Twilight: The Movie

The following are my opinions of the movie. If you don't like them I am sorry, but that's why they are called opinions. If you've read the book, this won't spoil anything for you. We all know how it ends. I do have to admit I liked the movie better than I thought I would! When I saw the previews, they made me laugh out loud so I wasn't sure if I would go and see it. But then a group of ladies from work invited me to come along. We met at the Tripp's house for dinner beforehand. Jessica is so cute and she had a whole dinner planned to go along with the Twilight theme. We ate Volturi meatballs with blood sauce, garlic bread, vegetarian salad, and royal red velvet cake with ice cream and strawberry sauce for dessert. We drank a red punch out of "blood-stained" cups and Jessica had a bowl of red apples for the centerpiece. It was awesome!

After we enjoyed our fabulous meal, we sat and talked for awhile before heading over to the theater. (The great thing about assigned seats - we got there 5 minutes before the movie began). I've heard people say they think the movie moved too fast or that it didn't follow the book well enough, but I think they covered the story pretty well for it being a book turned movie. And I thought the pacing was perfect. I never felt lost or anything. The music they chose for the movie, however, was awful! I think the random assortment of background noise took away from the scenes, rather than added to them. There were scenes that I wanted to end just so the music would stop!

There were a few scenes that made many people in our theater laugh out loud. When Bella walks into the biology class for the first time and Edward covers his nose and looks like he is going to puke, most of the theater found this hysterical. Also when Edward is "running" through the trees, it looks like he's riding a bike. So funny! When Edward shows himself in the sunlight for the first time and he is supposed to look like he's covered in diamonds, he looks like he's just sweating really bad. That scene got a few good giggles. I wish they had just left out the scene when Carlisle transforms Edward. It looked like an awkward love scene. And others that topped the list were when Edward rescues Bella from the guys in the alley and he growls or something at them (I thought it sounded like he burped). I wish Edward had done more than merely make a noise in their direction! When Alice rips off James' head...pretty darn funny, and at the end when Edward is sucking the venom from Bella's hand and he can't stop. The look on his face is just so funny it was impossible not to laugh. Can't describe it, just such a funny face.

Scenes I loved include any scenes with the Cullens! I LOVED the Cullens!! Every one of them played their roles so perfectly! I wish there had been more scenes with them and that we could have gotten to know them better! Carlisle was absolute perfection! He hit that part dead on. When he first appears though, he is wearing Way too much white makeup. Several of the girls I was with wanted to reach up and scrape his makeup off. I'm not sure why they made the Cullens so white. Esme, even though we didn't see her much, was motherly and sweet. Exactly as she was supposed to be. I was impressed with how good they made Rosalie look. When I saw who was cast, I didn't think she was pretty enough, but she looked beautiful and she was perfectly rude to Bella. Emmet was one of my favorites! He had very few lines but everything he said was funny and brought out the charm of his sweet, teddy-bear character. Alice was exactly like I pictured. Funny and sweet and a little quirky. And Jasper just made me laugh. He was so straight-faced and calm, yet uneasy about being friends with a human. As my friend Kim put it "He was so awkward in that "I don't know how to be friends with my food" way. Nicely worded Kim. But I did hate that they left out Jasper's ability. Why not even mention it? I also loved the scenes with the high school kids. Mike and Jessica and Eric and all of them channeled their characters better than I could have imagined. They were so goofy and immature and just portrayed the high school scene so well! Charlie was the perfect dad for Bella. Wasn't really sure how to talk to her and he had some great lines. I also liked the evil vampires. James was perfectly creepy and just so evil. And Victoria played her part very well. I wish the scary and tense scenes with them had been a bit more scary and tense, but the actors did well with the cheesy dialogue and poor special effects they were given to work with. Jacob was also great. He was very realistic and lovable. I just wonder how they are going to make him big enough for the next movies...??

I thought the movie was fun and entertaining but my biggest problem with it was the chemistry between Bella and Edward. There was NONE!! This is supposed to be a passionate story about love and romance but the two of them made the process seem painful. Their dialogue was so robotic and awkward with each other! Which worked well in the beginning, when Edward is trying to be her friend and resist her smell and Bella isn't sure about him, but then when they were supposed to be getting closer to each other and fall in love...nothing! It was like watching two people who can barely stand each other being forced into a scene together! Don't even get me started on the kissing scenes, which were just too painful to relive. Maybe if they had more time to develop their relationship or if we had heard them talking once in awhile rather than cheesy music playing while it showed them talking...I don't know. But I was seriously disappointed in the portrayal of their relationship.

When Robert Pattinson was cast as Edward, I was very upset. I do not think he is good looking AT ALL! But I have to admit there were a few scenes when they made him look really good. And I thought "If only he could act, I would actually be okay with his playing Edward." He portrayed Edward well in many ways, but his words had zero emotion behind them. Which doesn't work well when he is talking to someone he supposedly loves. I really hope he loosens up a little from his monotone delivery by the next movie. I also think the super red lips was too over-the top. He looked like he was wearing lipstick throughout the entire movie and I'm not sure what was up with his hair. It kept growing! By the end, he looked like he had an Elvis do that didn't even fit in the frame.

Kristen Stewart can't act. Just the plain and simple truth of it. Unfortunately enough I have had to endure her poor attempts in more than one movie. What I have learned is that she plays the same character in every movie. She can't distinguish between characters and plays very different roles the same way every time. She always had a sour look on her face and her eyes were as dead-pan as Robert's voice. No emotion. The funniest scene with her was when she was dying in the end. Instead of sounding like she was in pain, it sounded like she was having an orgasm. Very awkward to watch.

In conclusion, I loved every single character in the movie with the exception of Edward and Bella. I thought everyone else played their characters extremely well with the amount of screen time and dialogue they were given. But I hold on to the hope that they will both better their acting skills by the next movie.