Review: Twilight

Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke

Written by: Melissa Rosenberg

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser

Rating: [2.5/5]

Stories mined from source material both beloved and loathed for different reasons each attain a whole new level of fame and reach when they receive a big-screen adaptation. This amplification brings a new level of attention that allows criticisms of it to overshadow all else even when it contains its own respectable fanbase and commercial success. Twilight serves as quite the case study of this idea and sifting through it we receive a fairly lackluster film with direction that makes it difficult to watch in various stretches. 

Moving to Forks, Washington to live with her father temporarily, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) begins to make new friends at her high school. While there she meets the alluring and mysterious Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), who initially comes off as standoffish towards her. As she learns more about him, she pieces together he’s a vampire. 

Oh, Twilight, the much-maligned but incredibly successful series of books and movies that divides opinion and has eternally become the butt of a joke for various reasons. Some come with for valid purposes because of its shoddy filmmaking as will be discussed later but other criticisms come as some strange effort to discredit something that mostly interests women. We see this time and time again with stories targeting a firm women demographic as compared to men and the nonsense that gets forgiven as cheesy entertainment. Through this narrative, we get the simple story of a girl falling in love with a guy who happens to be a vampire but it never really succeeds in selling the central romance involved, which comes down to a combination of unfortunate acting and subpar direction. 

With the central romance proving integral to sharing this story, this feature truly needs to convince us of what brings these two together but the way this feature stages it makes for quite the uncomfortable watch. This is where we inevitably bring up the central leads of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, who received a bevy of criticism for their turns as Bella Swan and Edward Cullen respectively. While they share some of the blame for what we see transpire on screen with this pair, as the rest of their filmography has proven, they are incredible actors, which means the other significant portion of the blame must rest with the direction. The way these actors get staged to sell this romance has Edward looking constipated in moments and Bella delivering some eye-wateringly bad pieces of dialogue. So bad it becomes incredibly difficult to watch in moments and easily sets itself up for the ridicule it has received. It makes it incredibly difficult to believe the love that exists between them to the detriment of the film as a whole. 

However, this feature has plenty of elements to admire that make it quite enjoyable. The peak of this feature certainly transpires in the baseball game the Cullens play that’s so beyond ridiculous how they could actually effectively play a game where they can run incredibly fast and throw the balls with such an immense force. From Alice’s (Ashley Greene) hilarious leg kicks every time she pitches and the bursts of speed, this scene completely understands the assignment of what this feature can provide. It exhibits that pretty much everything we get from the Cullen family displays the best the feature has to offer. Introducing others like Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) and Esme (Elizabeth Reaser) teaches the audience more about how these vampires operate and how they came together as a makeshift family that becomes quite endearing for the most part. Everything else this feature has to offer can be tossed and this movie would have fared much better if we just got to hang out with the Cullens for the entire runtime. 

Carrying its fair share of problems, Twilight never necessarily makes its way over to be considered a good film but certainly has several elements to enjoy. We get quite the interesting lore set up for these vampires and why they decide to set up in the state of Washington that’s a bit silly but also brilliant. The direction and lighting choices ultimately set this feature up to fail along with the already maligned putrid writing that makes it easy to mock even if the vitriol it received feels quite suspicious. Not a great love story at the center but certainly some intriguing characters to follow at the onset of this journey.