Twilight (Movie) Review

Pros

-Nice-looking actors (Swoon!).
-Catchy action scenes.

Cons

-Somewhat cheesy acting at times.
-The director, Catherine Hardwicke, added some scenes that were not in the book-I would have preferred to have seen the more insignificant scenes that were in the book rather than the new ones she added.
-Some parts of the movie that I thought were going to be a little longer were super short. I would have liked to have seen more of particular scenes.
-The director made the movie somewhat difficult to understand. You'd almost have to read the book just to understand what the movie is about.

Full Review

A 17 year old girl named Isabella Swan (or, Bella, as she preferred to be addressed as) moves from hot and sunny Phoenix, Arizona, to cold and rainy Forks, Washington to live with her Father, Charlie. Her Mother, Renee, travels with her new husband, Phil, for his minor league baseball career. Shortly after arriving in Forks, Bella learns of a family at her school through some classmates. They're a peculiar family, but not bad peculiar-she just knew-sensed-something different-but what was it? She sees a boy named Edward Cullen, and becomes intrigued by him. Bella and Edward later fall in love, and Bella later finds out that Edward is a vampire. The story becomes one filled with much tension right away. Bella, who is madly in love with Edward, Edward, who is madly in love with Bella-it all becomes a possibly deadly combination. Edward has never been attracted to a human's blood more than Bella's-he loves her, but also suffers with the internal conflict that is to keep from killing Bella.

This is how we know the story from author of Twilight, Stephenie Meyer.

Judging by how massively popular the Twilight series has become, I think it's safe to say that just about all of the fans (myself included) were excited, but more-so worried about how such a great novel would go to the big screen. After all, most book-turned-movies have a reputation for not being too successful (though there have been some major successes too-it all depends on who's taking the book and turning it into a movie).

After seeing the movie, I think the director, Catherine Hardwicke, did a good job. I mean, she took a 600+ page novel, and turned it into a movie. If it were me who had to do what she did, I wouldn't have known where to start. So kudos to her for her effort. However, at times I think she made the movie a little difficult to understand-meaning you'd almost have to read the book before seeing the movie in order to understand it. Or at least, reading the book would be very helpful, I'm sure. I believe the only people who truly understood the movie are the people who read the book. With other book-turned movies, I know that I've been able to watch them, and figure out what's going on, without ever cracking open the book (s) that the movie came from. However, for all I know, things were different with those book-turned movies. But at least I understood the movie, which was the most important part, to me.

Hardwicke made sure to keep the most important parts of the book in the movie, while the smaller, more insignificant scenes were left out. However, there were some scenes she threw in that never happened in the book, which made me feel disappointed. I would rather have seen the smaller, more insignificant scenes that were in the book, rather than the new ones she added. It's just things like that that sometimes causes stories that go from book to movie unsuccessful. I'm pretty neutral about Twilight going from book to movie for the most part. While I am a fan, I'm not completely outraged that some parts of the book got lost along the way during the making of the movie. It's a little disappointing, like I said, but the movie is still okay-you just need to give it a chance.

A plus for me however, are the actors and actresses who were chosen for the movie. The guys are pretty nice-looking in my opinion-my favorite guy being, of course, Robert Pattinson. Surprise, surprise.

Another downside for me is that at times the acting was, sorry to say, a little cheesy. All of the actors and actresses chosen for this movie are good actors and actresses-it's just that the acting quality could have been a little better at times.

In Closing

Overall, it was a decent movie worth watching, although I don't think the most dedicated of fans are going to agree (then again, many fans completely love it, so it varies). The movie portrayed the right emotions that the book showed us. The movie had that great, romantic, sappy feel that the book had-it was a good movie. Personally though, I'm more a fan of the book than the movie (but I do like both, just to be clear). It's just that I read the book before I saw the movie. The book is a masterpiece, and I am content with it the way it is, even though it was made into a movie too. The way I see it, I cannot truly give you a review of this movie. There are a lot of Twilight fans out there-some are going to love the movie, some might be in the middle, and some I'm sure will hate it too. There are a lot of things to consider when taking a book and making it a movie. It is a very sensitive task that should be handled with care, especially when you've got a good number of dedicated fans to please in the mix. I say watch the movie, and judge for yourself.

Now that the movie version of Twilight has been unleashed to the world, let's see how the sequel, New Moon, goes. Chris Weitz is directing this time around. I have to say after seeing the trailer for New Moon, that I think the negative aspects I mentioned earlier from Twilight have only gotten worse. I don't want to judge prematurely, but I'm just not sure. Of course I'm going to give New Moon a chance, but we'll see how things go..

So that's my say on the movie version of Twilight. It's now out on DVD, and the sequel, New Moon, is coming to theaters this fall. I recommend watching it, and judging the movie for yourself. Happy movie watching!