Some beautiful cinematography & music.....some horrible scriptwriting.

Rating: 5/10 (21 November 2008)

I am a fan of Stephanie Meyer and of the Twilight series. That being said, I truly feel that Twilight, the movie, is mediocre at best. There were some spectacular scenic shots, and the music choice and placement throughout the scenes was well executed. I liked that the British rock band Muse was on the soundtrack, as their music influenced Meyer while she was writing the novels. The casting was almost perfect in my opinion. There was obvious chemistry between Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson (who is absolutely gorgeous), which helped save the movie from being a total waste of time. I do think that Nikki Reed was miscast in the role of Rosalie. She is a very pretty girl and a fine actress, just not anything like the character Rosalie is described as being. She also stands out because the other roles were so well cast.
The thing that ruined the movie for me was the absolutely terrible writing and flow problems. The dialog was often fragmented and awkward. It was rushed in some places, and annoyingly stagnant in others. Multiple times, I caught myself feeling embarrassed for the actors; Not the charming embarrassment in the novels that somehow endears you to its characters, but flat out uncomfortable, laughing embarrassment. At times, I really felt like it could have been a "Made for TV" movie or a show on the WB.
In my opinion, this movie is worth seeing if you have read the books. It really does stay true to the novel, but the plot, themes, action, etc. are spit out at you without panache. However, if you haven't, you will probably think it is terrible and decide not to read the books, which would be a mistake.