Discuss: So, How Was 'Twilight'?

I thought that the movie was great! Some stuff WAS different, but all in all I LOVED it!!! I can't wait until the DVD comes out! I'll be sure to buy it right away! I want to see it again and again, and I just watched it today! The best movie! GO OUT AND SEE IT!!!!!

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Okay, so, this won't really contribute to the discussion, but I just wanna say that I LOVE vampires, and especially young women and vampires together (Buffy, True Blood), but I have absolutely no interest in Twilight.

It looks about as much of a vampire movie as an episode of The O.C.

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This movie was deffinately different,
The fact that it had actually included all the main parts and not much was changed from the books should certainly make fans content;
The fact is that this movie was obviously off of a book.
The fact that some points were put across way too much in the movie made it a bit annoying at some parts.
Also, The acting at intence points in the movie was a bit.. 'cheezy' Robert Pattinson had seemed to over play the part, If thats even possible for a love-crazed vampire.
And the action parts withen the movie lasted much, much shorter than the speaking parts. It had epic fighting scenes and akward love moments that could have made the movie a whole lot better if they would have just made them longer instead of going to yet another talking scene about Edward and about him bieng a vampire. I meen i know thats needed for the viewers to understand and for Bella too, but it did seem to be a bit too much.
The movie also seemed to skip from place to place, For viewers who have not read the book may become confused at various parts, I think they could have filled it in better withought changing the content coming from the book.
Alltogether, It was an okay movie. From bieng based off a book I am actually quite amazed with how they filled the charactor roles so well, If only they could get passed the whole 'over doing it' faze it would have been much better in my opinion.

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Never read the book, but the film was great! Good pacing, acting and plot. This isn't an action flick, it's a romance film and you should go in expecting that. People who write it off as an episode of the O.C. should at least give it a chance.

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I gave it a chance. Can I write it off as an episode of the O.C. now? Vampires as a combination sappy, overblown teen romance and preachy morality tale. Eesh.

Also, a question for the die-hards. I read the first book. I still have dents in my head from getting whacked with the abstinence metaphor. I get that. However... doesn't it weird you guys out that a ninety-whatever-year old was dating a seventeen-year-old? Just because they look like they're the same age doesn't mean they are mentally. He's old enough to be her great-grandfather. Unless we're assuming vampires in Twilight don't grow up and just stay young and stupid forever?

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I haven't previously read the books and I'm a guy.

That being said, I totally enjoyed the movie! I thought it was really good. They had a "I'm intrigued" type of romance going and it seemed believable to me. I thought the vampires were cool. The special effects get a so-so rating, as it seemed like a lot of wire work and looked a bit awkward, but it didn't take me out of the movie any and I don't know how a vampire running in real life would be anyway so I didn't mind too much.

I thought here dad seemed very realistic and there were some funny lines. One of the most entertaining things to me was how much of a klutz she was, that cracked me up.

Overall, I'm looking forward to the sequels.

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WOW! thats all i can say! it was amazing i waited forever for this movie and i did not go unpleased! this movie is the best movie to ever hit the big screen! i did laugh a little from the akwardness of the movie but hey when you read the book thats what it was all about so weell done! im looking forward to the rest of the movies to come out! so please hurry:)

