Twilight

NOTE: This review is the fair and unbiased opinion of someone with extremely little knowledge of the Twilight series. I watched the movie with a few die hard fans who I talked to after the movie, and I will work some of their thoughts into the review.

Another much loved book series has been brought to life in the form of Twilight, which despite having nothing in common with the Harry Potter series, will undoubtedly draw comparisons because of the furor and craze surrounding it. The main difference between the two, however, is that the Harry Potter films are generally good and solid films. Twilight, despite having done a couple things right, is not.

As a story, I will admit, Twilight is very catchy and interesting. Now I see what all the hype is about. If I was a young girl, I would go nuts over this stuff too. It's not just a vampire and a human falling in love with each other, but because of the two leads, it's one of the best on screen romances of the decade. This, however, is severely hurt by the fact that Twilight boasts easily some of the worst writing and editing I've ever seen. Let's not forget about the horrid VFX and pasty makeup, either. It's one of the cheesiest films of the year, and can definitely be put in the category of "so bad it's ALMOST good". Yes, I just invented that category.

The 'allure' of the film appears to be the character played by Robert Pattinson, who ironically was previously known for his role in the Harry Potter series. Pattinson succeeded there and he more than succeeds again, as he more than fit the bill for what he needed to do with the character. Most actors would believe the only requirement of the character is to be good looking, but Pattinson takes it a step further and makes Edward Cullen very likable, trustworthy, and in the end, a good hero for the audience. Kristen Stewart is sort of the queen of not showing facial expressions, so she's perfect for the role of the awkward teen Bella Swann. However, there were sometimes where her lack of emotion bothered me.

Our supporting players...Well, none of them are noteworthy like Pattinson is. The villain of the film is lame, cheesy, and played by an actor I can't take seriously. Nikki Reed is probably the best as Rosalie, Edward's 'sister', and the antagonistic vibe felt from her adds a different side to the movie.

Okay, I don't really know what possessed the writer of this screenplay to make it so horrible (was it the source material?), because the dialog is just so bad that I laughed at serious moments. There's a lot of intentional humor, mostly in the beginning when Bella and Edward feel like awkward teens in love. I guess the movie moved along okay, because I wasn't bored at all. I was either laughing at how stupid the dialog was, laughing at some of the mildly funny jokes, or getting pulled in by the electric chemistry between Stewart and Pattinson.

That, folks, is the reason most people will be able to sit through this movie. The chemistry between the two leads, romantically and sexually, is amazing. In this respect, Pattinson and Stewart are perfectly cast and it makes me wonder if they could end up together in real life some day. I was very surprised by how much I liked seeing their one on one scenes, as cheesy and bad as the VFX and editing are.

As far as these visual effects go, I've seen a few vampire movies in my day. I'm going to assume director Catherine Hardwicke has seen a few. Well, she needs to watch a few more. Her fight scenes are horribly choreographed, terribly shot, and lack the intensity required to successfully rouse her audience. I could almost notice the wires the actors flew across on. I noticed a ton of errors with the editing as well, such as basic stuff like mouths moving and no words coming out, and words coming out when no mouths were moving. The fight scene at the end has wicked bad editing too, as the sound mixing also suffers as well.

All in all, with Twilight, as bad a movie as it may be, I couldn't help but stay interested in it because of the electric chemistry between the leads. That alone kept me in the seat the whole time. It is technically one of the worst films of the year, but the entertainment factor in the above respect keeps it out of the company of movies like Disaster Movie and College. I was actually lucky to see it with some of the fans of the book, and all of them (5) described the movie as a 'disappointment' and that the film went 'half way' with some subplots, either starting and dropping them, or randomly starting them halfway through an individual subplot. They were not happy at all with this movie, but agreed on one thing: Robert Pattinson was the perfect Edward Cullen. I'll agree with them on all those points and say that Twilight is exactly what I thought it would be: so bad it's ALMOST good.

That was my interpretation of this weekend that I had to endure working at my movie theater, all these little hormone crazed brace wearing under developed young girls who I think would've just about died with the anticipation of seeing Twilight, I'm not kidding, I personally witnessed a twelve year old say that she wanted to have Robert Pattinson's baby. OK, so how I saw the movie, my sister, ironically my older sister has been just raving about the Twilight series with her friends and told me that I have to read these books, after weeks of bugging me with it, I finally broke down and read them. Actually it's kind of a fun series, it reminded me of the same love that I had for the TV series Buffy the vampire Slayer when I was a young teen. But of course she has to take me to the midnight premiere with 100,000 crazed fans who were knocking each other down and crawling all over each other just to see a movie.

