Review: ‘Twilight’

Travis:

I have mixed feelings about ‘Twilight’.  On one hand, I am disgusted that the film has strayed so far from the classical idea of what a vampire is, but on the other hand I applaud Stephenie Meyer for doing her own thing and telling tradition to sit on it and spin. This was a difficult situation for me at first, but I’m starting to get used to it… especially since we are likely to see at least two more films in the franchise. Before I go any further, let me just go on the record as having stated “I have not read the books!” So, don’t even thing about arguing with my personal opinions based on the differences between the book and the movie because I will shut you down. Here’s my stance on that argument, in general: they are two different mediums… get over it!

Going into the film, I found myself experiencing an odd array of mixed feelings that I don’t normally endure. Originally, I felt this film was bound to be nothing more than teenage fluff. As the film grew closer to release, I began to look forward to seeing it out of pure morbid curiosity. I wanted to see what all the hype was about. Upon viewing ‘Twilight’ I discovered I was both right and wrong. The first 1/3 to 1/2 of the film was excruciatingly difficult to bare. I felt as thought the film was never going to end, certain scenes I thought lingered for what seemed like an eternity and the text book teenage angst and melodramatic romance was enough at one point for me to run screaming out of the theatre.

Understandably so, the median age and gender of the crowd watching ‘Twilight’ was 13 year-old girls, who undoubtedly loved the first half of the movie. So be it. What surprised me, especially after enduring the torture I had been subjected to while the Hannah Montana crowd was enveloped in pure bliss, was that the second half of the movie [for the most part] actually managed to take a firm grasp on my attention. I’m not suggesting ‘Twilight’ is anything more than what it is and certainly not worthy of any awards, but the “concept” manifested itself in such a way that I became somewhat more open to the possibilities.

I guess I need to give some of you some insight on what ‘Twilight’ is about, while many of you will have read the books. Remember, if you haveread the books, this is a MOVIE review and not a book review. Bella (Kristen Stewart)Â  moves from Phoenix to a small Washington coastal town called Forks to live with her father while her mother travels to Florida with her minor league baseball playing boyfriend. Bella finds herself quickly adored by friends around school, but feels a strange attraction to Edward (Robert Pattinson), who is one of fiveadopted children to Doctor Cullen and his wife. The five Cullen kids are seen as “weird” by the rest of the school but Bella doesn’t care. It doesn’t take too long before Bella pieces together the truth about Edward and his “family” and they accept her as Edward’s girlfriend. The Cullen family are “main streamers” to use ‘True Blood’ vernacular, feeding only on animal blood. However, they’re not the only vampires out there and other’s are not as considerate to their human counterparts. This, in turn, develops into the primary obstacle of the film.

The make-up for the vampires was subtle enough, except for Edward who looked like a depressed mime standing in the unemployment line. I reckon they “enhanced” his makeup to stand out, but I’m not sure the filmmaker’s were aware that Edward’s lipstick stands 15 feet out in front of his face. The villainous vampires are well portrayed, but play a relatively small role in the film until the end. The backstory is interesting, but introduces some key points to quarrel with… like, vampires without fangs? Vampires have a venom that is released in their bite, which is the catalyst that turns a human? I’m cool with vampires not flying. The approach ‘Twilight’ takes with vampires is that they’re more super-human than supernatural, however they are still undead despite the lack of focus placed on that element in the story.

My biggest beef with ‘Twilight’ is with allowing the vampires to be day-walkers. The concept itself I can live with, despite it being perhaps the most significant part of vampire lore, but it’s the execution of the idea I found ridiculous. A friend of mine who has read the books explained to me the result of a ‘Twilight’ vampire being exposed to sunlight almost as an evolutionary trait to attract prey by becoming luminescent and beautiful. I perceived this as something brilliant, almost angelic in nature. However, when Edward reveals this secret to Bella he is anything but angelic. He looks like the makeup crew ran out of money and decided to cover him in gold glitter like we used to play with in grade school. Pathetically disappointing!

As the film ended and I left the theatre, I found myself split as to whether I should loathe the film or accept it as a fair rendition of ideas I have little interest in. If not for the second half of the film bringing me out of the funk of the first half, I would have absolutely loathed ‘Twilight’. Instead, I am actually somewhat looking forward to the sequel, which I understand will introduce more of the Native American lore into the story. In my opinion, this is the best part of the ‘Twilight’ storyline as I understand it and I’m not going to give anything away in my review.

[Overall:Â  2.75 stars out of 5]

Ram Man:

Transylvania 90210.

