- Title: Twilight
- IMDB: link
Capturing the sparkle of a diamond in the rough Twilight accomplishes its destiny. Twilight is a film to be reckoned with amongst teenage girls and fans of the novel series; even though it is not great, I would say it’s handsome nonetheless. The film itself is awkward and lacking a bit of finesse, but isn’t a monstrosity.
Twilight pulls on the uncomfortable realities in moving to a new school, state for that matter, and making new friends. It captures the awkwardness of first love and peaks our interests with a new perspective and persona for a vampire, a vegan vampire. No sharp pointy fangs, no spattering of blood and a complete lack of conformity for monster like features and going up in flames.
The film jumps from what could have been this generation’s The Lost Boys and moves into a better attempt at supernatural love and teenage interest than Blood and Chocolate or The Covenant.
Plenty of laugh out loud accidents occur through out. Moments where character lines go beyond cheesy and teeters on campy, situations, stances, glares, glances and looks that don’t seem quite comfortable or normal, then again we are talking about what’s not normal so maybe those campy uncomfortable moments are allowed. Who knows how a real teenage vampire in heat/love would react to the female equivalent of crack and deep seeded passion? Maybe the odd glances and massive uncomfortable conversation is just par for the course.
Twilight accomplishes a “knight in shining armor” affect with what a character sees himself to be the “monster” rather than the hero. Somehow the entirety feels subdued, yes there is danger, but only over a single evening, yes there is passion and sexuality, but only for a fleeing moment. Where is the Hollywood kick, the punch that brings a PG film into the realm of PG-13? Twilight scantly slides into the PG-13 area, mostly stays within the confines of PG. As an adult, I guess I wanted more, but if I was a young girl of fifteen, your damn skippy I want more, whether it’s in the book or not.
Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), a teenage girl with out all the glitz and glamour most girls her age has, moves in with her dad, Charlie Swan (Billy Burke), in the little overcast town of Forks, Washington. Her mother’s boyfriend is a semi-pro baseball player and her mother has chose to travel with him, leaving Bella no other choice than to uproot her warm and cozy existence in Arizona.
Once she falls into the routine of a new school, she is bombarded by a group of fun loving and easy going classmates, Jessica Stanley (Anna Kendrick), Mike Newton (Michael Welch), Eric Yorkie (Justin Chon) & Angela Weber (Christian Serratos), who are more than happy to show Bella the ropes and include her in their little gang of misfits.
Her home life is so so, her father and her are a bit estranged to one another, but fall into a comfortable existence soon enough. She rekindles a friendship with a long lost mud pie making buddy from her formative just out of diaper years, and falls under Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) and his uncle’s, Billy Black (Gil Birmingham), protection. Something to do with a secretive wolf clan story that spans the time of Native American’s and Vampires. Bella finds her father’s old friend’s beliefs to be mildly amusing and goes on, knowing that she needs no special protection from the boy who has caught her eye, from Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson).
Bella, still fresh in the lunchroom, notices the Cullen clan before they hit the door. Alice Cullen (Ashley Greene), Rosalie Hale (Nikki Reed), Jasper Hale (Jackson Rathbone) & Emmet Cullen (Kellan Lutz) walk in like royalty attached in pairs. Bella’s new little group of friends explain to her that a Dr. Carlisle Cullen (Peter Facinelli) and his wife adopted these beautiful perfect teens from somewhere way up north. Edward walks in alone, not partnered, single and all over Bella’s scent from the first drop of an apple.
At first Bella wasn’t sure of Edward and what he thought of her. When she was to be his desk mate in biology, he held his nose in disgust over her scent, so she thought. Actually her scent was like an addictive drug to him and he had to distance himself so to not hurt her, but found that to be an impossible task as he followed her everywhere she went. Edward couldn’t help, but be her protector and her danger. Inviting Bella out to a friendly game of family baseball, Edward mistakenly put Bella directly in the line of danger when a group of rogue and not so vegetarian vampires show up.
Bella became the chase for one devilishly handsome, yet deadly lethal tracker vampire, James (Cam Gigandet). Edward and his family must do whatever they can to keep Bella safe; sending her away from the city under the protection of his sister and brother. Bella is tricked by James and goes to save her mother, only to find that it’s her life that is in danger and all James wanted is a good old fashion fight with Edward.
Bella and Edward move through each road block, each fleeting second of danger and every awkward moment with ease and grace. The one thing Bella doesn’t glide so easily through is the possibility of not getting to spend an immortal life with Edward, and prom. For now she will deal with prom and reproach Edward with her immortality later.
To quote a famous vampire, “I want more”, I wanted to see, hear, smell and taste more. Where are the character histories, what are the connections to and among the good vampires VS the bad, what made the good doctor pick who he did to create his little blood sucking family and what exactly is the complete intoxication between Bella and Edward? Obviously I’ll have to pick up the series and read them, the movie certainly didn’t provide the depth or conviction the books can fulfill.
Twilight is an anomaly to me, I actually have little tingles of excitement to go and see it again. Thankfully my niece hasn’t seen it yet, so I can use her as an excuse. I do believe that this film will boost book sales all over again, like the books themselves need any extra help.
Twilight is worth seeing if you find yourself a fan of soft-horror films and the supernatural, or if you’re a teenage girl with a heart beat.