Twilight Thoughts & Review

I was going to do a really specific, several posts about my thoughts on the movie vs. the book, the movie by itself, and then the specific parts of the movie that I liked or disliked. But then I realized - not everyone is as crazy or interested in it as I am.

So here's my condensed (as best I can do) thoughts on all those things: I give the movie a C rating. After seeing it the 2nd time, I thought I would be able to give it a B, but the more I thought about it, I just realized I couldn't do it.

First of all - if you have seen the movie and have not read the book, you need to read the book. This movie in no way at all even a slight little bit compares in any way to the book. The book develops the characters, the story, the events, the attraction, the family, the plot, and the setup for the future books in a way that is much more detailed, understandable and complete than the movie. But that's okay because that's what should be expected from a movie. A movie - especially one like this - is a cheap Cliffs Notes version of the book. So while it was not as awful as some movies from books I have seen (ahem, The Count of Monte Cristo), it is also not as good as I think it could have been.

My problems were as follows:
Nothing looks like I pictured it - at all. The people aren't exactly right - my least favorites are Carlisle and Rosalie probably. The ones I'm okay with are Alice, Billy and Jacob (although he will have to have a MAJOR growth spurt for the rest of the movies). I'm not okay with any of the places. I pictured the school, Bella's house, the Cullen house and even Bella's bedroom completely differently. Actually, the Cullen house in the book is described as an old white house that looks like it had been there for like 200 years - not some new, art-deco thing.

Edward's deer-in-headlights look. I feel like they told him to look scared or mad and he just opened his eyes really wide. It ruined a couple parts for me - specifically the part where he picks her up from Port Angeles.

The whole tantric staring at each other thing in the meadow. No. Just no. I liked the parts where they showed them talking a lot without hearing them. That was fine. But with the staring thing, I feel like they were trying to show desire without being able to act on it and it came out awkward and unneccessary. Really bad and embarrassing for me.

Edward's general demeanor throughout the movie. He walks all hunched over and he yells in the woods when he's talking to her about who he is. Read the book again. That's not accurate. Edward, while definitely being a tortured soul, is cool and collected most of the time - especially at school, with the exception of having to try to control his base insticts around Bella. He is bored by the people around him because everyone has become boring from knowing everyone's thoughts and ulterior motives and inner ideas. He just isn't awkward.

The scene in the hospital where Bella gets all upset and says he can't say things like that to her. It just wasn't right for me. I'm not sure why, it sort-of annoyed me. Although, Bella annoys me in most of the books, so maybe they got that part right.


The parts I did like were:
Saving her from the van.
When he was standing there listening to Mike ask her to prom.
The first kiss (while totally slow and painful in my opinion, definitely right-on).

That's maybe it.

I did NOT like how almost everything is out of order and in the wrong place and they smooshed things together that didn't need to be. They could have put some things in the right order and even expounded a little bit and cut stupid things like the tantric staring thing and still kept themselves in about a 2-hour time frame.

So, feel free to disagree. I've talked to a lot of people who really liked the movie. And that's great! I'm totally okay if you like it. I think that's what they wanted. Seeing as how no one is going to read a book and see the exact same thing in their head, it would make sense to me that some people would see this movie and it would be perfect for them and then others, like me, would see it and it wouldn't really be what they imagined at all. Almost frustratingly so.

Here's what I will say, though: I have been watching lots of interviews with Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart and while I don't 100% like them as Edward and Bella, I do like them as actors which made me like them a little bit more as Edward and Bella as I saw the movie more than once. I'm not telling you how many times I have seen the movie. As someone who didn't really love it, it's sort-of awful how many times I've had to see it. But I wanted to see it with my friends for their first time, but they couldn't all go at the same time!

What did you think of the movie?