Twilight Forever: The Complete Saga Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Twilight Forever: The Complete Saga Blu-ray Movie Review

Time to quintuple dip?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 27, 2013

Though she didn’t churn out quite as many volumes as J.K. Rowling, Stephanie Meyer arguably gave the film world its biggest post- Harry Potter shot in the arm with her Twilight franchise, which brought droves of folks (and not just teenage girls, as some have assumed) to local cineplexes to witness the adventures of Bella, Edward and Jacob when the film versions of Meyer's inordinately successful book series began appearing. Summit Entertainment hit upon a veritable jackpot with the release of Twilight in November 2008, and The Twilight Saga: New Moon was announced virtually within days of the first film’s overwhelming success at the box office. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse followed soon therafter, and then the filmmakers took a page from the Harry Potter franchise by splitting up the final Meyer novel into two films, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2. The films have come out in a sometimes bewildering array of special, extended and retailer exclusive editions over the years. But like a vampire who refuses to die, Summit is back now with a deluxe new set of all the films, all of the previously released bonus content plus some new exclusive bonus content, a commemorative photo album to house the set and (just for good measure) a “double sided box” which allows fans of Team Edward or Team Jacob to properly display their particular favorite.

This review will focus solely on the new bonus content included on this handsomely packaged release. For the record, this set includes the two disc versions of all the films save for Eclipse, for a total of nine discs devoted to the films and their attendant special features. A tenth disc of bonus content exclusive to this release is also included. To catch up on all of the previously released content, click on the following links to the reviews of the individual films by my colleague Martin Liebman:

Twilight Blu-ray review

The Twilight Saga: New Moon Blu-ray review

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Blu-ray review

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 Blu-ray review

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 Blu-ray review

Twilight Forever: The Complete Saga Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For complete reviews of the video quality of the individual releases, please click on the above links.

Twilight Forever: The Complete Saga Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For complete reviews of the audio quality of the individual releases, please click on the above links.

Twilight Forever: The Complete Saga Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

For complete reviews of previously released supplementary material, please click on the above links. The Bonus Disc in this set contains the following special features:

• Twilight FAN-omenon Featurette (1080p; 35:32) is an interesting look back at the sociological phenomenon the books and films created. There's some great footage of the stars coming to terms with their sudden overwhelming celebrity, as well as lots of footage of screaming teenage girls. Contemporary news footage (hey, even Brian Williams reported about this, so it must have been news), cast interviews and even interviews with fans are included.


• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Character (1080p; 8:24) is kind of a random collection of behind the scenes moments, but it does include Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart's first ever filmed promotional interview for Twilight, which is awkwardly amusing. News flash: Kristen Stewart can smile, and even laugh!


• Cast Retrospective (1080i; 1:05:49) has a nice overview of the series, though my hunch is fans are going to feel fairly cheated as there is really no contemporary reminiscing by any of the principal cast (lots of archival footage is included), and in fact the most time is given over to producer Wyck Godfrey. But this charts the course of all five films rather well and includes a ton of behind the scenes footage which should delight the franchise's many fans.


• Twilight Forever: Edward's Saga (1080p; 1:49:03) is a Reader's Digest or Greatest Hits (bites?) tour through Edward's storyline in all of the films, made up of scenes from the films.


• Twilight Forever: Jacob's Saga (1080p; 1:44:03) does exactly the same duty for Jacob, excising his big scenes and presenting them in chronological order.

Twilight Forever: The Complete Saga Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's probably little doubt that completists won't think twice about getting this set, and for those who are watching their pocketbook or pinching their pennies, the good news is at least this new package isn't that expensive. It is very handsomely packaged in a photo album-like book which contains lots of heavy cardstock photos into which the discs are inserted. That said, the new bonus content is really not that earth shattering when you get right down to it, especially the two Saga features which are simply edits of big scenes of each of the protagonists. If you haven't yet gotten any and/or all of the Twilight films on Blu-ray, this new set is a great bargain and comes Recommended.