While being one of the few females I know who was not completely enthralled with Stephenie Meyer's human/vampire love story, Twilight, I had high hopes that the movie based on the international best seller would fare better. Instead, it was on level with the book; a good premise lost in teen angst and unsophisticated production.
Those few souls that have not been swept up in the hype, here is the story in a nutshell: lonely, clumsy, new girl in town falls for lonely brooding boy of the undead variety.
Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) moves from Phoenix to Forks, Washington towards the end of her Junior year. Completely awkward and shy, she makes quick friends in high school, invariably due to nothing new and exciting happening in town for ages. The one group that doesn't race to secure her friendship is the Cullen clan, a group of "teenagers" that were adopted by the local doctor and his wife and who keep to their brooding selves.
Being rejected obviously makes Bella want to befriend the Cullens even more, especially the hottie of the group, Edward (Robert Pattinson). Edward's desire to have nothing to do with Bella both infuriates and intoxicates her, and it isn't long before they are thrown into life and death situations that leave Edward forced to befriend his prey.
That's right, Edward and the rest of the Cullen gang are vampires. Although they are vampire lite, or as they like to call themselves, "vegetarian vampires" because they only try to survive on the blood of animals and not humans. This helps them stay in one place for a while, long enough for the younger looking to graduate from high school again, and again, and again. And you thought your high school classes were boring!
While it is dangerous for Edward and Bella to fall in love, they can't help it and give in to their mutual obsession. Unfortunately for Bella, not every vampire is of the "Save a human, eat a deer" mentality and it isn't long before a group of more traditional vampires (if you can call any of Meyer's creations traditional) comes along seeking Bella for more than chaste companionship.
This movie was obviously made for fans of the novels, as those that have not read the novels will find themselves sometimes confused by what seems like the unnecessary introduction to a bevy of new characters that go nowhere and strange plot points, like the need for the Cullen family to wait until a thunderstorm to play baseball. While I can put up with Meyer's changing the more popular theories regarding vampires for the most part, don't even get me started on the idea of vampires avoiding the sun because they sparkle.
I don't envy director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg's roles of adapting the story to film. Twilighters (crazy obsessed fans of the book) are meticulous when it comes to the characters being just as they imagined. Whether or not they are the most talented of actors, Stewart and Pattinson do their best to make the sometimes downright awful dialogue work and always place themselves fully and confidently into their roles. The unintentional giggles that broke out during my screening at some of the attempted serious scenes was more the fault of the material (and the horrible make-up job on the vampires) than the performance.
Despite all the film's flaws, the massive mob of fans that flooded the movie theaters opening weekend has guaranteed that Meyer's second novel in the series, New Moon, will be coming to the multiplex near you sometime this winter. Hardwicke's unexpected replacement at the director's chair, Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass) will hopefully either have a higher budget for special effects or nix them altogether. Afterall, if the film is really made for the true Twilight fan, the violence could be left out completely. As long as Edward still struggles to resist holding Bella's hand in Science lab, the fans will be more than satisfied.
No comments:
Post a Comment