Review: Twilight

Seeing as how, after a year long wait, The Twilight Saga: New Moon finally arrives in theatres on Friday, November 20th. We'll be spending the next week looking back at anything and everything that relates to this movie, such as its predecessor Twilight, which can be found on DVD.

for those who have been living under a rock for the past year, the story follows teenage Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) as she moves to Washington state to live with her police chief dad Charlie (Billy Burke). Once the shy girl arrives at school, her entire life shifts again when she sees the stunningly beautiful Edward Cullen (Rob Pattinson) and immediately feels attracted to him. The only problem is that Edward acts a bit funny around Bella, and keeps hiding from her. It is not until Bella finally realizes that this is because Edward is a vampire that things really heat up between the pair, with a hint of danger over his less-than-human status and the constant ominous warnings from Bella's friend Jacob (Taylor Lautner). Their forbidden love is put to the test as evil vampires (versus Edward's human-friendly "vegetarian" family members) invade the town and target our Miss Bella. The movie then quickly shifts from star-crossed romance to an action adventure chase quite quickly, as you are left to wonder, what will happen to them next?

Considering how much of this novel had to be condensed for time considerations, the movie is not the worst adaptation of all time. Fans of the books will see most of their favorite moments faithfully represented on screen, with certain bits of dialogue taken word for word from the book. Yet, the problems that existed in the book regarding Bella's disregard for her own life (her unexplained attraction to Edward consumes her), Edward's inability to stay away from Bella despite repeatedly stating that he will kill her, and all of the liberties author Stephenie Meyer took with vampire lore are still there. Yet, for most that will not matter because girls want to believe that love will surmount all and Rob Pattinson is pretty when he "sparkles" in the sun. This may be why this movie is not recommended for guys (one of my best guy friends spent the majority of the movie heckling the screen when we saw it in theatres), or anyone hardcore into vampire mythology (who doesn't have a sense of humor). This may be why people should never focus on the ad campaign for the film, which focused on vampires and the few action elements of the movie, not the love story that takes up the majority of the movie.

In terms of performance and the technical aspects of the film. The actors really seem to be trying. The most recognizable star by name would have been Stewart, who gives probably the most lackluster performance of everyone as the mopey Bella. She is trying so hard to display Bella's shyness, but it just makes her seem stilted and unappealing. Hard as it may be to believe, there is a reason Pattinson has received so much attention for his turn as the angsty vampire; the man really manages to make you believe all the inane things Edward thinks and says (the character is far more fleshed out than in the books). He also provides two of the better tracks on the soundtrack, so he really earned his keep as Twilight MVP (despite all of my jokes about his other major movie before this, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). Then there is Lautner, the final link of the epic love triangle that begins to form here. He doesn't get much to do in this one, New Moon is his coming out party, but manages to build a nice connection between Bella and Jacob. As for some of the supporting cast: Burke does excellent work as Bella's goofy dad (he has some of the funniest moments in the movie that were meant to be funny), Peter Facinelli is shockingly fun as Edward's vampire dad Carlisle (it does take some time to get used to the dark haired Facinelli as a platinum blond), and Ashley Green has the best translation from page to screen of the ethereal Alice. The movie is well-directed by Catherine Hardwicke; she beautifully executed the montages that develop Edward and Bella's love affair, created a sense of suspense with the on-coming evil vampires, and made an excellent choice of cinematographer because it was probably one of the best shot films of 2008, hands down.

In terms of the special features, there were quite a few. The best is the feature commentary with Hardwicke, Stewart, and Pattinson because it is interesting to hear just how awkward these three people are together and just how naive they were to the possible success of the movie (it was recorded before the film was released). If you are interested in what the cast has to say, then watch the featurettes about the making-of the movie. Then there are music videos from Paramore and Muse, featuring music from the soundtrack that is enjoyable if you like those bands, but it offers little regarding the movie. The deleted and extended scenes are actually interesting and help develop areas of the movie that were lacking, it's unfortunate that these were, for the most part, not edited back into the movie for the DVD (ala Lord of the Rings).

And that concludes this recollection of why so many fanboys and girls will be crowding movie theatres on November 20th 2009. If you're not up to standing on the lines, then go enjoy the DVD for a little longer, or any of the other selections that will be featured this week on this site.

Grade: B