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Last Thursday, instead of finishing necessary homework, I sported my “Team Edward” shirt and lined up for the midnight show of anticipated film adaptation ofTwilight, the bestselling teen novel by Stephenie Meyer. What I learned was that I could have waited to see it on its actual release date, or maybe even a few weekends after that.
Twilight is about a young girl, Bella (Kristen Stewart), who moves to Forks, Washington to live with her father. Here, she meets Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) who has an unusually pale complexion and superhero strength. Bella soon realizes what he is, a vampire who chooses to feed on animals instead of humans, and she falls in love with him. Their taboo romance comes to a halt when Bella encounters a deadly vampire who commits himself to hunting her. The beginning of the film spends a lot of time developing the relationship between Edward and Bella, but then speedily runs through the climax and ending.
I might have ruined the movie for myself by having such high expectations for it. Many of the scenes I enjoyed reading were left out entirely. It felt as if the director assumed all of the audience members would have read the book when that clearly wasn’t the case. There is a scene where Edward plays a lullaby for Bella, and the only way the audience would have known that is if they purchased the soundtrack. One thing I was impressed with was the cast of the Cullens, and how similar they are to how I originally pictured them.
Kristen Stewart, who has lately been praised for her role in Into the Wild, was one of the biggest disappointments. Her monotone voice and static expressions ruined the character of Bella. Thankfully, Robert Pattinson, who is best known for his role as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter, made up for it with his handsome face. The people who were just as let down as I will say that staring at his face for the two hours made it worth it.
Over Thanksgiving break, I went to see the movie again, and I found I was able to enjoy it a little more. There are some comedic scenes that make up for the ones that were lacking. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the movie a 6.5.
I enjoyed the soundtrack more, as it features two songs by Paramore and other songs by Iron & Wine and Muse. I asked other people who read the books what they thought. Some agreed with me, and surprisingly, others enjoyed it. I would recommend people read the books and make their own decision about the movie. And yet, despite my indifference, I still have the Twilight poster hanging on my bedroom wall and am anticipating (not as much as the first) the sequel, New Moon, set to release in 2010. |
