What do you get when a lion falls in love with a lamb? One of the most complicated and compelling love stories since Romeo and Juliet. In the movie Twilight a young "vegetarian" vampire named Edward finds his greatest temptation and greatest love in Bella, a klutzy girl in the middle of a life changing situation. Twilight the movie is based on the first book in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer.
Anytime you are bringing a book to the big screen there is a lot of worry from the fans. Twilight fans are no different, and could, in fact, be a lot worse. I am a self proclaimed Twerd (Twilight+Nerd), and so I had very high expectations for the film as well as my own versions of the characters in my head. It was tricky business for this movie to be cast right, and even more tricky for the actors to capture the essence of the book.
I'm going to be honest. The first time I saw Twilight at the midnight release, I was at a loss. I felt like something was missing and the story was too rushed. I didn't feel the same emotional investment in the characters that I had in the book, and I was resentful for the fact that I wasn't seeing the carbon copy of MY Twilight on the screen. I went home, ranted to my husband about the discrepancies, and then let all my Twerd friends know exactly how I felt. Throughout all of my complaining I maintained that it was still nice to have a visual to reference against the book. So for 1 full day I pouted, nay, brooded, over the "flop" that was Twilight. And then on day number 2, the strangest thing happened. I was missing the movie! I had an urge to go see it again, to see this movie version of my Twilight. I coerced DH (read: bought him a box of baseball cards) into letting me see the movie again and off I went.
The second time around was a completely different experience. All the expectations I had, all of the preconceived ideas of what the movie should be, all the hype and speculation were gone. I was just a woman going to see a movie. When I was able to let go of all the ideas in MY head and appreciate the film it was really an excellent movie, as well as a great interpretation of the book.
The love story is a complicated one and Robert Pattinson (Edward) and Kristen Stewart (Bella) play it out beautifully. There is wonderful chemistry between the two of them and the romance is absolutely believable! Robert Pattinson as Edward is the perfect self loathing old soul. I felt of all the characters his was most true to the book. Kristen Stewart brought the clumsy, reserved Bella to life. The supporting cast was great and really set the tone in a lot of the movie. You get it all in Twilight, romance, action, suspense, mystery, drama, and comedy. As movies go this one is the jack of all trades. At time the directing and editing leave something to be desired though. The feel of the movie can be choppy at times and some of the grimaces leave you with the instinct impression that the directer was standing off camera saying to the effect of, "More... look like it hurts MORE!"
Twilight started out as a low budget film that was fairly unheard of. It quickly gained a cult like fan following and with that came a rush of Hollywood publicity. It has been sitting at the #1 spot since it's release and has to date made more than $70,000,000! It did so well it's first night that the green light was immediately given for the 2ND book, New Moon, to brought to film. Released by Summit Entertainment, Twilight is my new favorite movie and I hope it becomes yours too!! This is a definite must see for movie goers and a definite must see twice for Twilight fans (once to let go of your preconceived notions, and twice to enjoy the film).
