Decent book-to-screen translation. GREAT movie!!

Rating: 8/10 (21 November 2008)

As many people have said, book to screen translations are hard. But because this was done by an Indie director and produced was done by an Indie studio, this movie became unique. Could you imagine if this was just another Hollywood film done by a big Hollywood studio that got big name actors and a big name director. It would be just another cheesy Hollywood romance with the twist that one of them is a vampire. Woohoo. "Twilight" is much, much more than just a Young Adult romance novel. It has something that appeals to everyone, as I know most of you know. I was THANKFUL that it didn't focus strictly on the romance of Bella and Edward. That would be a lame movie.
On our way home from the midnight showing, I had a friend sitting in back of my other friend's car nit picking at everything that was wrong. Her first argument was that Kristen Stewart did a horrible job and that she didn't cry when she was supposed to. Our response to that is: That's not Kristen's fault. Catherine made the decision on that. And she probably included Stephenie in a lot of the filming or Stephenie was on set most of the time. It is far from the fact that "Kristen Stewart can't act!!" It's the fact that this is what the director of the film wanted. They probably tried it a bunch of different ways and what ended up in the film was probably the best take.
Her second argument was that it didn't include all the great dialogue from the book. Well...Personally...I don't want to sit there and watch the book literally on the screen. There are still somethings that are left to the imagination when you re-read the book which I am thankful for. I saw this with "The da Vinci Code" which had nothing creative about it. They took the book and just re-wrote it as a screenplay pretty much. I was bored out of mind. I think if they would have done that with "Twilight" it wouldn't be so appealing. Plus, we got some good new lines with the movie. (Edward: That guy isn't looking...he just looked.) All in all, I think this is a great movie. I am going to put on my flame retardant suit. But it's true. For what it was and for what the book is...I was stunned. I may have gone in with low standards, but I am a harsh critic as well. If you're going to see "Twilight" after reading the book, you do have to go in with an open mind and know that this isn't going to be word-for-word like the book. You have terrible book-to-screen translations that are horrible (Blood and Chocolate, The Princess Diaries), some that are decent (The da Vinci Code), and some that are amazing (Bridget Jones's Diary). It is my firm belief that "Twilight" falls under the amazing. No, it's not godsmackingly glorious. But it is its own monster. It is a great companion for the book.
To me, it has earned 4.5 stars out of five. Why just 4.5? Because, Cam did steal the scene when he was on the screen, they didn't include "Breakfast time!...For the human!" and the whole theories and questioning thing happening too early. But other than that. The film was amazing.