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Twilight Review
Twilight follows the story of Bella Swan a 17 year old that moves in with her father in a gloomy forest town of Forks, Washington, when her mother and new boyfriend are upping and moving to Florida. At her new school Bella is the subject of a lot of interest of the local boys and is quickly befriended by a small group. She however is more interested in a outsider group at the school, the Cullen’s who are all adopted and considered outsiders, and Bella is particularly interested in Edward Cullen who immediately goes out of his way to be rude and avoid Bella, much to her confusion. Later in the movie Bella is saved by Edward when a SUV spins out of control and nearly crushes her, only being saved by Edward who magically appears at her side at the right moment stopping the truck in its tracks. Despite Edward telling Bella to stay away from him, Bella persists and they grow closer leading to all kinds of trouble in Bella’s life as she learns the truth about Edward and his family.
Writing out a brief story synopsis out for a movie like Twilight might not be wholly necessary, as the movie is based on a bestselling novel of the same name by Stephanie Meyer. With an already established fan base Twilight is all set to be the massive hit it already is late in 2008. With a serious of books already established Twilight is definitely going to be a franchise and luckily the two leads in the movie with the very pretty Kristen Stewart playing Bella and the suitably vampirism looking Robert Pattinson playing Edward, are wholly capable of handling the task. This is the most interesting aspect of the movie as the chemistry between the two leads is apparent and holds the film together despite some mediocre supporting performances. Billy Burke is believable as Bella’s dad Charlie and Peter Facinelli as Carlisle Cullenas is suitably pale as Edwards adoptive father.
So what are we left with, well the obvious vampire bits are suitably romanticized but that isn’t a bad thing, it’s quite refreshing to see a vampire movie that doesn’t feel the need to portray its vampires as frowned forehead toting, black eyed drooling maniacs as you might have seen in many a recent vampire flick. And it’s this sense of realism spliced upon the vampire lore that makes Twilight a little more grounded. We do however have a few scenes with vampires showing off their more superhuman powers, but this is needed in part to offset the main crux of the story with is the developing romance between the two leads. So having not read the books, I can only sum up the movie. Laden with lots of romantic close up shots, some action thrown in, a pair of convincing leads and a vampire mythos that isn’t as far fetched as some, we end up with an enjoyable movie that’s not going to be a vampire classic but its definitely not a Christmas turkey.
