Twilight Dazzled Me
Ok, here we go. After nearly 1 year of waiting, it's time for the Twilight movie review! Be warned! This review is TOTALLY FULL OF SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So if you haven't seen the movie yet and want to avoid the spoilers, don't come in here until after you've seen it. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!
So after one year of waiting for this movie, I finally got to see Twilight today, opening day, November 20th, 2008. What did I think? In a few words, it satisfied my fangirl hunger in more ways than one.
I start by saying, I was not expecting to enjoy the movie as much as I actually did. I went in with absolutely no expectations and determined to enjoy it no matter what and ended up enjoying it more than I could ever imagine! Of course, it wasn't perfect by any means and I'll point out the flaws here, but nonetheless I feel it can satisfy the craving fans. I must say though, this is probably one of the most faithfuI movie adaptations of a book I've ever seen. I have to say though, I didn't have the best viewing experience. I was accompained by 3 male friends that couldn't care less about Twilight and pretty much just wanted to make fun of it, and a 1 girl fan who really didn't enjoy it much. So I felt totally out of place. Did I really like it as much as I did? Does everyone else hate it? I kept asking myself. Not only that, but during the first 10 minutes of the movie it felt completely surreal, like it was a dream. It was a bizzare experience and I'm still thinking about the whole thing and processing it. I'm on cloud 9.
Now, onto the acting. I'll start with Robert Pattinson and I think that's the right way to go because he's the one that really drinks the blood here (yeah, lame pun. I know!). He is Edward Cullen. Not only does he embody the body of Edward, he embodies his mind, his soul, his feelings. One of the points of his portrayal I enjoyed the most was, oddly enough, his voice. Not once did I actually detect a hint of his natural accent, and also he has the power to make his voice sound completely different and more like 17 year old innocent young man. His facial expressions are also incredible. He has the ability to portray a million emotions just through his eyes. Some moments are more comical than others, like his expression to smelling Bella for the first time, he looks so terrified and overwhelmed that I just cracked up. But there are also moments that are made beautiful by his pained expressions, especially during the scene where Edward holds Bella while she sleeps, he looks confused and conflicted about whether to enjoy the moment or be complete pained by her smell. It was a very genuine and lovely moment. I thought Pattinson portrayed Edwards conflicting emotions incredibly and yet he added a bit of his own charm with dazzling smiles and a cute moment when he arrives with Bella at school as a couple for the first time.
I know a lot of people had doubts when it came to Kristen Stewart. A lot of people thought she was very emotionless in previews and such. I must say, the movie erases that doubt...somewhat. There are times when she really shines through; like when she gets incredibly and genuinely excited about Charlie getting her the truck, it was a carefree and happy moment; every moment with Charlie, they're both so awkward and uncomfortable around each other, it's perfect; and her scenes with Renee talking on the phone. During this scenes it really feels like you're peering into Bella's family life and they're incredibly cute. One thing I didn't like though was Kristen's stuttering through over a few of the lines, it seemed a bit over acted at times. Other than that I pretty much enjoyed her performance, she makes Bella a much more awkward and shy person than she is in the books and she looked beautiful yet average. Oh, and I absolutely loved her pain through the Ballet Studio Scene. It was pefect.
The Cullens weren't in the movie as much, but I didn't really mind since I was hoping they would focus more on Bella and Edward's relationship, which they did. Out of all the Cullens, Ashley and Jackson as Alice and Jasper were the best. Ashley was cute and bublby like Alice and Jackson was quiet, proper and very scared looking like Jasper. You could easily tell he had a hard time adjusting to his new life style. Nikki as Rosalie was Rosalie. I think she has that part nailed down for the sequels and can totally play a good bitch. Plus, I loved her little cute and snide comments thorughout the movie. Kellan had a ver small part as Emmett, but he was still really cute and funny. I really really enjoyed Peter Facinelli as Carlisle though, he was really like Carlisle in his soft spoken way and never once looked like a threatning vampire. I actually loved his flashback of bitting Edward, his pain expression as he sees Edward in pain made my heart break. Oh, and Ashley and Jackson were adorable together!