Bella Swan has always been a little bit different, never caring about fitting in with the trendy girls at her Phoenix high school. When her mother remarries and sends Bella to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she doesn't expect much of anything to change. Then she meets the mysterious and beautiful Edward Cullen. Intelligent and witty, he sees straight into her soul. Soon, Bella and Edward are swept up in a passionate and decidedly unorthodox romance. Edward can run faster than a mountain lion, he can stop a moving car with his bare hands - and he hasn't aged since 1918. Like all vampires, he's immortal. But he doesn't have fangs, and he doesn't drink human blood.

So, my opinion about Twilight the movie... honestly, it's average, it's my junior high romance with a vampire. I hate, beyond hate to say this, I'm a hypocrite for saying this, but because I read the book before I saw the movie, I had this completely different interpretation of what the characters look like and how they say certain lines. Twilight the movie made me laugh more than anything simply because of the actors, Robert and Kristen are not bad actors, but the way they talked, I just couldn't take their "love" seriously. Peter Facinelli who played Carlisle Cullen, Edward's father, was exactly how I pictured and pulled in the best performance of the film. Is it worth the watch, absolutely if you're a fan of the books, otherwise, I would say if you just wanna see this movie, I recommend the matinée price because honestly, I think I may have lost my hearing after this weekend of the none stop screams from crazed teens.

5/10

This movie deserves an 8 purely for the soundtrack - one of the best movie sound tracks EVER (in my opinion) and beautiful scenery and cinematography. sure, the acting isn't great, nor is the script writing, however this movie is an enjoyable watch and a romance classic

As a gay 66 year old man, I am clearly not part of the intended audience for this film, however, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The film is filled with handsome teenage males, and many homely ugly- Betty goonily-dressed females, including the lead Bella. The boys either strut around looking pretty, with blank expressions, like runway models, or they act like silly hyper active grade 4 school boys. The boys are so inept in their attempts to impress the girls. Bella rudely dismisses them all with a look that says, "You have got to be kidding. You thought I would have anything to do with you?"

Bella is cranky, rude, not very bright, without interests, hobbies or talents. However, she is new to the school, which gives her some appeal.

Edward, is considered the ultimate dreamboat by all the girls, but he allegedly considers himself too good for any of them. I thought the explanation was that he gay, but it turned it out was because he was a vampire.

All the ugly girls get cute boyfriends in the end, but that fantasy- fulfilment story is very much in the background.

To my great surprise the plot of the first half of the film unfolds with the ponderousness of a Jane Austen novel. I never expected that from a teen movie. There is great push pull between Edward and Bella. Edward is trying to control his urges to kill Bella and drink her blood. Bella blithely ignores what he is telling her. The reticence builds an incredible tension. It is similar to the sort of tension people in an earlier day felt trying to avoid sex before marriage or gay sex.

What makes no sense is why Edward is attracted to Bella but not the other girls. I decided to pretend it had to do with scent or some vampire-only discernible attribute. The real reason has to do with fantasy fulfilment.

Robert Pattinson does a brilliant job of portraying Edward the vampire. His approach is similar to Stephen Moyer playing the courtly vampire Bill Compton in True Blood. He is calm, patient, breathy, intense, old- fashioned. He is handsome, but in an almost non-human sort of way.

At one point he says roughly, "I am the most dangerous predator on the planet. Even my face, by voice and my scent are designed to lure victims." You look at him, and imagine his exotic scent, he is speaking literal truth. It is like an electric shock. Photographs of him are not sufficient to show what I am talking about.

Like the Superman I movie, Edward gradually reveals his powers to Bella. Unlike Lois Lane, Bella is completely unimpressed.

The movie shifts gears to comedy, when Edward takes Bella home to meet the "family".

Then the movie shifts gears again, stealing the special effects from Superman II, where the titans battle.

Bella always chooses the most dangerous possible thing to do at each stage. It obviously helps the plot, but it made me want to smack her for being so stupid.

Bella within almost minutes of meeting Edward decided she wants marry him. Then a week or so later she decides even marriage is not sufficient commitment. The want him to commit for eternity of life as a vampire. The belief that there was only one true love for me caused me untold misery. I might even go so far as to say it ruined my life. I hate seeing that poison being sold to unsuspecting young girls.

There's an atmosphere to Twilight and that much you simply cannot deny. I can't help but be engrossed by the way that this movie captures the beauty, dreariness and nature of the Pacific Northwest. A memorable score and soundtrack heighten Catherine Hardwicke's broody, yet still enchanting tone. Elliot Davis' cinematography under her direction replicates the indie flair prominent in her other features, this is what separates it apart from the commercially realised sequels that followed. It's a hot and cold, gothic romance with just enough high stakes to enchant you until the very end. If it's raining, you can best believe that I'm slipping into something comfortable and putting Twilight on.