Teen Drama with Real Bite

Rating: 10/10 (28 November 2008)

Being a huge fan of the book series by Stephanie Meyer, it's pointless not to admit that I have a certain bias towards Twilight. I was expecting great things, and my expectations were fulfilled, so I wasn't in the least bit disappointed. The entire movie is just brimming with confidence and a true love for the material, making director Catherine Hardwicke an absolutely perfect choice for the director's chair. The movie is lead by two fantastic performances from Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, who bring the book's iconic Edward Cullen and Isabella Swan to life with energy and emotion.
For the uninitiated, Twilight is essentially Romeo and Juliet with vampires tossed in the mix. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) reluctantly moves to the small town of Forks to live with her dad Charlie (Billy Burke). Being the new kid at school, Bella finds the outcasts, the Cullen family, to be particularly interesting, especially the unreasonably gorgeous Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Needless to say, there's more to the family than meets the eye, and much conflict along the way.
To be quite honest, for a book to film adaption, Twilight was unbelievably close to its source material. Honestly, you can't get much closer to the book than this. Initiating Stephanie Meyer to help write the screenplay and give word on slight changes was an incredibly clever decision, as fans that complain about the movie will only have Meyer to blame. The last three Harry Potter films have left entire sections of the book out, in addition to characters and such. Twilight does no such thing. The leads have great chemistry (which was practically required for a film like this), the core of the book is kept intact, the acting was top-notch, and the length and pacing was just right. What more can a die-hard fan ask for? Of course, there are some changes made to the movie. Some things needed to be a bit more cinematic. There are literally around 20 pages worth of descriptions of how gorgeous Edward is, and these descriptions can basically be summed up in less than five seconds. Mike, Jessica, Eric, and Angela may be a little different from their book counterparts, but it's mostly for the better. The group of friends serve as the movie's primary source for comic relief, and it works very well. Much of Bella's first day of school is missing, but it was never really all that important to begin with. Not to spoil anything, but both the battle and the prom scene were absolutely gorgeous and well-done, even though they may not have been exactly as described in the book. There were a few more things here and there, but nothing really to complain about. The only thing I was a little annoyed about was the lack of Carlisle's backstory. However, seeing some of your favorite book sections transformed onto film (especially for things like the Cullen introduction and the baseball scene) is a feeling that can't be rivaled by any other.
While some people may not have been fully satisfied with the acting or thought it was laughable, I loved every minute of it. I would use the phrase "shines in her role", but I would be using it almost every sentence. There are no clear shining stars here, as everyone is simply that fantastic. Kristen Steward basically has the entire movie on her shoulders, but she did a great job. The big emotional scene towards the end was a huge stretch for her, but I bought it all the way. Robert Pattinson may have received a lot of fan hate initially for being selected as Edward, but his performance proved that he IS Edward. You can't see his accent at all, in fact, he pulls off being American quite well. Congrats to the makeup artist because Rob looked absolutely stunning.
The directing from Catherine Hardwicke was perfect, and if she returns to film New Moon it will be interesting to see how she helps translates some of Bella's more emotional scenes. Hardwicke has a true vision behind the camera, and there's lots of close-ups. I can't wait to see more of what Hardwicke has to offer, as she pulled amazing performances out of every single person involved and gave the movie a definite heartbeat.
Twilight fulfills its purpose for sure, and then some. It's one of 2008's finest films, and probably would have been regardless of how close it actually stayed to the book. With a story this great, its difficult to make a bad film unless you're trying extremely hard. Overall, I absolutely loved the film and it went above and beyond in every way imaginable, becoming one of the best adaptions in recent memory.