A review of Twilight the movie

As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to reread the Twilight saga in honor of the movie that released today. I bought tickets via Fandango earlier this week, and I dragged Travis to the theater tonight. (Don't tell anyone that Travis saw this. It will ruin his street cred.)

First of all, the AMC Loew's theater in Aurora is not recommended by me. For some reason, Seattle doesn't seem to have many movie theaters, and this one was small and older. Only 6 screens...but the lobby was maybe big enough for two. In addition, they RAN OUT OF POPCORN. What theater does that on a Friday night? And they tried to make more to keep up with the crowds, but only had one of their three machines working. Weird.

On to the movie. It was a totally sold out show, and while there were some adults there, the primary attendees were teenage girls. Some were wearing Twilight tshirts, some had Team Edward or Team Jacob shirts on and some were clearly there because their other friends made them go. A theater full of teenage girls is LOUD. I seriously didn't hear the beginning of the Harry Potter trailer because they all screamed when it came on screen.

The movie was...well, it was okay. It stayed pretty true to the book, but it just seemed like everything was overly dramatic. Seriously, the theater burst into laughter many times...but the scene wasn't meant to be funny. It was just too much. If you haven't read the book, you will be put off by the over-emoting done by Edward and Bella. Bella always seems very confused, and Edward seems to be in pain at all times.

Here are the characters that were well cast: Mike Newton, Jessica, Angela, Charlie, James, Rosalie, Esme and Billy. Edward, Jacob and Bella are all sort of decently cast. Sort of what I expected from the book. The characters I didn't think were well cast were pretty much everyone else. Jasper was made to be particularly weird for some reason, and Carlisle was not at all what I anticipated. Oddly blond. And Victoria didn't have red hair. Not cool.

The biggest things from the book that I thought looked dumb in the movie? The sparkle Edward was bad. The running by the vampires didn't look great. The silver Volvo was a hatchback - NOT what I pictured. Edward comes off as very stalker-like...but that is true to the book.

The things from the book that translated well? Charlie's awkwardness. The vampires' perfect immaculate appearance. Esme and Carlisle's kindness. Jessica's attitude toward Bella. The Port Angeles scene. Prom was okay. Angela.

I think that if you have read the books, you will think the movie is okay. They didn't make massive changes, so the crazy fangirls can calm down. It's clearly set up to do an Edward versus Jacob theme for the next movie. They've also very much set up the Victoria going after Bella storyline.

I don't think I will be buying this movie on DVD. I don't really need to see it over and over again. However, it was worth seeing, particularly because I enjoy the books.

-SKH