Not terrible, but not too hard to watch

Rating: 4/10 (6 October 2016)

Haven't read the books and have very little knowledge on the Twilight Saga, so this review is unbiased but possibly a bit uneducated.
I understand where the hype comes from - this film is perfect for young teenagers who enjoy romance and the paranormal. Twilight is surprisingly catchy and has some interesting concepts, but lacks a lot.
I think that the main issue is the writing. Nearly all of the interactions between Edward and Bella were awkward and almost cringe-worthy - and there's a lot of generic stuff to try and flesh Edward out as the mysterious, brooding teen. I guess that's acceptable given the fact that this is for teens, but as a teenager myself I found it irritating after a while. We get it, you're a troubled soul.The movie was mostly just a huge service to young people who just want to see vampire romance and don't care too much about the quality.
Pretty much every character lacked depth, and were often just there to pad out the movie or to give some exposition. Even worse, most of the exposition given was through internet searches (the absolute laziest way to inform an audience). There were TWO scenes in which Bella just googled things. It could've been much more subtle.
Something I did enjoy was the cinematography. This is a good looking film and has some beautiful settings. The editing, however, was often quite amateur. The 'fade to white' effect was used a few times and felt very Windows Movie Maker-esque. That may be nit-picky of me but I did feel like some of the over-editing really brought me out of the movie.
Overall, this movie isn't awful. It's certainly not good, but I could definitely sit through it. It is definitely a different concept and actually does get quite interesting, but it's just poorly written.