Unexpectedly Amazed.

Rating: 10/10 (23 November 2008)

I've been through this a hundred times. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Interview With a Vampire, you name it, I've read the books first, then watched the movie. So going in to Twilight, I expected to be disappointed. I assumed it would be like the Harry Potter movies, fun to watch, but nothing interesting compared to the books.
I was wrong.
This movie is masterful. The actors are all wonderfully talented in portraying realistic, lifelike, emotional reactions. The awkward laughs, the pained silences, the moments of confusion. So much of this movie is unspoken and communicated with looks only, and that takes an ENORMOUS amount of talent and direction. The scripting was fantastic despite what people are saying. It was very much scripted in the way people actually TALK, rather than "movie-speak". No, there were no real one-liners, dramatic moments, or stunning pronouncements. There aren't any in real life, either. This scripting was amazing in that it all sounded very natural. It sounded like regular conversations that regular people have in regular places. How often can you say that about a movie? Rarely! The filming of the movie has been critiqued negatively as well. I think it was brilliant. Rather than feeling like I was watching some polished, scripted, "HOLLYWOOD" version of a book, I felt like I was actually there. Forks felt REAL. (well, it is, but you know what I mean). It was the version of the book that lived in my head brought to life.
Yep, some of the story lines and plot changed. Of course they did - how else could a book of that size make a movie less than 5 hours long? But they didn't change as drastically as Harry Potter. Those movies left me feeling very angry with the adaptation. This movie made me skip through my house when I got home in glee!! The DID IT! They actually adapted these books into a movie I was pleased and proud to see!
I will watch this movie (and hopefully they make the rest, too!) over and over again and I will buy it as soon as it's out on DVD. Well done!