The humans had a bigger role than they did in the books. And it was very nice to see Bella bond more with Jessica and Angela than she did in the book. Mike Welch as Mike Newton was incredibly adorable. I found myself liking his character, even though I never did in the books. Probably one of the best portrayed characters was Billy Burke as Charlie. I've always liked Charlie as a character, but Billy brought him to a whole new level of awesomeness, and made his relationship with Bella seem much more real and heartfelt. Seeing him as Bella was leaving with Edward broke my heart too. Not to mention that he is sexy! As for Taylor Lautner as Jacob...well, there's really not much to say. His party is very small, though I did enjoy his talk with Bella at the beach and prom.
Now for some memorable scenes. The whole intro with Bella arriving at Forks was very well done, with the voice over and beautiful images of the coast, it was beautiful! I also enjoyed Bella's first day at school with all the human, it was so funny. I really enjoyed the Port Angeles scene. When Edward comes to rescue Bella from the frat boys and later talks to her, his voice is high and he looks really crazed like he's going to go back and beat them all up. In fact, the whole conversation during dinner was very lovely and personal and Rob's Never Think playing in the background made it better. There's a snippet out of Midnight Sun, when Edward is in Bella's room looking at her, she wakes up and sees him, but when she opens her eyes again he is gone. She also has a dream after looking up the info on vampires where Edward is bitting in her in a very old fashioned vampire way; she's in a lovely dress and he's all in black, it was a very hot dream scene I must say... Which brings me to probably the best scene in the book, even though very brief. THE kiss. I was turned on, literally. It starts out so slow and hesitant and there's no background music so you just focus on them. Then it starts building up and getting hotter, Bella grabs a hold of his hair and he kind of loses it for a moment pushing her back on the bed, but in a flash he's off her and against the wall. It was incredibly erotic. Oh, and Bella's panties can't really be seeing. Only a flash when Edward gets off her from the bed. The baseball scene was also one of my favorites, it's was incredibly well done and Supermassive Black Hole pumping on the background made it even cooler! I know everyone is wondering about the 'sparkling' scene. Well, it was far better than I expected! I thought it was going to be like, I don't know, some huge light sparkly thing. But the effect was very subtle and hardly noticeable, I actually ended up enjoying it and I didn't laugh at all. So that, my major worry for the film, was over. I also really liked the extended version of the Ballet Studio scene, it looked very lovely and I'm not gonna lie, I enjoyed Edward bitting James... But most of all I started tearing up when Edward was going to suck Bella's blood to get the poison out and Rob's song Let Me Sign starts playing and Bella is having all this Edward flashbacks...yes, I almost cried. There and the hospital scene, Edward looked so pained and he tells Bella she should go to Jacksonville and she panics and says he can't leave her...yes, all set up for New Moon... :( Oh, and the prom, the prom made me cry. They were dancing alone and Iron & Wine's song start playing which I adore and it's such a cute moment. He leans in to bite her and kisses her neck, and then he kisses her and wow. So romantic... Not much was changed from book to screen, though some scenes didn't make it like the blood typing scene, but everyon pretty much knew that already.
Now, for what I didn't really enjoy:
-The pacing at the beginning seemed a bit slow, it picks up around the half, but it annoyed me a bit at first. Still, no a big complaint.
-The special effects. Lets face it, they were pretty bad. I expected it and I get that they didn't have a big budget at all, but yeah. That was my biggest complaint. Luckly, the baseball scene looked great.
-Kristen stuterring a few lines, but I already said that.
-Edward looked a little too calm after Bella was bitten, he did freak out a bit, but then he calmed down again.
-Erik Yorkie...he annoyed me to no end...
I think that's pretty much it. I know I'm forgetting a lot of things, but I'm still processing! Hopefully I can add more once I've seen it again tomorrow!
So final judgement...
7.5 out of 10
3 and a half starts out of 5
and two thumbs UP as a fangirl!
I hope everyone enjoys it! And here's to hoping for New Moon!
^^