Twilight Review-By Kelsey Zukowski

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Taylor Lautner, Cam Gigandet
Directed By: Catherine Hardwicke
Written By: Stephanie Meyer (novel), Melissa Rosenberg (screenplay)
Released: November 21, 2008
Grade: B

Twilight is the long awaited adaptation of the first novel in Stephanie Myer’s vampire horror romance. The novel didn’t simply rest on vampire myths and legends but disposes of some and creates a good amount of its own. There are no fangs, coffins, garlic isn’t harmful, and lack of reflections doesn’t even come up. Our central vampire characters don’t even suck human blood. The story brings us to a world that is our own yet one that is so far from the reality that we know. It suggests that there are vampires around us, they are just hiding their true identities. What we can’t explain we brush aside and blame unknown serial killers for their slayings. Most importantly, Twilight takes the attraction in terms of vampire’s longing for the taste of the flesh, the overpowering smell they can barely resist, and the luring of their victims that are essential parts of the being of a vampire. The attraction, lusting, and urges are there and completely natural. Twilight goes a step further and suggests that rather than lusting this could be the recipe for love between a powerful vampire and a weaker mortal. Bringing someone like this in to a vampire’s world though does come with risking ones life time and time again.

Bella (Stewart) decides to leave her hometown of Phoenix when her mother remarries and starts traveling on the road with her minor league baseball husband. She goes to live with her father, Charlie (Burke) in the small town of Forks, Washington, where she hasn’t been for years. Everyone in town already seems to know her and overwhelms her with stares and welcoming on her first day of school. She starts making friends with the almost overly friendly Mike (Michael Welch) who clearly has a crush on her as well as Jessica (Anna Kendrick) who is just as peppy and energetic. When she sees the Cullen’s foster children who seem to be somewhat of outsiders, the youngest, Edward (Pattinson), immediately catches her eye. Bella is absolutely taken in by him and he soon consumes all of her thoughts. Edward seems nasty towards her in one of their classes. Figuring out why almost becomes an obsession to her. Edward does seem to warm up to her, but Bella is just scratching the surface. One day after school when Bella is in the parking lot and about to leave, another student’s car nearly crushes her. It would have if it wasn’t for Edward who unimaginably quickly sweeps across the parking lot, pushes Bella out of the way, and stops the van coming at her merely with one hand. When she asks how this is possible Edward claims that he was standing next to her the whole time and hitting her head must have caused her to delude the facts.

Bella knows that there is something not right about Edward and his capabilities. Pushing this just angers Edward further, making him tell her that she would be better off if they weren’t even friends. When Bella goes with her friends to Port Angeles and trails off to a bookstore, she gets threatened by a group of men in a dark alley who don’t have any intentions of letting her go. Miraculously Edward shows up just in time to save her. It is then that Edward finally opens up to her a bit about his secrets. He tells her that he knew where to find her because he can read people’s minds. Bella is the only one who doesn’t seem to be readable to him. It isn’t long before Bella starts to put some of her observations together. The ice cold skin, the changing eye color, the impossibly fast speeds, and his mega strength stray her from her ideas of him being a superhero and make her realize that she is in love with a vampire. Edward and his family are specifically a type of vampires called, “the cold one”. The Cullens have a very unusual lifestyle for vampires. They only drink the blood of animals rather than humans. Edward in particular fears that he is a monster and wishes to stray away from that as much as possible, which means fighting a burning pain inside him to resist human blood, but much more so to fight ever risking harming Bella for such pleasure. He is astonished how Bella can look past what he is. She is taken in to his world, which puts her in great danger. A group of non-vegetarian and far more vicious vampires come across the Cullens when Bella is with them and take a snap at her. One of the vampires, James (Gigandet), is a tracker, who finds thrill in chasing after and trapping his victims before he takes their blood. From the minute he smelled Bella he made it his mission to make her his next challenge and soon enough his prize. Edward desperately tries to get her out of there, but knows she isn’t safe in Forks anymore. Bella is forced to hurt her father so to trick James in to staying away from her house. They know that he will be expecting Edward to be with Bella so they split up and he leaves her with Alice and Jasper in Phoenix. However, when James finds her old house address, Bella may be forced to sacrifice herself for the safety of her mother.

