Film Review: Twilight

Adapted from Stephenie Meyer's popular romance novel, Twilight had a variety of reputations to live up to, and to shake off. Cited by some for capturing the true essence of romance, and others for being over rated and repetitive literary dross, director Catherine Hardwicke had some huge challenges to overcome. Could she silence the doubters, while simultaneously giving the die-hard fans the film they so desperately wanted?

Twilight opens with Bella, portrayed by Kristen Stewert, voicing over a scene in which a lonely fawn is chased through the forest by an unknown predator, unsubtly conveying the outline of the film's plot. The symbolism is tragically obvious; the fawn resembling the innocent and vulnerable Bella, whilst the feral predator is her love interest Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a vampire.

The plot advances at a snails pace, as we see Bella and Edward go through all the trademark awkwardness of a high school relationship. There's the awkward glances across the lunch hall, the awkward conversations in classes, and the awkward silences that usually follow with Edward and his gigantic coiffure storming out of the room. Everything, from the movement and expressions of the characters to the lines and their delivery, is over dramatised to the point where it all becomes laughable, apart from the occasional moments when it crosses the line into being painfully embarrassing to watch. Don't be surprised if you end up missing a lot of the film from burying your face in your hands. Don't worry though, it's likely that all you're missing is an extreme close up of someone's eyes.

Twilight doesn't really kick into gear until the last thirty minutes, when Edward's family of humanitarian vampires are confronted by a trio of more typical, bloodthirsty vampires. When they pick up Bella's scent, an obsessive hunt begins, as Bella is chased across the country by James (Cam Gigandet), a tracker vampire. By no means is it good, it still suffers from most of the flaws of the first three quarters of the film, but the added pace and action leave you feeling at least slightly entertained.

On top of this, Twilight is yet another example of a shoddy book-to-film adaptation. While the outlines of the story remain the same, there's the usual case of scenes from the novel being scrapped, or replaced with scenes that never happened. But, to be fair, it's easy to see why things were rearranged, as some of the lines that do make it into the screenplay are simply woeful, including a hilariously bad pun, when Edward describes Bella as being "like a drug, my own personal heroin", a line which better belongs in a badly written Harry Potter fan-fiction. The concept of vampires glittering like diamonds in sunlight, as opposed to the traditional combustion, is reduced to a couple of brief scenes, where Edward looks less like a glittering diamond and more like he's got a sticky vampiric sweat on.

Twilight is poor, as an adaptation and as a film. There are so few saving graces you'd have to amputate both hands if you wanted to count them on your fingers, and it's certainly not going to silence any critics of the novel, or satisfy the average film goer. But, if you're a fan, then this is worth checking out. A little plot meddling isn't going to ruin the greatest romantic epic of our time, is it?

2/5

What kind of blockbuster movie has a Volvo as the character's vehicle of choice?

Tell me that I deserve to die and have no understanding of the concept of true romance - tomdoodle16@live.co.uk