Twilight : The Movie Review

The film adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's best selling novel, Twilight, was released last November 21,2008. Fans all over the world flocked around cinema houses and some even camped outside the cinemas just to be one of the first fans to watch the movie.

Twilight,however hit the Philippine shores last November 26,and as much as I'm a helpless Twilight addict,I decided to see the movie 3 days after the movie was released because that's the only time where my friends and I have the same free schedule. Of course,watching the most awaited movie of the year will be so much fun with a lot of friends with you and share comments and "violent reactions" after the movie, so waiting for three days was essential. Another reason would be because,as I said a while ago,it one of the most awaited movie of the year and I am sure, even if the Philippine moviegoers are not as frenzied as the American fans, there will be a stampede in the theaters,and I surely don't want to undergo such ordeals. But unfortunately, even after 3 days from its release, the cinemas are still jam packed. The stairs and corners are full of people. Even if its kinda annoying at times, I kinda like it that my fave movie has a lot of supporters. Girls, ladies and gays clap, cheer and scream a lot when Edward is on screen or if he is with Bella. It was a lot of fun.

Now, to the review.. It was great.!! It didn't really surpassed my expectations but its okay. As much as I would like to say that it was perfect, I could find myself saying it. If you are a Twilight book reader, you can notice that a lot of events were incorrect, like who-said-this, where-this-happened, who-was-with-who etc. But its acceptable because I didn't really expect them to follow the book religiously in making the movie. I mean, how can anyone fit a 500 paged novel into 2 houred movie right? After many Harry Potter movie disappointments,I finally understood that fact. And to think that Harry Potter is a super budgeted movie and still it lacks a lot of scenes when compared to its novel counterpart, what does a small budgeted Twilight movies' chances to not commit the same problem right. I was amazed how Katherine Hardwicke (director) was able to fit a small budget that seems unfit for a movie like this caliber but she pulled it off, nicely done if I might add. The effects were just the way I imagined it to be, nothing too over the top, it was just right.

If there's any positive side in having a small budget is that the actors were supposed to do the stunts in a real place and not behind the green screen. I distinctly remember that Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan), said in an interview that they can't afford using the green screen so that those tree climbing and fight scenes were done on location, totally cool.

As for the actors, well, Robert Pattinson is totally a hottie and he seems to give justice to Edward Cullen's character, though he seemed portray that Edward was this nervous vampire than a cool, almost indifferent one that you can see in the Twilight novel. But this was later justified when I read the Midnight Sun novel. I heard that Meyer gave Robert a copy of Midnight Sun to help him act as Edward. But the only time I got disappointed was when they were riding Emmett's truck to escape James. That scene should have a lot of fury and shouting for Edward instead of a nervous Edward who just seems to explain that James was a tracker. I would have been a nice scene if he was really shouting with anger and all. But aside from that he's alright, I just hope he can portray anger much better next time. Thumbs up to his accent too, the only time he let his English accent slip was when he said "Its as if you could outrun me.!!".

The cast was really great. I wasn't really familiar with most of the cast but I can say that they did a good job especially the Cullens because they really did look like models. Especially, Carlisle,he was smoking hot. But I was disappointed with Kristen Stewart who played the role of Bella Swan. A lot of people and cast said that she was really a great actress but I didn't approve much of her acting in the movie, she seems to stutter and blink a lot. I might let her pass with her stuttering because it may be needed for a scene but what's with all the blinking.!! I mean, is she sick with a blinking disease or what.!! I hope she stops doing that in the next movie. But she was totally amazing at the fight scene when she was bitten. Alice was the prettiest vampire there, she was really graceful and all even if they were playing baseball. Jasper looked really funny though but when you read Midnight Sun, you can understand why he looked like that. hahaha..

In their lab, I noticed that there was an owl(?) sculpture behind Edward and it made him look like a seraph because only the wings were scene. Edward in the sun was really nice too, just like small diamonds. The meadow though wasn't that much pretty but I just thought that it may have paled in comparison to the shimmering Edward. Charlie was one of the most unexpected character in movie because he was the one who was making me crack up. He was this playful and protective father to Bella. He was one of my favorites too.

For Stephanie Meyer fans, I hope that you also noticed that she did a cameo in the movie. She was at the diner, typing on her laptop. She looked really funny because she looked like she was trying her best not to laugh. hahaha...

Well, anyways, having all things considered I give the movie a 8/10 rating. Hope the "New Moon" would be much much better, even if a lot of the upcoming scenes have Jacob Black in them. Hmpf.!!

For a fan, imperfect or not the fact that the novel has turned into a movie is already a very good reason to watch the movie.