Twilight: A Review
Last week I saw Twilight (2008), encouraged by the enthusiasm that many reviews had delivered and the apparent popularity of the book from which it was adapted. The central performance was something I looked forward to most. Critics had raved about the intense and melancholic relationship portrayed by Kristen Stewart as a small town girl who falls in love with a vampire played by Robert Pattinson.
It started off well, the introduction of a large cast of high-school students, neighbours, small town residents and then slow-mo set to brooding music the vampires arrived on screen. There was a fair bit of humour in the beginning and some nicely acted scenes between Bella (Kristen) and her estranged father (Billy Burke). However the script failed miserably to capture the attention of those who hadn’t read the book. As though to punish us ‘cheaters’ for taking the easy route, the script had huge holes punctured into it, easily filled in by the fans. For the purists it was obviously important to cover all the characters in the story, but squeezing in teenage awkwardness of asking a date to the prom by a minor character had me questioning: who caaaaaares?
Similarly the speed at which the young couples blossoming romance became endangered by a ‘psycho-baddie’ vampire had me confused. Suddenly they were on the run and it was paramount she had to hurt her dad’s feelings in order to leave- which was absurdly angsty. However, the fight scene where a head and spine is torn from a body did awaken the bored male audience, albeit momentarily.
The most irritating point though was the painful lack of believable chemistry from the young stars. In a film like this the attraction between them should have been electrifying; instead it was clumsy and disjointed. Extreme close-ups of eyes and moistened lips breathing heavily trying to get out words but only allowing for a series of stuttered noises does not a connection make.
Therefore, this is a film made for the book fans and for those who don’t mind piecing together the story whilst drooling over vacant, beautiful people.
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