared  to an extremely cheap buffet:  mix some sub-par acting, enough dramatic pauses to put a soap opera to shame, and just the right amount of shirtless men to make the preteens in the theater wet their pants.

Together, it creates a fairly satisfying meal. But like most cheap buffets, you run the risk of getting food poisoning.

The movie starts out with good spirits, as Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) prepare for their wedding. It slowly starts going down hill from there.

The wedding is drop dead gorgeous, even though I found myself paying more attention to Bella’s dress and the wedding decor than what was actually going on.

Bella’s dad, Charlie Swan (Billy Burke) steals the show for the entire first part of the movie with his witty and sarcastic remarks. His constant snide comments about Edward bring movie-goers back into focus, after a somewhat boring wedding scene.

The movie really starts to pick up when the couple travels to Rio de Janeiro and then their own private island for their honeymoon.  The honeymoon kicks off as the pair take a naked dip in the ocean, leading to an intense make out and groping session, landing them in a bed back at the house.

I am absolutely flabbergasted to how Stewart and Pattinson are a couple in real life.  This so-called passionate love scene was about as hot as an afternoon at grandma’s house.  The icing on the cake is the moment when Edward reaches above the bed and breaks the head board, in a slow, almost tortured way, which would be okay if the look he had on his face wasn’t the same as when he is getting a root canal.

Edward changes the pained look that has been frozen on his face thus far when he is shocked to the core about finding out about Bella’s pregnancy.  They immediately return to Forks, Washington, and Edward’s adoptive father, Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) breaks the news that the baby is literally eating her body from the inside out.  The movie takes a gross turn when they began feeding Bella blood out of Styrofoam cups with straws.

In the end, the movie wasn’t a complete waste of two hours of my life, and I would be lying if I said I am not going to see part two next year.  But for this long awaited series to come to a satisfying close, it will need to tighten the pace to be as taut as Lautner’s 12-pack, and cut out the unnecessary awkward parts.

Then, and only then, will the series go out with a bang, not a wolf whimper.

GRADE: C+