Not as bad as I've heard

Rating: 7/10 (6 December 2008)

**REAL minor spoilers* Isabella Swan (Kristen Stewart) moves to Washington state to live with her father Charlie (Billy Burke)--her parents are divorced. While attending high school there she become attracted to light-skinned Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). He is attracted to her also--but he turns out to be a vampire! I heard lots of negative things about this (that it didn't match the novel and looked cheap). While it's no masterpiece it's not that bad at all. It has a good score (especially when Bella discovers Edward is a vampire) and has beautiful locations. The sometimes clunky dialogue from the novel has been replaced (or written out completely) and the story moves very quick (the novel is over 500 pages). There's also excellent makeup and special effects used sparingly (which makes them all that more effective). Also the evil James is well played by Cam Gigandet and the final battle is actually pretty frightening. In terms of acting almost everyone is good--especially Pattinson who is just great. On the bad side--the movie seems somewhat muted (for some reason). Stewart is just OK (but she DID turn 18 while the movie was being filmed so that might have affected her acting). Also Burke is terrible as her father and it had a stupid "it isn't over" ending which wasn't in the book! Still, this was well-made and done and worth catching. I give it a 7.