Twilight - Based on the book by Stephenie Meyer
RELEASED: Nov. 21st, 2008
GENRE: Teen Romance, Drama, Thriller
STARRING: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Cam Gigandet, Nikki Reed
DIRECTED BY: Catherine Hardwicke
TAGLINES/PLOT SUMMARY: When you can live forever what do you live for? A teenage girl moves to a new town and finds herself falling for a vampire. Their romance flourishes until a new band of vampires shows up and threatens to change everything.
READ EXCERPTS FROM TWILIGHT ON AMAZON.COM
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After reading some of the more negative comments about Twilight the movie, I was not so sure what to think. Because of the book's popularity, I wanted to believe the best. I didn't want to believe, like some of the critics, that the only reason the film seemed to be garnering such excitement because of the crazed teenage fans.
Learning more about the book though and the story of Twilight convinces me that there must be more to it than that. The book is prime material for a film based on the action it contains and the kind of emotion it evokes. One of the negatives about the book for some - Bella's sappy internal monologues about Edward. Inner monologues usually doesn't translate well from book to film and quite often films suffer from their elimination. However, that does not appear to be the case for Twilight.
Meyer's page-turning action sequences make for some exciting scenes in the film. The steaminess and sexual tension created in the novel, in part by Bella's inner monologues, are maintained in the film instead by the chemistry and power of its actors as well as the beautiful cinematography. Thus the magic of the book continues on the screen - adjusting itself to the medium quite nicely.
Book and movie seem to be on fairly equal footing. So enjoy them both! You decide which one should come first!
MOVIE: J = 11 K = 4 L = 9
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MOVIE POSTER WORTHY |
COULD GO EITHER WAY |
OUCH! |
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Ty Burr of The Boston Globe J "a darn good hunk of pop moviemaking" J "unerringly faithful to the source without being hamstrung by it" J "a cinematic amplification" |
K "a better movie than the book was a book" K "walks a wickedly smart line between indulging the corn[iness] and keeping her distance" K "best when dealing with intimacy rather than plot" |
L "caves into the necessity of story reluctantly and unconvincingly" |
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Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune Read the whole review J "intelligent strengths" J "faithful to its source material" J "better written than the book" J "an eye toward actual teen dynamics" |
K "tones up her heroine" |
L "the superfast running effects… look genuinely cheesy" |
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Bill Gibron of Filmcritic.com |
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L "a spotty spook show romance"
L "Twilight's need for faithfulness [to the novel] flummoxes anything remotely resembling entertainment"
L "one boring, overbearing phenomenon" |
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Kirk Honeycutt of HollywoodReporter.com J "an exquisite look in terms of cinematography and design" J "costumes and décor are always just right" J "actors [are] exceptionally good" J "considerable potential for this apparent franchise" |
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L "guys will have to tolerate [the film]"
L "heavy doses of camp"
L "anti-climactic"
L "the first film was the weakest" |
BOOK: J = 10 K = 4 L = 4
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BOOK JACKET WORTHY |
GOOD, BAD, INDIFFERENT? |
WISH THEY HADN'T SAID THAT |
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Simone Snaith of LAist.com J "will suck your average reader right in" J "intriguing" J "sexy" |
K "nothing literary fans will deign to read" |
L "occasionally outside the suspension of disbelief" |
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School Library Journal J "realistic, subtle, succinct, and easy to follow" |
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Norah Piehl of TeenReads.com J "a remarkably sensuous novel" J "charged with erotic energy" J "Meyer certainly leaves her own imprint on the [vampire] genre" J "its pacing is steady and compelling until the end" J "a gripping blend of romance and horror that will entice fans of both genres" |
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Film critics who weighed in on the book -- Michael Phillips of The Chicago Tribune Ty Burr of The Boston Globe J "[Meyer] located the missing link between gothic fiction and Goth" |
K "tones up her heroine"
K "canny, inelegant [writing style]" K "it's all about sex without being about sex at all" |
L "tends toward froth and fulmination"
L "[Meyer] struggled to put her characters' galloping emotions into print" L "the love scenes meandered endlessly" |
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