Twilight (film)

My public opinion of Stephanie Meyer's novel "Twilight" never made it to this page, as it fell during the lazy 10 months I was not updating this blog. The bonus of not having a book review to reflect upon while reviewing the film adaptation is that I am not going to be made to look silly by my previous statements. However, I will admit, I did enjoy Twilight the novel a great deal, and when I re-read the series from book 1-4 as I intend to do either this month or come January, I doubt my opinion will have changed much.

The thing I liked the most about Twilight, both the book and the film, is that they satisfy a part of me that craves more innocent fare. It's the part that thinks Taylor Swift is a swell kid, and believes that "Lovebug" by the Jonas Brothers is a sweet, unabashed puppy-love anthem. That part of me that would rather read the November Glamour article "70 ways to restore your faith in love" rather than Cosmo's "70 sex positions to blow his mind." Twilight, much like the Harry Potter series before it, is a "literary" serial intended for tweens, that has embraced by a much wider audience.

Without treading too much on the strengths and weaknesses of the book, as that is for a different review, I will say that Twilight lacked the deeper complexities of the Potter books. It was a simple, fun read. It was an epic love story for the 14 and under set. Buffy and Angel for a new generation, only the heroine was significantly less kick ass. Not bad. . . but, you know, not exactly a masterpiece (which I genuinely believe that the Harry Potter series is. . . Chronicles of Narnia for the aughts.)

Twilight, the film, is a very true adaptation of the book. In fact, I very rarely see film adaptations so close to the source material. I'm sure die-hard Twilighters will scoff. They will point out that Bella's blood related pass out in Biology was missing; that they added murders not present in the novel to make the the plot a little tighter; and that the dialogue was not precise.

Oddly, my first annoyance was that the high school in Forks was presented as one solid building, rather than a compound of smaller ones. So I guess, deep down, there's a bit of a Twilighter in all of us.

The story, if you've been living under a rock, revolves around selfless, accident prone Bella Swan. I say selfless and accident prone, because these are Bella's ONLY character traits. They, along with her devotion to Edward, are the only things to define her, and it's one of my biggest annoyances with the books. And the movie. Although, I will say, Kristen Stewart brings a level of charm and likeability to Bella that is simply absent from her written counterpart. Furthermore, she is simply beautiful. She is not Bella as Bella sees herself, but she is exact to Bella as I imagined Edward would perceive her.

Ah, yes. Edward. Edward Cullen. Edward is the character Stephanie Meyer created in order to attempt her hand at our generations Angel meets Mr. Darcy. He is complicated, he is broody, he is arrogant and demanding. Often I also find him overbearing and stalkerish. However, hundreds of thousands of women aged 13-53 would expose their jugular to this imaginary man in a heartbeat, so perhaps Meyer was a success.

Edward, played by Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory in the HP films, so the lad has his hands in many an epic series), wasn't quite what I had anticipated. At first, he was not PRETTY enough, his hair not red enough, blah blah blah. But I was drawn in by Pattinson, and ultimately found his performance more than acceptable, and in fact was definitely "Team Edward" by the time the credits rolled.

The casting director, for their part, did an excellent job. I found myself saying "That's Mike" "That's Jessica" before they were formally introduced. My only wtf moment was "Wait. . . Eric's Asian?" But honestly, the supporting cast barely matters, as this is, and always will be, the Edward and Bella show. (Though props to Billy Burke who made me like Bella's dad about 200x more)

The film is often preposterously silly. I found myself giggling hysterically at the most inappropriate moments (most notably the scene where Edward shows his glittery skin for the first time). But, honestly, the book was pretty eye-roll inducing at times too. And toward the end of the film, I found both giggles and eye-rolling to become reduced, and that I was actually drawn into the love story, and the 15 year old girl inside me was a little exposed.

Sure, it left me behaving like a 15 year old for several hours after, but it was sort of worth it.

With all 4 books now optioned, and production under way on the sequel "New Moon" I don't see this fad fading any time soon.

*** out of *****
3 out of 5