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Directed By: Catherine Hardwicke
Starring:
Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan
Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen
Billy Burke as Charlie Swan
To begin this review, I must offer a disclaimer of sorts. I am a fan of the popular book series, written by Stephenie Meyer. As such, my love for the books has made it impossible to judge the film without some pre-viewing bias. Whether or not my preconceived notions help or hurt the film’s chances will soon be revealed. With that said, I can begin my review with a clear conscious. Meyer’s first novel and the premiere installment in the best-selling series is a touching story, filled with various subplots and many characters. It is much easier to properly develop and characterize all of them within four-hundred pages of text…but director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg have the task of squeezing all of this into two hours. The bad news is that some of the book is lost in translation; the good news is that the same cannot be said for its charm, which is still firmly in tact.
The film, following the book rather faithfully, follows Bella Swan (Stewart), a high school student from Phoenix who is moving to Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie (Burke), after her mother remarries. Forks, we are told, is the rainiest place in the continental United States, a fact that I won’t question due to the constant rain that falls upon nearly ever scene. On her first day at her new school, Bella meets a lot of new (and noticeably overly-friendly) friends, none more intriguing than the Cullen family. They are five adopted siblings: Alice, Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper (Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, and Jackson Rathbone respectively), and, the most fascinating of them all, Edward (Pattinson). But, when Edward glares angrily and with great disgust at Bella throughout their biology class, she is dismayed. Could his strange behavior really be because of her? As the relationship between Edward and Bella blossoms, she finds out the truth.
The truth, as almost everyone knows, is that Edward and his entire family, including their parental figures Carlisle and Esme (Peter Facinelli and Elizabeth Reaser), are vampires…but they are not ordinary vampires. Unlike others of their kind, they refuse to feed off of humans, instead forcing themselves to drink the blood of animals only. “We like to think of ourselves as vegetarians,” Edward explains. Somewhere, a disgruntled PETA member is writing a very angry memo to Summit Entertainment. Anyway, their love is greatly challenged by Edward’s desperate thirst for her blood and yet he is conflicted in his heart and mind by his undying love for her. It is this aspect of the film that is the most intriguing. When a trio of bloodthirsty and violent vampires, led by the brutal James (Cam Gigandet), sets their gaze on Bella, it will take all of the Cullen family to save her from certain death.
The complaints that many have had with Twilight are justified; I, myself, had them as well. The relationship between Bella and Edward is rushed, so quickly that it soars past believability and into contrivance. The film, as a whole, is visibly low-budget and sports some unconvincing special effects. And the battle between James’s clan and the Cullen family is not explored nearly as well as it was in the book and, therefore, lacked some of the edge that it originally had. However, all of this was expected. With the exception of the budget (a criticism of Summit more than anything else), similar errors are common in book-to-screen adaptations. I do believe that this is the best film that could possibly be made from Stephenie Meyer’s novel and still retain its spirit. Fans will, no doubt, love it and the uninitiated willing to give it a chance may find themselves caught up in the hysteria as well.
The film, following the book rather faithfully, follows Bella Swan (Stewart), a high school student from Phoenix who is moving to Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie (Burke), after her mother remarries. Forks, we are told, is the rainiest place in the continental United States, a fact that I won’t question due to the constant rain that falls upon nearly ever scene. On her first day at her new school, Bella meets a lot of new (and noticeably overly-friendly) friends, none more intriguing than the Cullen family. They are five adopted siblings: Alice, Rosalie, Emmett, Jasper (Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, and Jackson Rathbone respectively), and, the most fascinating of them all, Edward (Pattinson). But, when Edward glares angrily and with great disgust at Bella throughout their biology class, she is dismayed. Could his strange behavior really be because of her? As the relationship between Edward and Bella blossoms, she finds out the truth.
The truth, as almost everyone knows, is that Edward and his entire family, including their parental figures Carlisle and Esme (Peter Facinelli and Elizabeth Reaser), are vampires…but they are not ordinary vampires. Unlike others of their kind, they refuse to feed off of humans, instead forcing themselves to drink the blood of animals only. “We like to think of ourselves as vegetarians,” Edward explains. Somewhere, a disgruntled PETA member is writing a very angry memo to Summit Entertainment. Anyway, their love is greatly challenged by Edward’s desperate thirst for her blood and yet he is conflicted in his heart and mind by his undying love for her. It is this aspect of the film that is the most intriguing. When a trio of bloodthirsty and violent vampires, led by the brutal James (Cam Gigandet), sets their gaze on Bella, it will take all of the Cullen family to save her from certain death.
The complaints that many have had with Twilight are justified; I, myself, had them as well. The relationship between Bella and Edward is rushed, so quickly that it soars past believability and into contrivance. The film, as a whole, is visibly low-budget and sports some unconvincing special effects. And the battle between James’s clan and the Cullen family is not explored nearly as well as it was in the book and, therefore, lacked some of the edge that it originally had. However, all of this was expected. With the exception of the budget (a criticism of Summit more than anything else), similar errors are common in book-to-screen adaptations. I do believe that this is the best film that could possibly be made from Stephenie Meyer’s novel and still retain its spirit. Fans will, no doubt, love it and the uninitiated willing to give it a chance may find themselves caught up in the hysteria as well.
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