Not the book on screen, but still a great movie.

Rating: 9/10 (28 November 2008)

I first read Twilight a few months ago because I had heard of the movie and wanted to read the book before it came to theaters. What i wasn't expecting was how addictive the books were going to be. I finished the entire series in just a few days and could not wait to see the movie. I even had a countdown that started at '70 days until Twilight'.
I got my friends involved with the books also. Being a movie fanatic, I basically lived on the Twilight page of IMDb for the next 70 days. I was always finding out new facts about the movie and sharing them with my classmates, who, i have to say, relied on me for those facts.
However, even though my friends were pretty much obsessed with the book and movie, I had to remind them that the two are separate. You cannot go see any movie that has been adapted from a book and expect it to be exactly the same. You have to realize that the basic storyline of the book is being used. Any significant story lines within the book will be put in the move, but it is impossible to include everything. This applies to the Harry Potter franchise also, not just Twilight.
So, when I saw Twilight in theaters, I went in with the mind set that I was just seeing a movie. Not my favorite book, word for word, on the big screen. And I have to say, I feel Summit did a great job. I think what people have to understand is that Twilight the movie is not "Twilight the book the movie". Many parts have to be cut from the book, or switched around, condensed, or even added to the movie. You can't go in there thinking each part of the book will go in the exact same order or be exactly the same. It would probably be a boring movie if they did that. It's still the same world Stephenie Meyer created, just not with the exact same scenes or word for word.
Of course I feel that both the movie and the book are primarily for girls, although some guys like them. I just don't see why guys went to see the movie thinking it was going to be a horror film when they probably didn't know anything about it.
Overall, I thought the acting in this movie was excellent. Each actor portrayed their characters in a very believable way. For those of you who don't think so, I feel that maybe you don't know the books as well as you think you do. You have to really know each character. For example, I have seen reviews saying that Jackson Rathbone (Jasper) looked in pain the entire movie. Well, the reason for that is because his character, Jasper, was having trouble with the Cullen's way of life (drinking animal blood instead of human blood). It was also helpful to have read Midnight Sun, Twilight in Edward's perspective, before seeing the movie. It gave me a great understanding of his character that I probably wouldn't have caught on to if I hadn't read it.
Also, I felt the music added a great feel to the movie. I don't really know how to explain it, but I just really liked the background music. haha.
I would definitely recommend this movie to any girl/guy that loves the series and can go see it without constantly comparing it the book. I don't recommend this to someone who has never read the books because it probably wouldn't make as much sense to them.
Last thing, I just wanted to say that I wasn't totally impressed the first time I saw Twilight. My friends and I actually made fun of most of it. I probably would have given it a 7/10 if I had written this right after I first saw it. But because I had promised so many people I would go see the movie with them, I was able to see the movie 4 times in theaters. Most of you Twilight-haters are probably wondering why I would ever do that..haha. But when I saw Twilight a second time, it just got better. And by the fourth time I was totally impressed by how well they had captured the feeling on screen. Could they have done a better job? Maybe. But the movie is great already. Twilight is an excellent book, and now an excellent movie. They just shouldn't be compared.