[Overall 2.5 stars out of 5]

Jeremy:

Amidst the high-pitched shrieks, tearful whines and gasps for breath, it’s more than a little difficult to enjoy ‘Twilight’ for what it is. Â  If you see it in the theater, that’s exactly what you’re to expect. Â  I don’t get it, but the thing is, I’m not supposed to get it. Â  I’m not a 13-year-old girl, and I’ve never read sentence one from the book series. Â  To say whether or not the film based on the first book deserves the reactions it gets from its core audience is not my place. Â  I’m here to comment on whether the film is any good or not. Â  The simple fact that I recognize that should appease any die-hard “Twilighters” from talking back about a less than approving review. Â  That, to say the very least, is exactly what ‘Twilight’ is going to get.

To be fair, the second half of the movie is head and shoulders above the first half. Â  The idea of a 17-year-old girl, Bella, played here by Kristen Stewart, moving to Washington to live with her father and her being drawn to a local boy who turns out to be a 108-year-old vampire is interesting. Â  But where the film loses all credibility is in the structure.

We all know that Edward Cullen, played by the apparently dreamy Robert Pattinson, is a vampire, but that fact isn’t revealed until almost an hour in. Â  We know something is wrong with him. Â  He and his foster brothers and sisters don’t come to school when the sun is shining through the hazy, North Western sky. Â  He miraculously saves Bella from being crushed by an out-of-control van by stopping it with his bare hands. Â  But, until his vampirism comes fully into light, the film drags worse than an anchored ship.

The story isn’t the only problem with the first half of ‘Twilight’. Â  The film, directed by Catherine Hardwicke (‘Thirteen’, ‘Lords of Dogtown’) seems to have been filmed under the guise that it would air on the CW. Â  The cast looks like rejects from 90210. Â  Everything’s shiny and smooth. Â  There’s no harshness to be found anywhere. Â  A freshly buffed Parquet floor doesn’t have this kind of polish on it. Â  It looks great, especially if you’re watching it on a high def screen, but there’s very little in the way of appeal that is raised. Â  It’s a grueling first half, particularly if you have an inkling of where the story is going.

It’s also here that we notice just how bad the actors are. Â  Stewart has developed this acting crutch where, in order to convey confusion or intrigue, she jerks her head spastically back and forth. Â  It makes you think that if you were to grab her by either side of her head, the whole screen would starting shaking violently in her place. Â  She takes the George Clooney-head-tilt-acting maneuvers to an annoying extreme. Â  Pattinson, dreamy as he may be, looks like he’s nauseous half the time. Â  The other half he looks like he’s seen way too many spoofs on Dracula, and he’s decided that’s how a vampire should act. Â  There’s nothing about the cast behind these two that delivers anything of note. Â  At least the bad acting is somewhat of a diversion from how monotonous that first half is.

After Edward reveals who he is to Bella, the real thrills begin. Â  There are some very touching and personal scenes between the two that play out very well. Â  In particuly is a scene where Bella goes to meet Edward’s family for the first time. Â  Like Edward, they, too, are vampires, but they consider themselves “vegetarians”. Â  That is, they only feed on animals.

Another touching scene involves Edward and Bella lying in bed together. Â  Bella sleeps on Edward’s chest, and is has been established long before that being a vampire means Edward never sleeps. Â  He lies motionless just watching her sleep. Â  It’s a sweet moment, and one of the few genuine moments found in the whole film.

As interesting as the second half of the film is, the special effects are particularly bad in ‘Twilight’. Â  Whenever we see vampires jumping through the air or running at super speed, the films becomes extremely goofy. Â  When Edward is racing through the forest with Bella hanging onto his back, it looks like something out of a Speedy Gonzales cartoon. Â  An average episode of Smallville has better special effects than this film.

Late in the game, the real conflict begins. Â  A trio of evil vampires show up. Â  They have no back-story. Â  They seemingly have no motivations other than the screenplay said they were bad guys. Â  Perhaps something about where they cam from will be explained in the upcoming sequels, but, here, we are left with next to nothing in the way of knowledge about these characters.

At the end of it all, ‘Twilight’ is an uninteresting opening to a less than promising series of films. Â  More CW than HBO, the film comes off like Diet True Blood. Â  Not even that. Â  Diet True Blood would still have a hint of enticement about it. Â  This is the Sam’s Choice equivalent to True Blood. Â  Cheap and with a little bit of crisp taste, but not enough to cover up the badness of it all.

[Overall: 2 stars out of 5]

Quin:

Books that are turned into movies rarely do well in the box office with the exception of the Harry Potter Franchise and the newest movie Twilight. Now for me although the movie did add a few things, like the field trip, dinner scenes, and vampire killings, to the story line the movie overall flowed well. I liked the voiceover of Bella saying “I had never given much thought of how I would die” in the beginning of the movie and when the event between James and her occurred.

