Huh...you know, it's not as bad as I thought!

Rating: 5/10 (27 May 2011)

OK, so I'm trying to be very OBJECTIVE for this review of TWILIGHT (2008). It's difficult because I literally heard every bad thing possible about this movie, the actors, and the series BEFORE I actually got a chance to see for myself! I've seen youtube clips mocking it in the form of parodies and riffing and everyone under the sun trashing it. YET, amidst all the bashing, there are still a LOT of fans of this franchise!
I first saw the IMDb rating recently and...5.5?! For such a big movie that is this popular and such of a moneymaker, I thought 5.5 is a stunningly low rating! TRANSFORMERS is at 7.2, but that movie is a formulaic summer blockbuster with noise, splosions, and awful dialogue, all courtesy of the "great" Michael Bay! I like to make my own informed decisions. Frankly, IMDb is not the most reliable source for what are the best movies (the irony!). I just can't rationalize why manipulative crap like THE DARK KNIGHT is at 8.9, while movies that I KNOW are good like MISSION IMPOSSIBLE is lingering at 6.9!
I think I know the reason why TWILIGHT is so low at 5.5. The main plot that drives the film, the "Romeo-Juliet" teen romance, is the weakest point of the movie! With corny dialogue overemphasis on angst, it really is a movie FOR teen girls. It just doesn't have the mass appeal of a typical summer action movie does. Yet it's a hugely popular series. And I guess that speaks to the power of teen girls! Now, having seen the sequels, especially ECLIPSE there's actually some stuff in there for the boys, too.
Back to TWILIGHT. Now, THE main problem with the movie (and series, frankly) is a doozy...the central character Bella Swan is truly the MOST boring character! I think that Bella is supposed to be this shy, lonely teenager, which actually makes sense that she'd fit in with the vampire crowd, but I don't know if it's casting, writing, or both, but Kristen Stewart just acts very poorly. Bella is literally a one-note character. She oddly seems soulless. It's hard to believe she has any friends (she actually has a significant number in this!) or would inspire a vampire to violate his coven's code! I mean, I just think Stewart's acting is too lazy. I felt like the character should have some signs of defiance and spunk in her, but she just reacts to everything around her. I just don't get why everyone is so enamored of her. Now, I know Stewart is a good actress because I've seen her do great work in OTHER movies! Maybe she wasn't prepared to carry a franchise like this one.
I had to watch this movie a couple of times to really make an informed decision about the plusses, but there are some things that I think are done fairly well:
*Robert Pattinson is well-cast as Edward Cullen. I think people over-focus on the mumbling vampire side of Edward (which makes sense as he's probably never tried to connect to any human in 100 years!), but what I think people overlook is that Pattinson does an amazing job with the American accent. Not just that, he really has the "teen" thing going, too. He has moments where he's very convincing as a typical 17-year old American male (he was 22 when this film came out) and that couldn't have been easy to pull off for a semi-adult distinguished Brit! I found myself enjoying Edward's "teen" moments much more than his vampire ones. And in terms of the vampire part, I blame that squarely on Stewart and her underacting as Bella! I mean, Pattinson must have had a difficult time trying to pull any kind of emotion acting off of such a bland character! I think Pattinson gets a bad rap.
*The Cullen vampire clan! I really enjoyed this family in the movie, what little screen time they had. Honestly, they may have been cast for their looks, but the actors Peter Facinelli (as family head Dr. Carlisle Cullen), Elizabeth Reaser (as Carlisle's wife Esme), Nikki Reed (Rosalie), Ashley Greene (Alice), Jackson Rathbone (Jasper), and Kellan Lutz (Emmett) do a great job with what little they have to work with, all I think getting at the heart of the characters that novelist Stephanie Wright had in mind. Frankly, I wish this family were fleshed out a bit more in this movie, rather than the Edward-Bella romance being such a huge focus. My favorite scene is when Edward introduces Bella to the Cullens and Edward's embarrassed reactions to his family's "vampiric awkwardness" was very funny. I really liked how they didn't overdo "the vampire look" of the Cullens in the movie, pale, but not too pale with dark brown eyes to relay to the audience that they were all just a bit "different" from everyone else.
*Some of the dialogue is actually pretty self-deprecating and funny, taking advantage of common vampire myths and kind of slamming the door on them!
*The story itself is OK I think. Bella-Edward have to establish a connection first, the Cullens have be established as earnest and not bloodthirsty vamps and have to slowly accept Bella into the fold and Edward's love for her, Bella has to hide all this from her human friends and her Dad Charlie (played well by Billy Burke).
Again, the elephant in the room is the tepid romance of Bella and Edward. I feel like it's very forced and hard to believe. Much of their dialogue and interaction is oddly stale so it forces the viewer to take at face value that there is just this strong unbreakable bond between them. Pattinson somehow rises above it to make Edward real...Stewart doesn't for Bella. And one half of a whole ain't good enough!