Twilight - a review from a non-fanatic

Rating: 5/10 (21 November 2008)

I am not really a fan of Twilight or the series. I have read all four books out of curiosity and I do admit that the first book is pretty good. However, I haven't followed Twilight as obsessively as I have with Harry Potter. I did watch the midnight showing of it - a friend had an extra ticket so why not? - but I already planned to watch it because I am a Kristen Stewart fan, and was curious about how Robert Pattinson would be like as a lead. Though screaming fan girls did ruin parts of the movie for me - I have to say that I was not as impressed with the film as I wish I should have been. Firstly, the trailers set a very somber, moody, atmospheric tone that I expected to be played out throughout the movie. Instead, the movie ended up being more comedic than I expected. It was a surprising, and a nice change. The script was awful. Though Catherine Hardwicke said in an interview she had the script rewritten to be more true to the book, the lines could not have been more cheesy. They may have come straight from the book but in the book, it made more sense. The script did not seem to build up enough of Bella's interest in Edward - rather, she seemed more or less apathetic and cautious towards him rather than completely drawn in. This can be either due to Kristen Stewart's acting skills or due to the script; I like to think that the script did not give Kristen enough to build on to make it more understandable why she said certain things. In addition, though it was necessary to cut a lot of things out because of time constraints, I felt that if you had never read the books then you would not be able to understand the characters' lines. And the voice overs? effective for some parts - not effective when Bella listed her three things that she was positively sure about. That was too much exposition without enough visual elements to support it. I also would have liked to see more about their courtship - I felt the only scene that really supported it was when he drove Bella to school one day. Then the next thing I knew, she was meeting the family - HUH!? Too sudden and again - not enough build-up. If you're going to build up the whole "stay away from me but can't help it" part, then you should build up the whole "i think we're soul mates" part. Catherine Hardwicke's style of directing was also very distracting. She had too many close- ups and too many camera movements. And the one time that she lets the camera be still during the ballet studio scene where Bella was bitten - that was the one time she should have been moving the camera and going in and out of focus. The actors on the other hand were perfect. Not just physically, but also acting wise - I think each actor was able to fully embrace their characters and act exactly how I would have expected them to act based on the book.... that glare that Taylor Lautner/Jacob Black gave Edward Cullen at prom - INTENSE! Jasper was the best - you could completely tell about his conflicted state and pain that he had to undergo - I truly wish he had more lines though and would not be stuck as a visual comedic relief for audiences. One scene I was most disappointed with was the sparkling-Edward scene. I had the impression that he was going to sparkle EVEN MORE than he really did, and not look SCALY. In addition - I think Stephenie Meyers' cameo was such a campy, unnecessary move - totally made for the pleasure of fans and if you were not a fan or did not know who she was, then the meaning of it would have been completely lost on you. It can't really stand alone as a movie - so much of it rests on the assumption that the audiences have background knowledge of the story. II felt that there was also greater emphasis on the sexual tension between Bella and Edward instead. The extreme close-ups, the lustful glances, the broodiness... really. Now if you spend your time showing off the undeniable chemistry to the point that it looks like sexually-repressed-virgins on screen AND insist that they truly love each other as soul mates BUT give no spoken evidence supporting that... then the movie just cannot stand alone. It has a story - but a very shallow and fragmented one at that.
So overall - I'd say that I was not very impressed with this movie given all its hype. I might buy the DVD though - sure I'll admit that - to check out the director's commentary and ogle at the great acting of the cast. But story wise - so terribly disappointing an adaptation. It was almost as laughable as The Golden Compass. And look at how that "series" turned out...