I like it!

Rating: 7/10 (29 November 2008)

Let's get basic; I enjoyed the movie. I didn't have many expectations for "Twilight," good or bad. I have never read the books and I had looked up minimal information about this flick online, so I was going in with a clean slate.
I had seen the trailer just a couple days ago. Mother had told me that it was like Romeo and Juliet with Vampires. Otherwise, I entered knowing nothing.
For the negative, special effect-wise, this was awful. It was like a bad TV movie. The story didn't revolve much around flashy CGI, though (a positive relief in itself), so that really didn't matter in the long run.
The plot was really well done, but I guess I can "blame" that on the book. It took a number of cliché's and gave them rather delightful spins.
For example, it starts out with a girl (Bella Swan, played by Kristen Stewart) going to a new school in a remote area. Rather than the students usual of her being the hated outcast, however, they all over-love her. This was the first newbie they had met in years. As one student said, "This is like second grade and you're our shiny new toy'.
In any case, the tale continues on with Bella having some tensions with an overly-pale guy (Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattison) that sits next to her in biology class. When Edward stops a car from smashing her using his bare hands, she discovers that he's a vampire and becomes a romantic sucker for the blood-sucker.
The tale was character-driven to the max. Everything fit in. Everything had a reason. It was almost perfect in that respect.
The acting was pretty good, although I believe that the makers of this movie had too much confidence in this, judging by the excessive use of close ups, especially on mundane things such as glares and raised eyebrows.
Anyhow, I'll give this one a 7.6/10 stars, a thumb and a half up, a B+ grade. This is a film wherein the pros highly outweigh the cons.