Flashy, but not too much more.

Rating: 5/10 (9 April 2009)

Would you like to see a romance movie where every character gives a similar reading to Ben Stein? Is a vampire movie about vampires who play baseball and eat deer to survive interesting? Now how about mixing Ben Stein-like characters in a boring romance, with the vampire addition. Sounds boring? It is.
Bella (Kristen Stewart) is new to a boring Washington town. She goes to school and eventually makes friends with a guy who initially seemed to be repulsed by her, Edward (Robert Pattinson). He eventually reveals that he and his friends are vampires, so Bella joins Edward and his vampire buddies in their mundane chores, and along the way forms a romance.
The problem with this movie is really the style of acting. Every character acts as though they have gone through some terrible tragedy, and none of them show any emotion except for a sad depression. The conversations here are unrealistic, and the characters all feel flat. They are given traits, given to them through conversation about them, but never show any personality. Watching cardboard boxes is more exciting than watching these guys act.
Despite an uninteresting script, this movie is stylishly directed. It looks pretty good, and the dark, grey look it has throughout sets a tone that the actors only made boring. One scene that goes overboard with the glitz is a baseball game between the vampires, and this scene is just dumb. The film is sped up and slowed down at random, and it feels like a bad music video. But other than that, this is a good looking film.
"Twilight" is a well made film for the money that went into it. But just because something is well made, doesn't make it good, and the script is just not very interesting, and the actors only make it worse. Hopefully the sequel film will introduce us to these characters, because this only introduced us to clichéd cardboard characters.
My rating: ** out of ****. 121 mins. PG-13 for violence.