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The first viewing; first off I'd say that character development was awful on everyone save Bella. I think the human kids had more screen time than the vampires in terms of relationship and personality forming. Alice (while I think she is PERFECTLY cast) came off as kind of flaky and strange because all we see of her is this sort of omniscient little fairy, not the Alice from the books who is SO excited to meet Bella because she knows they will be such good friends. Jasper was perfect...well acted...but just didn't have the lines or screen time for a viewer to establish a relationship with his character. If I hadn't read the book I'd have NO idea who he is, why he is there or what his problem is!!! Carlisle was surprisingly perfect...and had great presence. I had the most difficult time with Rosalie. Who is this girl and WHY in the world was she cast?? My opinion is that she was horribly cast...since she is supposed to be beautiful, statuesque runway model, etc., she is not beautiful, the blond hair is unsuitable for her skin tone particularly with the eyebrows being nearly black!! She was also not empirically beautiful in her features (Victoria was much more strikingly gorgeous) and she also doesn't even begin to have a figure I would describe as envious, more like...plump! She also looked WAY too old for the role, and had an unbelievable amount of screen time...where she was only a minor character in the first book. She had SO many lines! It was strange...like they gave all of Alice's lines to Rosalie. I felt that it was like the director owed the actor a favor and therefore gave her more time off the cutting room floor. I kept thinking...why are we developing Rosalies character so much? I really thought Rosalie could be one of the only cast members to be cast on looks alone because her whole role is vanity...and what gorgeous model can't pull that off! We never saw Rosalie looking into a mirror...or really anything but being a jealous little twitt with too much face time on her un-Rosalie type face!! Bugged me silly!!! They should have alter-casted...a Rosalie/Victoria swap!! Rachel La??? would look right as a pale blond and the girl who played Rosalie could probably pull off a FIRE red and it be much more flattering on her (like Julianne Moore red...not the light auburn Victoria's was in the film.)
There were great moments of laugh-out-loud humor, but the emotive times were underplayed and finally left lacking in a sense that everything felt TOO rushed. In one moment Edward is telling Bella to run away from him...and not 5 minutes later "you are my life now"...it was rushed. Trying to fit TOO much into too little time. And then we get several minutes of time wasted on the nomads hunting (all of which we are to assume that the Cullens are not aware of...) which I think would have been better served giving us more "Cullen" time. There is no mention by the entire family of why they are so supportive of Edwards choice...that he is, after 90 years, happy. We see surprisingly little of Bella and Edwards romance, even as it quickly blooms...and then BOOM we are thrust into the chase. A chase that we don't have time to realize is happening before we realize its over. ALL of the "you are worth it" that happens between Jasper/Alice/Bella is gone...only leaving us with a dazed looking Alice scribbling on a notepad.
I even felt like they spent way too much time looking at scenery and giving us the atmosphere...that could have been better served by developing the characters better onscreen.
Then, the end, at the prom...again...I seriously do not see how Edward nor the rest of the vampires did not smell/otherwise sense Victoria's presence. (and how the heck will he leave in New Moon knowing Victoria is there?) Not that we would know the other vampires are there because we never see them. Alice doesn't even get Bella dressed for the prom :-( and Tyler never asked her, so he never showed up that night either.
Okay so all in all...I'm glad to see the characters come to life, but they needed a bigger budget to pull off what they attempted to and I think they could have done a better job editing...but I was, of course, thinking of much better special effects.
What I saw was that...most people walked away from the movie like they walked away from Spaceballs when they wanted Star Wars..."great parody." Would you watch it again, yeah! Will you buy the DVD? Can't wait for all the deleted scenes etc.! Did it live up to your expectations? Not even close and was a terrible disappointment!

On my second viewing, my review holds the same melody but at a slightly different pitch. I absolutely adored Charlie. He was fantastic and well executed. Edward has brief moments where we can actually believe that he might be 'in character' as opposed to simply overacting the bipolar bit. I completely agree with whomever said it above;
*-when they are in the parking lot B:Everyone is looking at us. E:No not that guy, damn! he just looked! very relaxed and believable.
*-when he jumps on her truck and tells her he's going to take her to meet the rest of the fam. I actually believed that he enjoyed her company for a few moments!
*-while at the Cullen res. (again, hilarity with the italian cooking...Emmett...utter perfection with the knife.) Edward acts comfortable and like he is kind of diggin' on Bella. She looks petrified...not protected.
*-the kiss. This morning...my first viewing...totally enthralled and could feel that chemistry. The 2nd time it was ruined by an audience member letting out an audible moan...no comment.
*-the baseball scene amazingly executed, filmed and effected...right up until the nomads arrive.

Was it just me or did anyone else get a very Super Marioesque flash when Edward was running, jumping, climbing? As opposed to the effects done in the baseball scene (Jasper at bat anyone?! brilliant) where it was slow motion but FELT fast. The nomads running/hunting was better FX...I felt like so much was done to make SO much SO much that nothing really ever got done right.
Bella never cooks and is apparently a vegetarian in the movie. Jacob is adorable, real and awkward. One of my friends said this;
"In the book's, I am Team Edward! In the movie...I'm team Jacob."
There were very key parts that were cut/omitted from the script that would have been particularly beneficial to both character development and flow.
This is what I gauge the movie off...Twilight or any movie from the series COULD NEVER be as good as the books. Why? because we are allowed our own interpretation of the books (the movie in our heads.) We are subjected to an artistic interpretation of the book in a motion picture. And there are so many parts that have to collaborate for this its amazing it ever works...but it does. It has so many times before. There are major faux pas of filmmaking/direction/adaptation all over Twilight and I can't believe no one noticed it in the screening process.
Just to be clear...this is why I reference THE SCRIPT so often as opposed to the book.

"Shiny acne"...great description Gianna!
Like so many have said, I think I might have learned to love the shiny acne if I didn't have the audio to go with it!! I could never, quite honestly, get a visual in my head of what this would look like. I suppose I only thought of FX done on other movies and who wants to use a used FX right? Argh...I didn't like it...but I don't have any idea how they could have done the visual better!! Not the tinkling sounds...that HAS to go!!! haha

I think the absence of "The Meadow Scene", as a separate scene from any other scene, is one of the biggest disappointments of the movie. I would have much preferred the talk in the car on the way back from Port Angeles (to cover the...hey, you're a vampire, and its cool with me! instead of the woods near the school scene) and then Edward making a specific purpose to spend time with Bella and take her up to his meadow, instead of HER asking him to 'hang out'...would have preferred that to the extended Waylon murder and aftermath at the police station (although I did enjoy the Bella/Charlie bonding there.)
....so in my perfect world that is how I would direct it. But alas...whats done is done and now we have to hope for the best with New Moon.

