My review of Twilight
With the books being a travesty to all literature ever, the movie really had no where to go but up, and up it did. The movie I think was at least three times better then the book for a few very important reasons.
Bella is the first and most noticeable. I wrote in my commentary months ago that I wondered how they would play Bella to make an audience root for her and not just see her as the awful bitch she really is. The writers managed to make her into a decent person. When she gets the car from her Dad, she’s happy about it. She doesn’t call it “the thing” and complain about it, like she does everything. Movie Bella doesn’t complain about anything as I remember.
She doesn’t manipulate Jacob and lead him on in the movie like in the book. There’s a scene with Jacob and Bella as the movie starts out that establishes them as childhood friends, verse in the books where Jacob and Bella barely knew each other from their past. I liked Jacob too; he seems like the sweet kid he’s supposed to be, before his character was completely destroyed.
She seems to actually care about her father. They eat together at that dinner I think at least three times, so that’s good. When he loses his friend, she puts her hand on his shoulder and says she’s sorry, and looks like she means it! I enjoyed Charlie, by the way. And him and Billy together where the best bits of the movie.
She’s smarter, too. Jacob doesn’t just feed her the story about the vampires, she has to go and find the other piece of the puzzle herself, and it gives her a real reason to go to Port Angeles verse just going to almost get raped so she can get saved by Edward. And she gets a hit in before he shows up, I noticed that.
She comes off as the shy girl she’s supposed to be with the kids in school. Because we’re in her head in the book, we know that she’s not around people because they don’t get her; she’s not around people because she doesn’t like people. But movie Bella is honestly awkward with her peers. They also cut down on her sueness of the boys creaming themselves over her. Tyler doesn’t ask her out at all, and Eric seems interested, but not all that much where he would just as gladly go out with another girl over then Bella. Mike seems jealous of Edward but you can forget about that since he has so little screen time.
I liked the waitress in the dinner and the men sitting in their seats to hear about the murders, I also liked the cops and the other town people. It made Forks seem like a real place and not just something else for Bella to bitch about. Plus the biology teacher was great, he’s that teacher that tries to get the kids into the school, he was fun.
They seat up the conflict in the book early, which is good, because then the only plot the book has is Ed and Bella fawning over each other. I liked the scene with the vampires and the guy and the boat. Speaking of, James was awesome. He really came off as what a vampire should be. I also enjoyed Alice, pity she didn’t get anymore lines then she was allowed. She seemed like this flaky kind of sweet girl, like she belongs in an art college or something. Rosalie I think did well for what she was given.
Another good, especially when comparing the book and the movie, Edward and Bella’s relationship wasn’t as horrible as it is in the books. Only the fact that Edward watches Bella sleep and stalks her is kept in. He doesn’t tell her what to do or orders her around to have Bella follow. It doesn’t see controlling, in the movie. And the “I’m in love with him line” came after they where in the woods and stuff together, so the movie gave them more time to fall in love.
Oh! And the reveal scene, where we see “Edward’s a vampire” is short, not this long drawn out affair like in the book. And I liked the dream Bella had when after she did the research and stuff. That was cool, the flashes of Ed with bloody fangs and stuff. So was the scene when Bella had the venom sucked out of her, I liked how that was edited.
Okay, so onto the stuff that wasn’t quite right. The high school students! Like all of them, acted all hyped up and jittery, like they had too much Red Bull. And how they talked! Teenagers don’t talk like that! And I think you can swear in a PG-13 movie. This movie felt so PG to me. I don’t know why it wasn’t rated PG, it could have been. Also Eric is Asian and Tyler is black. What? Now we have a token Asian guy and a token black guy, super!
It seemed like Emmett and Jasper were just furniture or pieces of scenery. They had like 5 lines total, I think. And Rosalie, we get no reason why she hates Bella, just that she does for some reason, whatever. That I thought was important enough to add like two minutes to the movie to establish that. But I forget no one but Bella and Edward matters, which brings me to that bad.
There was no chemistry between Rob and Kirsten at all! I didn’t believe for a second that they were in love. There was no heat, no passion. It was probably the worst chemistry I’ve seen between two actors ever. I think that was the worst thing about the movie. Because it’s a love story, a love story is built on the chemistry between the two actors.
And both Rob and Kirsten did sucky jobs with the rest of everything else too. There were so God damn robotic, all their lines. They added like no inflection to their voices ever. But I’m not surprised. I already knew that Kirsten can’t act unless she’s terrified or in pain. I expected better from Rob, but whatever.
The fight scene, that was bad. I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again, flying in the air to fight, only works in anime. In live action it looks stupid. The fight scene was dumb, so was the baseball.
The score was terrible. Flat and dull, like Rob and Kirsten’s acting.
The costume choices for the bad vamps, what the fuck was that? The fluffy thing for Victoria, I’ve only seen that look work for one character, and that Sesshoumaru for InuYasha. The guy with the dreads also had bad clothing, like he was a pirate and not a vampire. Vampires are supposed to look badass, but none of them did, but James, and that all came from the actor, not his clothes.
The sparkling! They had sound effect, which was so awesome! It was ridiculous and hilarious, just like the book.
The dialogue in general was bad, especially between Ed and Bella.
So, I guess it was alright, I give it a C over all. It was just really boring I thought for the most part, from lack of chemistry. Also a lot the time, I kept thinking that it was like kiddy version of True Blood. The whole move fast thing looked like it was stolen from there, anyway. Plus the human/vampire thing, of course.
