Robert Pattinson, pictured above at the premier for "Water for Elephants," will be staring in the latest film,The Batman. He is known for his role in the Twilight franchise. (Courtesy of Eva Rinaldi Celebrity Photographer on Creative Commons).
You’ve seen the trailer for the new Batman movie. You’ve noticed that Robert Pattinson looks hot as hell in that smudged eyeliner. “Surely,” you think, “this will be the movie that propels him into the realm of superstardom.” I hate to break it to you, fellow Pattinsfan, but you’re wrong.
Rob doesn’t need the excess fame that follows the familiar billionaire bat wherever he goes—he already has superstar status. Pattinson’s crowning achievement, whether he likes it or not, is his phenomenal portrayal of Edward Cullen in the fifth and final film of the Twilight saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 2.
The fifth Twilight film is not very good; none of the Twilight films are very good. That didn’t stop them from becoming an international phenomenon. Unfortunately for RPatz, however, most viewers overlooked Edward in favor of werewolf bad-boy Jacob Black for the first four films in the franchise. No one blames them.
Edward Cullen is a 109-year-old immortal, blood-sucking Holden Caulfield with an impressive amount of Catholic guilt and an enormous superiority complex—which he maintains by eavesdropping on the thoughts of his ‘fellow teenagers.’ And, from movies one to four, Pattinson does a magnificent job conveying this toxic, manipulative neckbeard of a man.
It is for this very reason that Pattinson’s talents were overlooked in the franchise before Breaking Dawn: Part 2—no one could stand Edward Cullen, so no one could stand Robert Pattinson. Then came the revelation.
The fifth movie of the Twilight saga begins with Bella Swan becoming a vampire. She opens her eyes, red and hungry for blood, and notices that she can see things in high definition because of the vampire venom in her veins.
It takes a second for his blurry figure to come into focus, but then an absolute vision: Robert Pattinson standing before her, hand outstretched, face tentative before revealing a dazzling smile.
Anyone who watches this movie—and especially this scene—concludes that no movie star has ever been or will ever be as gorgeous as Robert Pattinson. Even his portrayal in earlier movies could have in no way prepared the audience for this striking, almost divine, beauty.
Then there’s the way Pattinson—because it isn’t Edward anymore, not the cold, pretentious loser of the Twilight books—responds to Bella in this movie. He moves toward her with eyes that admire her strength and intelligence.
He seems to understand what she’s thinking even though he can’t read her thoughts. Beyond that, he watches her with the undying curiosity that only genuine emotional attachment can summon. Or maybe it’s because the two virgins finally had sex in movie four. Your guess is as good as mine.
Edward grins as he guides Bella through her first vampiric hunt, perhaps the first joyful expression we see in any Twilight movie. Human language lacks the capacity to truly illustrate one of Pattinson’s soft, warm smiles. Absolutely angelic.
Of course, Robert himself despises his history with the Twilight franchise. When he read the first movie script, Pattinson said he thought Twilight “seemed like … a book that wasn’t supposed to be published.”
My theory follows, then, that Rob wasn’t trying to be Edward in this fifth and final movie. Perhaps the genuine smiles and laughter that grip at our hearts are Pattinson’s own. Is he so relieved to be free of this toxic character that he expresses joy on screen?
We may never truly know, and it doesn’t matter. What matters is watching this scene over and over again only to see him laugh quietly to himself, face no longer contorted in some expression of internal anguish.
Even an emotionally complex Batman portrayal could not duplicate what Robert Pattinson was able to in Breaking Dawn: Part 2. There’s no greater method of acting than the one that relishes in the actor himself. Robert unapologetically shines through Edward, and he earns the adoration of every audience member brave enough to sit through such a poorly written film.