REVIEW: Twilight
TWILIGHT
By: Lee Rice
Although it is thoroughly engaging and entertaining throughout, "Twilight" suffers from both the weight of its source material, and a few laughable moments of unintentional hilarity sprinkled throughout.
"Twilight" is the film adaptation of a popular teen series by Stephanie Meyer. In both the series and film, a high-school junior is sent to live with her father in the small town of Forks in the state of Washington. While there, she meets the friendly but eccentric locals, starts to bond with her father again, and meets a new boyfriend, Edward.
Of course, Edward is harboring a deep secret, the fact that he is one of a family of vampires living in the town. One part teen romance movie and one part supernatural yarn, ‘Twilight"explores the peaks and valleys of such a relationship.
I’ve never read the books, or had an interest in them, but the characters and performances in "Twilight" may make me reconsider. Kristen Stewart, who plays the main role of Bella Swan, is a smart, funny, and engaging leading lady who is entirely believable as a girl who‘s more concerned about whether Edward likes her than whether he‘s going to eat her or not. Edward himself, played by Robert Pattinson, expresses just the right mixture of insecurity with his performance to make it feel real.
It’s not just the characters that work to enhance the story though. The beautiful scenery is simply breathtaking, and it sets the mood fantastically.
I usually find teen romances tepid, and I think that vampires have been done to death by now by Hollywood, but the two of these themes together make for an interesting mix. The film is a definite conceptual winner, and it plays things right by keeping the supernatural half of things on the back burner while playing up the romantic aspects.
On that note, that there doesn’t seem to be enough of an antagonist. Sure, Edward is instantly anathema to Bella’s father, but that’s to be expected. Of course there is a group of predatory vampires running around, but they’re introduced fairly late, and mostly seem like a plot device to inject some tension into things. On the whole, ‘Twilight’ feels more like the first season of a television show than a movie.
Another problem is the film’s length. "Twilight" is a fairly weighty book, and although the film feels like it uses all the screen time properly, things start to drag in the third act.
Besides that, there are some moments that I found incredibly funny, despite the fact that the filmmakers obviously didn’t intend for them to come off that way. Most notably the fact that the movie’s ‘villains’ always seem like they’re on a fashion boardwalk rather than in the lush greenery of the Pacific Northwest.
Although these flaws may not amount to much on their own, they still drag down the final verdict by a full letter grade.
Final Verdict: C
