Breaking Dawn - Part 2: best of the Twilight series?

Something very strange is going down in the Twi-verse, that odd corner of the movie universe inhabited by sparkly vampires, sexy werewolves and the kind of mopey young ladies who in real life would probably just go goth for a few years. There have been four previous movies in this most divisive of franchises, and all have been treated by reviewers as an enormous target at which to blast their critical barbs. Last year's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 got a measly 25% "rotten" rating on the review aggregator site rottentomatoes.com. Yet inexplicably its sequel, which is cunningly titled The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, is a critical smash.

The Observer's Mark Kermode is among those who have admitted to a sense of distress that Team Edward, Team Jacob and the army of baseball-playing, Gap model denizens of the undead which seem to accompany them will soon no longer be with us. "I've had a lot more fun watching and arguing about the Twilight movies than I ever had with the Star Wars saga, that lumbering, narratively hobbled space opera," he blasphemed recently. "Honestly, give me Bella and Edward over Jar Jar Binks any day."

"Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is three fingers of supernatural teen romance served neat in a dirty glass with a sparkler and cocktail umbrella, and not a single concession is made to newcomers, or sanity," enthuses The Telegraph's Robbie Collin. "Within five minutes of the opening credits, the newlywed Bella, whom you may recall converted to vampirism at the end of Breaking Dawn Part 1, is hunting a puma in a figure-hugging blue cocktail dress. Soon afterwards, the shapeshifting Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) decides to reveal his true nature to Bella's father, the local policeman – by luring him into the forest and peeling off his clothes, while growling lustily about the world being a wilder place than he could ever imagine. Later still, a wolf karate chops Dakota Fanning's head off. A film that features scenes like these is very hard to dislike."

"There's an ancient philosophical conundrum: if a Twilight film has no love triangle and no romantic moping, is it still a Twilight film?" writes Empire's Helen O'Hara. "This series finale emphatically answers in the positive, finally moving the characters along without losing the flavour of what's gone before. Newcomers will still be put off by the lingering frowns, slight air of distress and extensive lip-biting, but fans will be in seventh heaven to see the story of Bella and her Edward finally reach its conclusion."

"It's still hard to fathom how the awkward wet dreams of a Mormon housewife have provided the most hysterial pop culture phenomenon in 21st-century cinema so far," wonders Little White Lies' Jonathan Crocker. "But in this last bite of Stephenie Meyer's quadrilogy of novels, the Twilight saga finally grows some fangs. Right from the stylish opening credits – monochrome flashing to blood red, frost engulfing foliage – Breaking Dawn – Part 2 finds a new pace and purpose that's been missing for the last eight hours of the fairytale franchise."

All in all, Breaking Dawn – Part 2 turns out to be easily the best-reviewed movie in the series, with a whopping 70% fresh on rottentomatoes.com. There are still the naysayers, of course, including the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, who pointedly refuses to get caught up in the Twi-thusiasm: "The Twilight Saga signs off with a tentative whimper which turns into a conditional bang, which turns out to be a different, provisional kind of whimper," he writes (though handing the final instalment a conspicuous extra star over its two immediate predecessors).

Breaking Dawn – Part One took a staggering $700m (£440m) globally, but might Bradshaw's barbed review be enough to hammer a stake into the dark heart of its UK box office hopes? Not according to the wags at the Daily Mash, who preposterously contend that Twilight fans are probably in the habit of looking elsewhere for their moviegoing tips. Teenage Guardian readers of the female, Jacob and Edward-loving persuasion, please take this opportunity to register your displeasure with such a ridiculous claim in the comments section below. We know you're out there ... Hello? Hello?