Kristin Stewart did a great job in portraying the helpless Bella Swan. Honestly, I was unsure if the actress would be able to pull of the part because of the following of the book and ultimately how she is described; the same can be said about actor Robert Pattinson. I remember reading an article in Entertainment Weekly that the actor received a lot of flack for the role and how young girls refused to accept him as the beautiful carved from marble Edward Cullen. But for all purposes the actor pulled off a great performance.

With the movie I liked the humor that director Catherine Hardwicke intertwined in the movie, mostly the expressions and one liners from the cast, to keep the audience pulled in, not like it was hard being that it was Twilight.

The development between Edward and Bella pieced together nicely in how some of the scenes just showed them talking in various locations while music took a hold of screen. The scene that was really the pinnacle in how I came to my opinion on the movie was the Kiss between the two leads, Pattinson and Stewart. The scene was slow in how one minute you saw Bella talking to her mother about boys and then she sees Edward lurking towards her on her bed. They begin to converse as he leans closer and closer until he says “I’ve always wanted to try this†. With that he gives her a light peck. The moment gets Bella more and more into it until she is the crazed teenager who can’t control herself as she grabs his hair and catapults herself on to him. This goes on for a good 45 seconds until Edward thrusts them both towards the head of the bed and soon pushes himself off, and begins to feel upset at the fact that he could have killed her. In my eyes this was the scene that could make the movie or break it into a million pieces if it was not done correctly.

The rest of the cast also did well; and after seeing the film I am convinced that there were no errors in casting. All of the Cullen family interacted well with each other, which in the movie biz is important because without chemistry a movie has nothing. They all brought different elements that helped tie the story between them well and not choppy. With the Cullen family the way Jessica Stanely described them it let see the future development of all these mysterious vampires.  The villains, James and Victoria, in the movie were more defined, in their relationship, than the book which was great in giving the audience the big picture. This tool is rarely used and it was actually great to see.

The movie for me did a great job in not trying to be the book on screen but still trying to hold true to the story of eternal love between two different people.

[Overall: 4 stars out of 5]

Melissa:

So, a few months ago my twin sister brought over a book that she said that I had to read… I kept putting it off until one night when my netflix fairy did not arrive… with no movies in sight I picked up the book and began my journey into the magical tween world of Twilight.

What does me reading the book have anything to do with the movie? Well, I originally thought that it would give me a good comparison for the movie. The only downside to that is that the movie is a very loose interpretation of the book. To be honest, that part kind of took away from the movie a bit. Every time that I noticed something completely different than the book, I was pulled out of the storyline.

Lucky for me, Robert Pattinson, who plays the ever dreamy Edward Cullen, was there to suck me back into the story! Now, I have heard some debate amongst my friends on whether or not he is ho enough to play the sexy vampire. My vote is YES! He is not your typical Abercrombie-Express-American Eagle junkie and that suits me just fine. Instead, he has exquisite bone structure, and mesmerizing eyes. SOLD!

Sidenote: This magic movie man was also Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter films.

Kristen Stewart plays Bella Swan, the girl in love with the vampire. Don’t get me wrong, I think that Stewart did a great job in the film, but they could have wrote her character as a bit less whiny. It just seemed like she was whiny without the frail sense of Bella in the books.

The only character that I didn’t really like was Jacob Black, played by Taylor Lautner. I think that he was way too boy like and nothing like what was really described in the book. I guess it really doesn’t matter since there will have to be a new Mr. Black in the next movie… I won’t spoil why for those of you who haven’t read the books.

The movie also started off a bit slow. I think the beginning of the film was a bit dumbed down for audiences, but at the same time didn’t explain things as well as the book does. For example, you saw how Bella and her father were kind of distant with each other, but why? I know why because I read, but it really just skimmed by that whole scenario. Or how Bella got her truck… Or how Edward would question her for hours about her likes, dislikes, family etc. And I’m sorry, but how the Cullen characters were introduced seemed a bit like something out of a Hillary Duff movie!

Some people complain also about the fact that they break all the rules about vampires in this movie. I say GOOD FOR YOU! I watched an interview with the Author where she basically states that these characters are coming out of her head and that she can write them however she would like to. I respect that. Instead of researching old tales, and things that have already been done, she went her own way. I do enjoy the many vampire books and movies out there, but her interpretation was a nice break from the norm.

The other big complaint that I have heard is that the movie is too teeny bopper… I agree in some ways. There were parts that were a little too giggly. What we must not forget though is that these books were originally written for young adults.   It just so happens that these books were so amazing that adults started to pick them up. That being said I think that they did a good job, but they could have made it a little more accessible for adults like the book does.

Ok, I will stop being a book nerd. I did like the passion conveyed between Bella and Edward. They still managed to keep it passionate, emotional, and raw. There might have been a few times where this girl swooned for Mr. Cullen in the theater…

[Overall: 4 stars out of 5]