Ever since I was 13, I have wanted to be a vampire. It started with movies then moved on to Anne Rice novels. I’d mostly gotten over it by the time I was 16, though. Then Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” fell into my hands.
“Twilight” tells the story of Bella Swan, a plain-Jane type who moves to Forks, Wash. from Phoenix to live with her father when her mother remarries. There, she meets the handsome, mysterious and oh-so-brooding Edward Cullen. She later learns that Edward and his family are “vegetarian” vampires (meaning they survive on animal blood instead of human blood). Forbidden romance ensues.
To be certain that I set myself apart from the other “Twi-hards,” I will admit that while I enjoyed the book the first time I read it, the fanfiction-like writing somewhat put me off, and the books’ long lengths did not particularly encourage me to read the sequels. But when I heard the first book was being made into a movie, I decided to read the book again, and that’s when the obsession began.
I don’t know what changed; I guess I set aside my “I should be reading more sophisticated works” attitude and just dived in because I quickly read the three sequels (“New Moon,” “Eclipse” and “Breaking Dawn”) back to back.
I fell in love with Edward Cullen just like almost every other “Twilight” fan and eagerly awaited Dec. 12, the day the book would be put to life. I
magine my shock and excitement when the release date was moved up to Nov. 21. Within the first week, the movie had been in theaters, I had seen it three times and was still not satisfied with that number.
One reason for the excessive viewing, and perhaps the most dominant, is Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward. Edward is an intense character, a wise hundred-something in the body of a 17-year-old. He’s a tortured soul, torn between his love of being with Bella and his overprotective desire to keep her safe from him as her blood just so happens to be his personal favorite.
Pattinson plays this so well, really going the distance with Edward’s intensity. His facial expressions, and the way he speaks through almost-tears nail the character. An example of this is the dinner scene between him and Bella, which was so sweet yet heartbreaking it nearly had me in tears.
Edward is also supposed to be the ideal man at least when it comes to looks. The casting of this character had to be just right, lest the teen fangirls unleash their wrath on the filmmakers. I can’t think of a more perfect choice for Edward than Pattinson. He is almost exactly what I imagined Edward to be.
Other great casting choices were Kristen Stewart as Bella, Kellan Lutz as Emmet Cullen and Jackson Rathbone as Jasper Hale (Edward’s brothers), and Rachelle Lefevre as the very non-“vegetarian” vampire, Victoria.
The others who were more questionable won me over quickly with the exception of Nikki Reed, who plays sister Rosalie Hale. Reed obviously got the part because of her friendship with director Catherine Hardwicke, who directed and co-wrote with Reed her breakout movie, “Thirteen.”
Reed is quite possibly the worst casting choice I have ever seen in a movie adaptation of a book. Rosalie is supposed to be the most beautiful girl in the world, a natural beauty with movie-star good looks. While Reed is an attractive woman, she is not right as Rosalie. She is not the natural beauty that Rosalie is supposed to be as evidenced by her very obviously dyed blond hair. She did a decent job in her acting, but it was impossible to get past how terribly wrong she was for this character.
The movie sometimes felt a bit rushed, but that’s understandable given the length of the book. The scenes added and dropped in the movie make sense and go along with the essence of the book. What it lacks the most is the relationship Bella (and the readers) forms with the other Cullens.
In the book, each Cullen is introduced in depth and they are all such interesting characters that it is a shame they were more minor characters in the movie. But the movie focuses on Bella and Edward’s relationship, so again it is understandable why it was made the way that it was. Although I would have loved to see more of the Cullens, it would have made the two-hour movie four hours.
Visually, the movie is beautiful. Forks was chosen as the book’s setting because it is the rainiest city in the United States, which makes it the best place for a family of vampires to live.
The cinematography gives the movie a gloomy but pretty feel, which goes hand in hand with the darkness of vampires but the beauty of love.
The weird angles and sweeping camera movements that Hardwicke uses makes the movie much different from any other. The forest scenes and the baseball scene in particular are so great to watch because of the combination of these elements.
Despite a few missteps, I loved “Twilight.” I was able to fully immerse myself in it just like with the books and forget about everything else and just be there with Bella and Edward. There are obviously some things I would change about it, but I still can’t bring myself to love it any less because of those. I so look forward to seeing “New Moon,” which is currently set to be released in 2010.