by Jen Longo

Created on: January 20, 2009

Twilight is the intriguing story about a clumsy young girl and a dazzling and seemingly perfect boy in high school, who fall head over heels in love. As Bella Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to a constantly rain saturated Forks, Washington, she finds herself quickly infatuated with pale faced Edward Cullin, a statuesque yet hardly sociable boy in one of her classes. Edward and the entire Cullen family are a mystery to the students at Forks High school. At first Edward seems to despise Bella, as he appears appalled while being anywhere near her, yet he eventually finds himself fascinated by her uniqueness. Bella is constantly perplexed by Edward and his strange ability to show up anytime she finds herself in a predicament, and his astonishing strength and beauty. As the book goes on, she discovers he and his family is not like everyone else; they are vampires. They are not your usual vampires though; they stray from taking human blood, as it does not suit their morals. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /

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While some may disagree, this book was fit mostly for young minds yet it is remarkably entertaining for older crowds as well. The book Twilight consists of a perfect blend of classical romance and modern twists. The movie was not nearly as entertaining, and was actually hard to take seriously, which is a strange contrast from the book.
Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the movie Twilight, made it a goal to keep fans from being disappointed, by not making major changes to the story. The movie was carried over almost entirely the same as depicted in the book itself, however, the chemistry between Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson in the movie) and Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is hardly noticeable on the big screen. In fact, the majority of the actors in the film were a bit weak. James, the vampire "tracker" played by Cam Gigandet was the most realistic and accurate portrayal from the book. He brought the character to life by giving an adept performance. Robert Pattinson was a good choice for Edward Cullen, however he over dramatized scenes in the film, making it awkward to sit through at times. It was as if average acting abilities were accepted whole-heartedly on the set of this film....especially from Kristen Stewart. Sadly, she lacks any emotion in this movie. Without giving it away, her best acting came at the very end.
There were many things that could have been done to improve the film, such as better special effects, make-up, and as mentioned- actors and actresses. In the first scene where Carlisle Cullen (Edward's father figure) is seen in the hospital, his blatant white make-up is incredibly distracting. Whatever make-up artist was responsible in this film should immediately be fired.
All in all, the book was extremely entertaining and hard to put down. For those who saw the film without reading the book first, they were likely to be much more disappointed than those who knew the story. The on screen adaptation looked like a bad high school-made flick in comparison to the book. I recommend that people read the book before seeing the film.

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