Bella is the first and most noticeable. I wrote in my commentary months ago that I wondered how they would play Bella to make an audience root for her and not just see her as the awful bitch she really is. The writers managed to make her into a decent person. When she gets the car from her Dad, she’s happy about it. She doesn’t call it “the thing” and complain about it, like she does everything. Movie Bella doesn’t complain about anything as I remember.
She doesn’t manipulate Jacob and lead him on in the movie like in the book. There’s a scene with Jacob and Bella as the movie starts out that establishes them as childhood friends, verse in the books where Jacob and Bella barely knew each other from their past. I liked Jacob too; he seems like the sweet kid he’s supposed to be, before his character was completely destroyed.
She seems to actually care about her father. They eat together at that dinner I think at least three times, so that’s good. When he loses his friend, she puts her hand on his shoulder and says she’s sorry, and looks like she means it! I enjoyed Charlie, by the way. And him and Billy together where the best bits of the movie.
She’s smarter, too. Jacob doesn’t just feed her the story about the vampires, she has to go and find the other piece of the puzzle herself, and it gives her a real reason to go to Port Angeles verse just going to almost get raped so she can get saved by Edward. And she gets a hit in before he shows up, I noticed that.
She comes off as the shy girl she’s supposed to be with the kids in school. Because we’re in her head in the book, we know that she’s not around people because they don’t get her; she’s not around people because she doesn’t like people. But movie Bella is honestly awkward with her peers. They also cut down on her sueness of the boys creaming themselves over her. Tyler doesn’t ask her out at all, and Eric seems interested, but not all that much where he would just as gladly go out with another girl over then Bella. Mike seems jealous of Edward but you can forget about that since he has so little screen time.
I liked the waitress in the dinner and the men sitting in their seats to hear about the murders, I also liked the cops and the other town people. It made Forks seem like a real place and not just something else for Bella to bitch about. Plus the biology teacher was great, he’s that teacher that tries to get the kids into the school, he was fun.
They seat up the conflict in the book early, which is good, because then the only plot the book has is Ed and Bella fawning over each other. I liked the scene with the vampires and the guy and the boat. Speaking of, James was awesome. He really came off as what a vampire should be. I also enjoyed Alice, pity she didn’t get anymore lines then she was allowed. She seemed like this flaky kind of sweet girl, like she belongs in an art college or something. Rosalie I think did well for what she was given.
Another good, especially when comparing the book and the movie, Edward and Bella’s relationship wasn’t as horrible as it is in the books. Only the fact that Edward watches Bella sleep and stalks her is kept in. He doesn’t tell her what to do or orders her around to have Bella follow. It doesn’t see controlling, in the movie. And the “I’m in love with him line” came after they where in the woods and stuff together, so the movie gave them more time to fall in love.
Oh! And the reveal scene, where we see “Edward’s a vampire” is short, not this long drawn out affair like in the book. And I liked the dream Bella had when after she did the research and stuff. That was cool, the flashes of Ed with bloody fangs and stuff. So was the scene when Bella had the venom sucked out of her, I liked how that was edited.
Okay, so onto the stuff that wasn’t quite right. The high school students! Like all of them, acted all hyped up and jittery, like they had too much Red Bull. And how they talked! Teenagers don’t talk like that! And I think you can swear in a PG-13 movie. This movie felt so PG to me. I don’t know why it wasn’t rated PG, it could have been. Also Eric is Asian and Tyler is black. What? Now we have a token Asian guy and a token black guy, super!
It seemed like Emmett and Jasper were just furniture or pieces of scenery. They had like 5 lines total, I think. And Rosalie, we get no reason why she hates Bella, just that she does for some reason, whatever. That I thought was important enough to add like two minutes to the movie to establish that. But I forget no one but Bella and Edward matters, which brings me to that bad.
There was no chemistry between Rob and Kirsten at all! I didn’t believe for a second that they were in love. There was no heat, no passion. It was probably the worst chemistry I’ve seen between two actors ever. I think that was the worst thing about the movie. Because it’s a love story, a love story is built on the chemistry between the two actors.
And both Rob and Kirsten did sucky jobs with the rest of everything else too. There were so God damn robotic, all their lines. They added like no inflection to their voices ever. But I’m not surprised. I already knew that Kirsten can’t act unless she’s terrified or in pain. I expected better from Rob, but whatever.
The fight scene, that was bad. I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again, flying in the air to fight, only works in anime. In live action it looks stupid. The fight scene was dumb, so was the baseball.
The score was terrible. Flat and dull, like Rob and Kirsten’s acting.
The costume choices for the bad vamps, what the fuck was that? The fluffy thing for Victoria, I’ve only seen that look work for one character, and that Sesshoumaru for InuYasha. The guy with the dreads also had bad clothing, like he was a pirate and not a vampire. Vampires are supposed to look badass, but none of them did, but James, and that all came from the actor, not his clothes.
The sparkling! They had sound effect, which was so awesome! It was ridiculous and hilarious, just like the book.
The dialogue in general was bad, especially between Ed and Bella.
So, I guess it was alright, I give it a C over all. It was just really boring I thought for the most part, from lack of chemistry. Also a lot the time, I kept thinking that it was like kiddy version of True Blood. The whole move fast thing looked like it was stolen from there, anyway. Plus the human/vampire thing, of course.