good but not great

Rating: 7/10 (23 March 2009)

My wife is a vampire movie freak and she wanted to watch this movie and while I cannot say I was interested before I saw it I thought it was a good movie. I thought the story was really good so much so I would like to read the book, but some of the actors/actresses they chose did not play the parts well. The least of these was Lautner as Jacob Black, me and my wife knew instantly it was a white kid with makeup and a crappy wig and even though his part was small he blew. Unfortunately I did not like the lead actress who played Bella. She looked the part of how I would imagine the character but fell far short in my opinion. I know interactions between human and vampire are bound to be awkward but her awkwardness was awkward. The character was very flat and I found none of the emotions she was supposed to have or claimed to be having believable, the part was not played well enough for me to make it believable that a vampire would be interested in her and the scene at the end when she is in the hospital was really bad. Cullen tells her to go to Jacksonville so he can no longer hurt her and she is suppose to have this reaction of how she can't because she needs him so badly but I couldn't buy it. It felt like it was suppose to be this real, beautiful, strange, and strong bond of love but because of her range it just felt like silly juvenile, needy, clingy love. I enjoyed the movie overall and look forward to the sequel but hopefully Bella can step up her acting chops to a whole new level to make the part more believable and enjoyable.