This was... Bad

Rating: 4/10 (28 November 2008)

***Spoilers*** Simply atrocious. Out of the 2 hours running time, only 20-25 minutes of this film actually worked. While I loved Stewart & Pattison as our "lion & lamb," they just had horrible lines. They did great with what they had. About half (if not more) of the lines were taken directly from the book. The cinematography (I hope I spelled that correctly) was awful. It looked like a Lifetime special. I know, I know- they only had $40 million budget. Guess what? If I were Meyer, I would've gone to some other studio who would've ponied up the dough. If this was all they could get, then that should've rang a bell there. It wasn't good enough for Warner, New Line, Revolution, Dreamworks. Here's a hint: When they wouldn't back the project, re-do it.
Anyways, I also loved Bella's dad, Dr. Cullen & Mrs. Cullen, Alice, Emmett, Laurent and Jessica- everyone else was just wrong. I thought James was okay. Wasn't "bad" enough for me. Bella's mom wasn't neurotic enough for me, Mike was just plain creepy. Didn't think Tyler was right. Rosalie was a little over the top. Jasper, IMO, was the most terrible outta everybody. He wasn't the cool, charismatic sophisticate the book plays him out to be.
I really enjoyed the ballet studio scene, the meadow scene, the "baseball" scene (up until Laurent and gang), and the beach. When Edward and Bella first met in the classroom, the close-up on his eyes... oh my goodness. Wow. Absolutely spine-tingling and breath-taking. That's when I knew that that was "my Edward," so to speak. These were the only credible scenes for me.
What upsets me most, is that they already have screenwriters for the rest of the books of the series. I hope some other studios sign for the other films. If not- I'm boycotting the movies and the books (haven't read past Twilight). I'm not wasting my time any further if I know that Summitt will continue to trash this franchise.