Kristen Stewart fit perfectly as Bella, as the voice of the entire series this was essential. She brought out that timid, uncoordinated, and very unique girl that Bella is. She was easy to relate to and made us care about the new life of hers that she was showing us. Her voiceovers were very effective and I think the film could have actually used more. During the whole book series we always know what she is feeling and how she takes in everything that goes on around her. We get a pretty good sense of this in the film, but I think hearing her thoughts through the narration would have been even more effective. Robert Pattinson on the other hand was the biggest disappointment of the film. Edward is really the life in the film and as a character he is such a dominant and powerful part of the story. Edward certainly isn’t the easiest character to bring to life though. Just how the sight of Edward is described is hard to live up tp. He is made out to essentially be a God, his beauty sticking out against the mortals around him. Every look and every touch leaves Bella breathless. Even being cast in this role must make Pattinson feel pretty good about himself to be able to fit a description like this. His portrayal wasn’t right though. There was something very off about him, especially in the way he talked. My first reaction to this was remembering that the other kids in school are uncomfortable when they are around him. There is supposed to be something off about them. They try to fit in as well as possible, but they are vampires and can’t truly hide from that. However, the portrayals of the other Cullens seemed to be so much more natural, which made me realize that it was Pattinson who wasn’t able to bring the character of Edward to us in a realistic sense. His personality really wasn‘t shown to us and his tone and pronunciation held his delivery back. I did like him in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire so it isn’t for a lack of talent as an actor, but he wasn’t able to bring out everything that is Edward Cullen.

Ashley Greene did pretty well as Alice. In the book she was in a much larger part of the story and had a lot more time with Bella where they got to know one another. At the end of the book, Alice is one of Bella’s best friends, but you wouldn’t know it from the movie. There was a lot of good material there and it is a shame that they didn’t use it. Nikki Reed did well as Rosalie, the most beautiful of the Cullen girls and the one who was the least accepting of Bella in to her family. She was stubborn and fierce and did great justice to her character. Billy Burke actually exceeded my expectations as Charlie, Bella’s father. He was very funny as the overprotective father. Taylor Lautner as Jacob seemed to be the oddest match. All of the other characters looked pretty similar to how I imagined them except for him. It was not even just the way he looked though. Jacob is a very energetic happy go lucky kid and Lautner seems much more harsh in his portrayal. This does leave me a bit concerned for the next film since the bulk of it will be scenes between Jacob and Bella. In this film the chemistry was not there at all, which the next storyline as well as a major conflict depends on. Hopefully he will be able to show us another side in New Moon. I was a fan of Rachelle Lefevre’s short lived sitcom, Life on A Stick, and it was great seeing her here as Victoria, James’ lover. She was intense and strong and I am looking forward to seeing more from her in the future films. The film has a tremendous cast so I could go on and one, but everyone else that I didn’t mention portrays their characters very true to the book.

Especially towards the beginning there are a lot of silent slow glances of Edward and Bella. For a long time they were constantly starring at each other in school. Bella was wondering about what Edward was and was completely hypnotized by him. Edward had to fight being near Bella, but also knew that he couldn’t stay away. Fans of the book are more likely to understand this though, whereas I feel those who haven’t read the book might mistaken this for filler. It has a purpose, but I do think it could have been shortened somewhat. There is a good amount of the book where we are able to see how Edward and Bella’s relationship evolves, including a bulk of time before we really even know that Edward is as interested in her as she is in him. Through all of this time of close calls that almost rip them apart and the pacing of this, a terrific tension is built. It is heightened through all of this so when they do finally give in to their temptations it is intensely gratifying. I know the movie didn’t have the same amount of time to do this, but a little more or even getting in to Bella’s mind more, translating to us how fully Edward has taken over it would have helped. More of the story with Alice, especially when they are in Phoenix would have given the film another important side. There are some iconic conversations with Edward as well as his adoptive father, Carlisle, in the book that aren’t in the film. I fear that non-readers may underestimate Edward’s feelings and true intentions for Bella because of this, taking away from their true understanding of his character. I understand that a lot has to be taken out when translating it to the screen, but its 2 hour running time actually felt short to me. Allowing it to be another 15-30 minutes would have enabled it to contain some important elements. Now these are not absolutely vital to the story so I can understand why they weren’t included but they give us context and a closer connection to our characters.

I think most Twilight fans should enjoy this film. Just know that there are certain elements of the book that aren’t a part of this. Having a love for these characters going in to it though, makes their screen presence even more satisfying. Being such a big fan of the series made me really appreciate them leaping off paper and being brought to life before my eyes. In Edward’s case this actually hurt it, since he didn‘t live up to the expectations. I was still able to accept him as Edward though and felt for him throughout the film. In every other case though, the characters translated beautifully. For those who haven’t read the books, I am not sure the same depth and power of understanding and consuming of these characters and relationships will occur. Although the same magnitude may not be brought to you, there is still plenty of enjoyment to have with the film. It’s a good teen love story with unique characters that bring us in to an inventive world hiding under the one we know. I really see Twilight as an introduction of things to come. The series gets darker and more shocking as it goes on. Some who were looking for more horror will get it within the later films of the series, so those who weren’t satisfied with the lack of it here shouldn’t give up on the series yet. Twilight is actually more of an action based romance mirrored around a world of horror. Down the line new relationships form, new and more terrifying storylines arise, and the tension and relationships strengthen more and more.