I've gotten several emails from people wondering why I haven't posted about the Twilight Movie and wondering what my thoughts were on it. So here are my thoughts on the movie.
I went and saw the movie on the 21st with my friend Colleen for a 2:20pm showing hoping to avoid the screaming tweens. I'm glad to say that we did and when we came out of the theater there was a huge line for the next showing full of tween and teen girls.
I enjoyed the movie very much. I liked it. I didn't love it but I did like it. I love the books but only like the movie. Why? Well though the movie stays fairly true to the tone of the book but it forgets to do one thing. It forgets to really develop the relationship between Edward and Bella and show us why we should even care if they are together. Having read the books I understand the relationship and can forgive the lack of development because I already know what is suppose to happen. However, if I hadn't read the books I don't know if I would get why we even care about Edward and Bella. Of course I realize that the book and the movie differ. It's impossible to put 500 pages into a 2 hour movie. I guess I can say I liked it because I took the movie to be a visual companion to the book and didn't take the movie to be a book adaptation if that makes sense. 
Things I loved about it:
-true to the tone of the book
-baseball scene was amazing and was spot on to how I pictured it in the book
-Charlie: I cried when Bella left him because I really believed that he loved her and was hurt by the events
-the high school crowd. It really did feel like high school with the awkward comments and such
-The Golden onion award lol that was a funny little touch
-The graduation caps pictures at the Cullen house was another fun little touch
-Edward's smile and his demeanor was great. I think Rob did a fabulous job getting us to understand that Edward was conflicted about his desires (I think he reflected the Midnight Sun part of Edward that we don't really see in Twilight book) **I'll admit though it took me a little while in the movie to get use to it and even found all the death stares to be kinda funny**
-Bella and Edward hanging out in the tree and then again in her room with no dialogue that we could understand (the music is playing and we aren't meant to hear what they are saying) I loved that because that's when you really saw the chemistry between Edward and Bella
-Charlie and the gun (I laughed so hard at that)
-The Cullen family
Things I didn't care for:
-filming was choppy and left you wondering how much time had gone by
-obviously not long enough but again I understand why
-because it was choppy it went from "stay a way from me" to "I can't live without you" so fast that it was almost comical to hear these proclamations
-the makeup for the vamps. Why did they have to look so white and ghastly...I thought they were suppose to be the most beautiful people we have ever seen but they were all washed out with white faces and pale hair.
-Why was Bella in her underwear during the kissing scene in her room?That wasn't necessary and didn't add to the story at all.
-Bella telling Angela to ask out Erik because she is a strong female...um...okay I didn't care that they were trying really hard to make Bella some really strong female with that whole girl power kind of thing. I didn't really see Bella as being that type of girl in the books. Don't get me wrong she is strong but not in such an obvious way and especially not to herself until much later on.
-Not enough of the Bella and Edward developing relationship stuff. I Thought some of the best parts in the books were when they ate out together, talking, and such in various ways such as the hike in the book but instead they wanted to focus on the bad vamps which makes sense I was just disappointed there wasn't more of just Edward and Bella
-Not enough of the Cullen family
-Too much focus on the action sequence
Things I'm on the fence about:
-the special effects. They were okay but not great. Maybe with a bigger budget for the next movie New Moon they will be a little better with the special effects.
Okay there you have it. If you saw the movie I'd be interested in hearing what you thought and what you did and didn't like. I'm going to go and see it again soon with Todd so my thoughts might change after a second viewing. I'll make sure to post about it again after my next viewing of the movie.
4 comments:
Can anyone tell me what the deal is with the spacing issues on blogger? I can't get it to space correctly when it's posted but when I'm in the edit window it looks fine and is spaced correctly. I'll save it that way and then as soon as it posts it looks like just a big ol' blob of text.
Ok...I don't have time to write a lot but for the most part I think your review was SPOT ON. My biggest complaint about the movie was that they did not develop the relationship between Edward and Bella...which made their declarations of love a little anti-climactic, instead of the huge pivotal turning point in the book that makes it such a great, well-written story.
I did appreciate that there were a lot of humorous moments in the movie...I thought they were supposed to be funny (i.e. some of Bella's responses to things Edward says, Edward's evil looks toward Bella, etc.) and I was happy that the movie didn't take itself TOO seriously and allowed Edward and Bella to act and be like young people, not just dramatic star-crossed lovers.
You're right--not as great as the book, but who really thought it would be anyway? I enjoyed the movie, Daniel didn't really enjoy it but he could at least stand it (LOL). I made him take me to see it because the 21st was my birthday. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts--you are totally right!
I agree! I saw it on the 21st as well with Mike. He hadn't read the books but he stilled seemed to understand what was going on. He thought the premise was good, but we both thought that the movie moved kind of slowly during some parts, but was great at others. I feel like they could have done SO MUCH MORE than they did because the books were so amazing.
But I agree with you and had to remind myself that no movie is ever as good as the book and it was just impossible to show everything.
We went with all the high school girls. Man o man do I wish we'd either gone so late that they had all been in bed or early enough that they'd still have been in school. It was beyond obnoxious.
I think your assessment of the movie is spot on! I don't think any movie ever lives up to its book, but it was a good show nevertheless. Thanks for sharing your insight.
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