50/50 - I was slightly disappointed

Rating: 5/10 (2 December 2008)

Call me unusual but I didn't find the "Twilight" movie to be all that it was set up to be. I read the series once and read Twilight and Midnight Sun twice, so I knew what to expect. Minus the few changes that every book-to-movie should have, the film actually left me a little... disappointed.
1) Kristen Stewart's acting was so lame and boring it was like she had no emotion whatsoever. I saw her in "Panic Room" and a little bit in "Zathura" and she was pretty good. Upon researching her filmography I discovered she played in many horrors and thrillers; I think she belongs in a thriller and should stay away from other types. Throughout the whole film, I was left wondering if she would always be so dull or if she would get some emotion going on. At the fight, it got better. She does good in these situations but not the situations of boring dull life--not like "Sex in the City" type life. And I'm sorry Twilight fanatics but half the time she was talking, it sounded like it was forced--what happened to the acting? "I'm only afraid of losing you."--good line but her lips didn't move so it looks like she forced the words from her mouth. Why?
2) I never realized until I saw the film just how slow and boring the plot line really is. I mean, when you read the book you can see more than pictures can show because it's explained better. You see the average life of a teenager, the life we see in teenage movies that are generally realistically based (not these stupid shows that look like sleazy girls are walking the halls wearing clothes you KNOW the school system wouldn't allow.) But in the film... dang, I never thought about how slow the storyline was. As I said, in the book, from Bella's point of view, everything seems to be active so you wouldn't think on how slow the whole thing really is.
3) Was it just me or was the sound on the microphone turned up too high? Why did we hear the rustling of the comforter when she pushed it away? Why did we hear things that aren't supposed to be enhanced? Somebody told me that it was because they want you to hear it the way the vampires hear it, being enhanced and such. This film is through Bella's perspective, which means it should be normal.
4) Besides the sound, I have to say the camera angles weren't spectacular. I've seen films like "Collateral" where the action is realistic and the whole thing looks like its happening right in front of you (minus the holographic interpretation of our future) and "Twilight" didn't even fit that. I have seen foreign films and independently made films, films from producers just starting out which is also called Backyard Movies (they're now called B-rated Movies), and this didn't even fit those descriptions. It didn't compare against the films like "Harry Potter" or "James Bond", instead it looked more like a B-rated film, like it was made from somebody just starting out. I'm not saying it was a low budget film. I'm just saying it wasn't as intensely made as the others. I mean, compare "Twilight" to "Dracula 2000"--both films you can tell had used strings for the action scenes but in "Dracula 2000" the movie was more intense (and I'm not talking about the plot either).
5) Now I liked the music for the movie, don't get me wrong, and in some scenes where they played the songs it fit perfectly... but why did they play them all the time? Movies such as "Tomb Raider" have what is called 'Score Sheets', which means its the listing of songs played throughout the film (not saying they don't play the songs from the soundtracks). For example... in "Tomb Raider", when Lara travels into Cambodia, there is instrumental music playing--same thing when she works out her mansion. Now when she fights Simon the robot in her mansion, they play music from the soundtrack, or when the postal guy arrives to deliver a message while the house is being cleaned from a previous attack. What I'm saying here is the songs from the soundtrack were not repeated constantly but rather, used as a variety. In "Twilight", the tracks were repeated so much it became boring. Now yes, the piano music was a nice touch to some of the scenes in the woods and the soundtrack song of "Supermassive Black Hole" while they played baseball was fitting, but to repeat different sections of the song in different sections of the movie is overusing it.
Now I'm not saying I could do better and I'm definitely not saying the movie was a complete waste of time. I enjoyed myself and a lot of the small humor scenes but besides the obvious, I think it could have been MUCH better. The tremendous fan-base from the books was the only thing that made this movie hit so hard. After all, when the soundtrack came out it smashed the billboards. All that I am simply saying is that from a frequent movie watcher's point of view (and an author's point of view), the film wasn't all that it was cut out for.
Sorry again but this is all in my opinion.