Pretty Good Adaptation of Novel, Save Minor Details

Rating: 7/10 (22 November 2008)

Unlike "Blood and Chocolate" - for which I have also reviewed - which failed to make the novel it was based after tangible and true to the storyline, "Twilight" was a pretty good adaptation of the best-selling novel it was modeled after. In my opinion, there has been no greater book-to-film adaptation than this with the exception of the "Harry Potter" films and "The Notebook." "Twilight" managed to maintain the same storyline and sequence of events; even some of the dialogue was straight from the book. The film is narrated by one of the main characters, Isabella "Bella" Swan, which gives a slight leeway into the character's thoughts, although, that which her words manage to express, her actions seem to falter doing. Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella, succeeds at one thing throughout the entire film - expressing the vulnerability that humans are equipped with and the pain of being engrossed in a forbidden love affair. Otherwise, her acting can be considered very one-note. Having read the novel myself, I knew Bella beforehand to have been a bookworm (Kristen Stewart never even picks up a book, save to do her homework), passionate (her love for Edward could have been stressed a lot more), and quite emotional. Stewart portrayed Bella the way she may have been were she only clumsy and angsty. Edward, played by Robert Pattinson, was in a word, mysterious. The character Edward Cullen is portrayed in the novels as being "The Perfect Man." He walks as though he is dancing, his voice is sweeter than the music of Debussy, and he is every bit as polite as any boy of the early 20th century. In short, he is unrealistically perfect. Pattinson brings out the brooding side of Edward Cullen - the part of him that refuses to be the monster that he is doomed to be eternally. But through all of the gloom and doom, he does a better job than Kristen Stewart does at displaying love for his significant other. He looks at Bella adoringly and protectively, while Stewart - despite the fact that she claims to be unafraid of her undead boyfriend - seems hesitant and scared of him throughout the entire film.
Ashley Greene, who played Alice Cullen, played the character straight to a T. She walked with music in her step, she was about as light and airy as a sprite, and although she was not as beautiful as I had thought, she was certainly adorable. Her partner, Jasper Hale (Jackson Rathbone) did a good job and displaying Jasper's self-restraint when trying to avoid feasting on humans, as well as with his portrayal of hostility, but the shocked look that remained on his face during almost the entire film was a little over the top.
Nikki Reed was not the woman whom I expected could pull of playing Rosalie Hale. After all, the woman is a natural (dark) brunette and is nowhere near as pale as she needed to be; and the blonde wig and powdered face that they had befitted her with took away from her natural beauty. However, reed made up from her lack of similar appearance in her performance, which fit the character quite well. Her boyfriend, Emmett Cullen was just as how I hoped he would be. Although he played the protective brother, he was still the self-confident, manly-man (or manly-vampire) that he needed to be.
Taylor Lautner did a great job playing Jacob Black. There was a comment on this website that mentioned that he was not "manly" enough; but in the first novel of the series, Jacob isn't manly at all. He is a conventional adolescent boy, which wasn't a difficult task for Lautner to pull off, seeing as how he is only sixteen-years-old.
Minor characters such as Charlie Swan, Esme Swan, Billy Black, Mike Newton, Jessica Stanley, Eric Yorkie, and Angela Weber were beautifully portrayed by the actors who played them. They were almost identical to the characters in the novel. Esme and Carlisle Cullen were also great matches in the film, even though Carlisle's hair and makeup looked ridiculous at times.
In general, the actors in the film did a fairly good job. The romance between Edward and Bella could have been portrayed through more than just a few intense glares and a make-out scene, but it is understandable that the director only had a specific time frame to work with. Whether or not you have read the books, the movie is at least worth seeing once.