by J A Wright

Created on: September 12, 2009

The much awaited Twilight film finally hit screens in December 2008, a whole two years after plans were made and based on the best selling novel, by Stephenie Meyer, first published in 2005 and wowing readers ever since.

Twilight is simply a love story mixed with a supernatural thriller. Bella and Edward are the beloved main characters, Bella a seventeen year old high school student and Edward a rather older vampire who admits he's been seventeen 'a while'.

Having been an avid reader of the whole Twilight series I awaited the film with a mix of anticipation and resignation, how could anyone do justice to a story which has become an international phenomena?

In the novel, Bella is over awed by Edward, unsure of herself, clumsy, terrified of Edward's abilities and intensely vulnerable in her obsession. The actress who got the role of Bella, Kristen Stewart, played her with limited emotion, with more surety and without much of Bella's trademark personality traits, much of which is meant to be part of the appeal to Edward.

Edward is intense, intelligent and savagely wracked by guilt at his potential danger to Bella, yet clearly but clearly emotionally entranced with her. Ready to do anything to be with her or to protect her. Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter but now all grown up) did incredibly well in many parts, despite my own reservations about his ability.

At many places in the novel Edward mentally admonishes himself for giving away too much information, allowing himself to feel so comfortable he says too much. I was most impressed to see Pattinson absorb that character flaw and demonstrate it well and with clarity. You'll see this scene in the restaurant.
Later you'll see various moments of communication, 'Edward style', though I shan't elaborate and spoil it.

There were the obvious requirements to reduce some of the action in the story and compress the scenes, which has lost some of the purity of the story, missing classic lines and amalgamating timelines and events to put more action on film and less of the frequent internal considerations of Bella as she muses each event, much like any teen female would.

Many of those ponderous moments are handled with close facial shots and expressions which give some insight, along with a small amount of voice over explanation of Bella's internal dialogue, slightly out of sorts with the intimacy of the film later. Still, some of those moments are destroyed by Kristen Stewart's lacklustre performance,

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>