Oh. Umm... Really?

Rating: 7/10 (22 November 2008)

I'm sorry to say that this was a wasted opportunity for Stephanie Meyer and the Twilight franchise. The books have so much potential to be great movies and unfortunately, Ms. Hardwicke has seemed to miss out on some essential tones from the books. For example, if someone had never read the books, they would wonder why Bella and Edward are so quickly drawn to one another and - even having read the books - their relationship on screen is just...awkward.
When I read the books, the relationship between Bella and Edward drew me in so completely, I felt like I was emotionally involved with their story. (Granted, the writing could have been cleaner, but I'm not going to comment on the books here).
I understand Catherine Hardwicke had to compress about 600 pages into a 2 hour movie, but the movie's audience only gets to see a fraction of the pure *lust* between Edward and Bella - even *I* had trouble sleeping after reading the books. And that leads to my biggest disappointment of the movie - Bella's Lullaby. The melody plays throughout the movie, but the audience has NO idea of the significance! Bella's lullaby comes up on a number of occasions throughout the novels (and no doubt through the movies that will be produced), but Hardwicke chose to skim over the scene at the Cullen's house - truly one of the more memorable chapters in the books. It's a shame that more attention was not given to Bella and Edward's poignant fascination with each other.
I think the real problem with the movie is that you only get the very basics of the story line. You will not see nearly as much character development from the movie as you will from the books. After a start like this, it's very hard to imagine how the other three movies will manage to hold any type of significance.
Having said that, people *will* see the other three movies.
When I saw Twilight in theatre, there was a group of teenage girls behind me who actually *squeeled* and giggled with Edward's first appearance on screen. You can't escape the success of this franchise, built from the novels. As I mentioned, the other movies will be made; let's just hope the writers and directors learn a lesson from a somewhat dismal beginning.