My first dip into the franchise.

Rating: 8/10 (8 July 2010)

I'm a 44 year old English teacher in Korea and have had to listen to my students praise these movies and beg me to watch them ever since they started coming out. I resisted because I obviously wasn't in it's target audience. I do like good vampire stories, but this series didn't seem to be it. That said, I broke down and saw the movie.
Wow, it was just a movie. Nothing hideous; easy to follow even though I'd never seen its predecessors or read any of the books. Over all, the feeling is hyper-melodramatic and that makes it drag a bit. But is that enough to make so many people dislike it so strongly? Why do we always need things blowing up and jumping from one scene to another? The drama felt grounded, the flaws in acting felt like weaknesses inherent in the actors' young age and/or the character's young age. Pattison is 24 and his character is supposed to be so aged but he comes off so naive and younger than his actual age. Lautner just comes off really young. I like the way he projects a young person's seriousness when they think they fully understand all the emotions they have, but they don't, really, because it's just their first time. He really came off well portraying someone having deep feelings for someone else for the first time and the awkwardness that goes along with that. As for Stewart, I saw The Runaways first and was afraid I was just going to feel like I was just seeing Joan Jet again. I was happy that it wasn't true. I don't know if her Bella matches the one in the books, but it is separate from the other characters I've seen her play, and that was nice. She shows talent. All the other characters threatened to be over-shadowed by the leads and the central triangle. That's why I enjoyed the flashbacks giving more information about some of the secondary characters.
Over all, I connected with it far more than the Underworld series. The landscapes are gorgeous and the cinematography is nice if not exceptional. For all its action and violence, I found it to be a quiet movie about one girl's dilemma between two guys. As such, it held my attention surprisingly well.