Director: Catherine Hardwicke (Lords of Dogtown)Cast: Kristen Stewart (The Messengers, Into the Wild), Robert Pattinson (Harry Potter), Taylor Lautner, Peter Facinelli, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Cam Gigandet
The Deal: After her mother remarries, Bella Swan (Stewart) decides to live with her dad in a small rainy town of Washington. She meets a mysterious boy named Edward Cullen (Pattinson) who hangs with a crowd of similarly mysterious siblings who are absent from school on every sunny day. Edward becomes very interested in Bella, and after saving her life one day at school, he reveals that he is actually a vampire. He does his best to make her feel welcome around his vampire family, but when a hunter vampire (Gigandet) comes into town, Bella's life becomes threatened, and Edward must do what he can to protect her.
Thoughts: The plot of the film is very much a new-age twist on Romeo and Juliet, but with vampires and werewolves. I've generally shied away from the books, and after viewing the film, my decision has been justified. The story itself isn't terrible, but it's far from good. This isn't the film's fault, but it still plagues the film. It's the kind of story that middle school and early high school girls will eat up with their own dreams of being swept off their feet by a hansom vampire who's madly in love with them. But when all is said and done, it's cheesy, sappy, and very likely to not only bore the male gender, but screw them over in the relationship department since they can't be so mysterious, hot, and wonderful like the vampires and werewolves.
The acting in the film was not very good as well. I've read reviews that raved about the on-screen chemistry between Stewart and Pattinson, and I just can't see how. Pattinson's performance is flat-as-a-board and very uninspired, which isn't surprising after reading interviews that discuss his personal views on the franchise (as much as guys hate him, they won't disagree with his beliefs). Stewart's performance is better, but she really hasn't developed as an actress yet, and it really showed on screen. The rest of the performances are mostly forgettable, but every guy who was dragged to see this will be happy to know that Ashley Greene was at least very easy on the eyes.
There were two scenes that really stood out in the film as the worst two. The first is when Edward shows Bella how vampires "sparkle" in sunlight. It literally looked like his skin was made of diamonds and the CGI with it just wasn't very believable. The second scene, which may or may not be the books fault (I haven't read them, and won't), is the baseball scene. It was a very pointless way to progress the story towards meeting the hunter vampire. Seriously, the scene just didn't fit in and felt really stupid. Though the choice of music was a good song in general (Supermassive Black Hole by Muse), it felt out of place for the scene.
Verdict: The acting was uninspired and forgetful, and the story was nothing great. It doesn't matter what I rate this because Twi-hards (crazy Twilight fans) will worship it, but for anyone unsure whether they want to see what all the fuss is about, I'd suggest skipping this saga. ☆☆1/2
Liked It? Try These: Romeo + Juliet (1996), Interview with the Vampire (1994)
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