this wasn't made for me

Rating: Null/10 (30 March 2011)

This movie wasn't made for me. I'm not a preteen girl with a huge crush on Robert Pattinson. I'm not going thru some "goth" phase nor do I harbour some secret vampire fetish. My wife was interested in this so I forced myself to watch. What did I see? The story centres around Bella and Edward. A star-struck teenaged romance which in the modern day means plenty of angst, brooding, moodiness, and latent desire. Not my cup of tea. The added twist is that whole 'vampire' thing. Can a vampire really have a relationship with his prey? The story twists vampire mythology to the point its totally unrecognizable. Vampires being afraid of the sun? Nope. Their skin turns into diamonds when exposed to sunlight. Poor babies... Vampires can pretty much do whatever their hearts desire as far as the CGI budget will take them. You no longer kill a vampire with a wooden stake but by dismembering him and burning up the pieces. All this became quite ridiculous in my old jaded eyes.
The film tries to look sophisticated with a few arty camera angles. Lighting was pretty much the same throughout the movie - grays, muted by grayish blues, followed by dark grays. It's pretty much the Pacific Northwest in winter. I'll give them points for effort and it actually does look pretty convincing.
Direction, well it was OK. Nothing mind boggling.
Overall I'll give it 5/10 for effort. Story is definitely a minus because of a mopey, depressed love story, plus some outlandish perversion of the vampire lore.