A Different Love Story But Understandably Hated By Some

Rating: 9/10 (16 March 2010)

First of all, yes, I am a fan of the Twilight Saga and I enjoyed this movie as well as the second and would recommend them to anyone who is a fan of normal stories with slight twists (in this case, vampires).
This aside, the movie does have a lot of flaws, such as fairly poorly executed fight scenes and supporting actors who possess very little talent. I understand how a lot of people have come to hate it though I primarily blame the hate on the massive, over-exaggerating fan base who persist to lower the entire saga's reputation by obsessing over it.
All in all the movie is a romantic story that builds up, from a simple start of a girl moving towns, to discovering the dark truth behind Edward Cullens behaviour and actions, to a climactic fight between Edward and James (well acted by Sam Gigandet) though, in my eyes, that scene could have be executed much better. The connection between Bella and Edward is established equally as well in the book, this drew me into the movie immediately and so did the colour scheme that the movie seemed to bear - I felt everyone in the movie was surrounded by greys and dark blues which added to the atmosphere and juxtaposed with the light- hearted feeling of love that this movie gets across, thus making it a much heavier type of love.
Having read the books, I can say that a lot was changed, missed out and added but it didn't pull away from the point of the story which was to make you believe that Edward and Bella (both with spot on acting by Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson) are indescribably in love. My only problem with the movie is that the director (Catherine Hardwicke) has, without a doubt, very little experience with fight scenes so they were poorly executed and the atmosphere tended to suffer as a result.
Overall Twilight is a movie you will love if you are meant to or hate to the core if you don't and the fan base annoys you, however certain characters are underused and motivations may be questionable at certain points.
I give this movie 9/10 out of personal ranking and 7/10 for review ranking.