Good actors...decent casting...but the screenwriter and director should have been fired!

Rating: 4/10 (23 November 2008)

I recently became a fan of the Twilight series and a fan of Stephanie Meyers books. What I loved about the books was how the characters were beautifully developed and how they were intricate to the stories. For those who have never read the books or are familiar with the story, Twilight tells the story of Isabella "Bella" Swann, a seventeen year old girl who moves from the sunny state of Arizona to the drearily depressing small town in Washington to live with her police sheriff father. Bella is the new girl in the small high school and attracts attention. She is awkward, shy, and lonely but she manages to make "friends" and gets along with her classmates and attracts some of the boys. Enter the Cullen family. They are pale, they keep to themselves, they are wealthy, and beautiful beyond words.
Bella becomes drawn to the Cullens. Specifically, she is drawn towards the "youngest" son Edward. He is handsome, brilliant, strange, but socially withdrawn. In addition, like his "family" he is also pale and never appears under direct sunlight.
Bella later discovers the family secret and his hidden talent: Edward and his family are vampires who have lived for centuries by feeding off the blood of animals and controlling their thirst for human blood. In addition, Edward has the gift of telepathy however he can't read Bella's thoughts.
Bella and Edward start off bitterly and distant, but become attracted to each other and fall in love.
Everything is alright until a group of nomadic killer vampires enter town threatening the humans and soon Bella's own life.
The books are amazing. I would also like to point out that I am twenty seven years old and have read my share of teen novels in the past. But Twilight is one level above the typical teenage novels filled with melodrama and angst. Twilight allows readers to connect with the characters and their lives. The Cullens I found to be a very fascinating family of characters because of their loyalty to each other and that they are not this cult. The characters are more developed. In addition, Bella Swan is the girl that many young women such as myself identify with.
The casting of Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in the leads was well done. Both actors brought these two characters from the series to life despite of the material that was provided to them. The rest of the cast was also decent and nicely done, but the adaptation of the novel to screen by Melissa Rosenberg was a complete and total shame. For one of the writers and producers of a masterfully successful show "Dexter" it is a disappointment but when it comes to romance she went back to "Step It Up" a film of many clichés. Melissa Rosenberg and Catherine Hardwicke had many opportunities from the novel to avoid the clichés of cheesy teen romance films, but they missed and caved into the studio pressures of making this film as far away from the books style.
The film was rushed, boringly cliché, and heartbreakingly disappointing.
The cast led by Pattinson and Stewart did their jobs by bringing these characters to life, but the director Catherine Hardwicke and writer Melissa Rosenberg failed to theirs by giving Twilight series and its characters there full purpose.
I cringe at the idea of them teaming up again to make any more.