I am completely unfamiliar with the Twilight universe, for starters, but it seems intriguing to me. I have never read the book, but I’ll start with what I do know going into this first viewing. I know that Edward Cullen is a vampire living with his family clan in (or near) Forks, Washington. I know that Bella has moved to Forks after her mother and her new stepfather basically tell her they want to live without her for a while. I’ll try to overlook the fact that a vampire who is more than 80 years old is still in high school (he is clearly not an idiot, so we must assume he just enjoys the high school experience, or is entirely devoted to keeping up his appearances)
I’m not really sure what to make of the film, at least at this point (about an hour in). It certainly places its focus squarely on relationships and emotions in place of action and excitement. Mystery, intrigue and awkward semi-romantic tension are intended to drive the movie forward but it only achieves that goal in spurts and sputters. It seems as though this is a movie that is defined by the chemistry between its two main characters, which for the first half of the movie only works in some places. Edward is at times drawn to Bella, and at other times repelled by her which makes sense once Edward and Bella level with each other, but is quite frustrating leading up to that point. The first meeting is especially discomforting, considering that Edward unashamedly glares at Bella like he’s utterly disgusted and even furious with the fact that she sits next to him in class. I understand how it is explained later that he is intensely attracted to her and intrigued because he can’t read her mind, but at this point in the story we have absolutely no clue that vampires or werewolves have anything to do with the story. So Edward’s glaring and glowering just makes him look like a freak. The more I think about it, the more I think the error lies with the source material instead of the performances, even though the performances delivered by Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are hit and miss, sometimes delivering lines effectively and sometimes falling flat.
All this awkwardness and tension comes to a head when Bella begins to put the pieces together about what Edward is. Once she confronts him with the knowledge that she knows what he is and he comes clean about the burden he bears, it almost feels as though a burden is lifted from the shoulders of the film. Bella and Edward seem much more comfortable around one another once the air clears and emotions are laid out to each other. Particularly this is the case with Edward. He becomes a much more likeable character once the burden of his secret is out in the open and Bella accepts (or challenges, rather) him. When Edward tells her that she shouldn’t trust him, that he isn’t sure he can control his desire for her blood, she tells him she trusts him and she knows he won’t hurt her, which is at the same time incredibly bold but potentially incredibly foolish. Only time will tell which is true.
I think the film works best when the attention is set squarely on the relationship shared by the two main characters. There is a story going on behind their blossoming romance, but it doesn’t really take a front seat until the baseball game. It seems like the focus of the film is on the romance, which is unfortunate because the background story is rushed through and filled out with underdeveloped characters. The “villain” of the film is introduced more than half way into the movie, which means we hardly know anything about him, his motivations or his goals. He is presented simply as a “tracker vampire” who only lives for the hunt. He gets a whiff of Bella’s scent at the baseball game which apparently means he will hunt her until he kills her. But all this only serves as a vehicle to move Bella and Edward’s relationship forward, which just sucks because I think the whole vampire universe here could be fleshed out a lot more. It would go a long way towards making the movie more unified, because it feels unbalanced with so much focus directed towards the romantic plot and so little placed on everything else.
Overall, the impression I walked away from the movie with was one of squandered potential. It felt very much like the book was used as the script and the film feels chained down as a result. Books don’t naturally translate to film; they need to be adapted properly and I think Twilight would have benefited from that process. But it is not a bad movie; in fact, I found the romantic aspect of the story very compelling. Twilight does several things very well, but other things it does a little haphazardly.
6/10
Twilight
Directed by Catherine Hardwicke
Written by Melissa Rosenberg; novel by Stephanie Meyer
Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson
Rated PG-13 for some violence and a scene of sensuality
2 comments:
Personally, I would have cast completely different actors for the movie. Having read the books first, I thought the emotion and romance that were compelling and intriguing in novel form just came off as lame and goofy in the movie. I actually found myself laughing out loud several times at scenes that were not remotely intended to be funny (i.e. Edward's pained/furious expression upon Bella's entrance in the Bio lab scene). True, books don't translate well to movies, but considering the subject material it really could have been a much better adaptation. They could have done more to explore the characters and explain the nature of vampires. For instance, the scene where Bella "escapes" from Jasper and Alice at the hotel was so watered down as to make the two vampires seem completely incompetent; the fact that their heightened senses combined with Alice's ability to see the future presented a problem for Bella when she needed to get away was a critical detail that was simply removed from the film altogether.
Now, I didn't have the ability to view the film completely objectively as you did, without knowing the source material, and I'm sure this played a good deal into my reception of the movie. All-in-all, though, I consider it one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
I have a feeling that the book is way better than the movie. Everyone I've talked to that's read the books say this film is garbage, so I think it must have done more things wrong than right. Many times, the fans of any particular book are the worst critics, just because when you read a book you imagine things a certain way and if it is translated differently than you imagined it can be disappointing. But I think I'll read the books since they're apparently way better than the movie.
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