(FX was TOTALLY wasted on sub-supporting cast!!) They simply tried to do too much with too little and I think that Catherine Hardwick should have done what she could RIGHT...instead of making 96% of it just WRONG.
I would have preferred a change in plot to the butcher of a movie that we were left with. Surely we could have started in Forks and never left it or something...maybe we never had Renee in a scene? or didn't see so much of the woods...or maybe we could have just watched 2 hours of WONDERFULLY executed Edward/Bella time (instead of the rushed...why are they in love thing) with James hunting right from the baseball field and Charlie as the 'bait' to get her to the police station...or Emmett/Jasper/Alice just rip his head off right there, Laurent runs away scared and Victoria...well..she does whatever she is doing.
Whatever!!! As painful as some of those things are to think about, I would have preferred it not trying to be the book and change some things to make it work onscreen...the things they changed condensed instead of compensated and, again, we were added with superfluous fluff and had undeveloped characters across the board. I suppose I am of the opinion that you don't undertake something you can't pull off well. Or you take longer to do it so you can do it right! Come on...3 months of filming?? if more budget was needed why have the INSANE publicity budget? I could go on...but I won't.

And a word to the 'actor haters' ...my feeble and inconsequential opinion is that the result of the film has very little to do with the actors. Even Edwards character...overacted most of the time, agreed, and downright painful to watch but outside of that 110 minutes there WERE places where he was (in some version of our collective psyche) the embodiment of our beloved book Edward!! That means that he is CAPABLE of delivering the role ...that it was not executed throughout the entire feature means the delivery was not brought out of him either due to direction or screenwriting.
James with his Border Collielike head tilting and the oddity of the powder-faced Carlisle...umm...yeah,
I really thought most of the actors did as well as they could with what they had to work with...I focus my guarded vision on higher ups!

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Twilight (2008) is a below average movie but adequate in light of the low budget and poor direction. I have read the book Twilight three times (and the rest of the series including excerpts from Midnight Sun) and I must say the screenwriter did a great job adapting (there are many differences in the storyline) a lot of material into 90-something minutes and should be invited back to write the sequel. The acting by Billy Burke and Rachelle Lefevre raise the level of the movie and Kristen Stewart accurately portrays "Bella Swan". Although Stewart is strained and melodramatic at times, so too is "Bella Swan" and most teen girls. Robert Pattison's interpretation leaves much to be desired though his outward appearance fits the bill. The "Edward Cullen" of Meyer's books has an unforgettable, subtle grace that Robert Pattinson decides to omit from his performance. But with a better director he could be guided into an excellent performance that is not overdone and inconsistent. Some scenes Robert Pattinson nails ("What if I am the Bad Guy") while others look like rough screen tests. He was simply laughable at times and could take a lesson from Peter Facinelli's, Cam Gigandet's, and Rachelle Lefevre's interpretations. Jackson Rathbone probably spent too much time with Robert Pattinson on set because his Edward Scissorhands-like performance was as flawed as Robert Pattinson's. Some of the vampires really miss the mark while others do a good job of playing kinder, gentler "vegetarian" vampires. The wardrobe of the three nomadic vampires deserves 2 thumbs up. Thankfully this very girlie film has a few action scenes for the readers' boyfriends. Thank you Kellan Lutz for being the real "Emmet Cullen". Unfortunately Catherine Hardwicke doesn't know how to handle action scenes and should not be given the opportunity to ruin the action-packed New Moon sequel. Hopefully Twilight will make enough money (and the lead actors won't ask for too much more) so that New Moon and Eclipse can be filmed at the same time and with a director (Louis Leterrier) who knows how to handle both the emotional demands of the script and the wire works running slash action scenes as will be necessary to do justice to Meyer's works.

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First of all Rob Pattinson is a hottie and he IS Edward Cullen exactly how I would picture him...Its too bad I am 32 years old or else I would be camping out at some mall to see him too! :)
I think it was a brave effort on the directors part to try to make Twilight into a 2 hour movie...The characters are described so in depth it is impossible to portray all of that on screen and I think considering she did a good job. It is hard also to judge the movie when you have read the book first and are obsessed with the story to the point you almost think of Edward and Bella as real people instead of characters in a novel. It skewes your view of the film. As an aside, in the interviews though that I have seen Kristen Stewart comes off as a little overconfident at times and that kind of turns me off a little...

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