Twilight movie video trailer

Twilight's a mix of the good, the bad, and the truly ugly. Fortunately for Twilight fans who've been working themselves into a frenzy over the film's anticipated release, what works in Twilight heavily outweighs what doesn't. Director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg do a great job of not only capturing the tone of Stephenie Meyer's teen vampire romance book but improving it with dialogue grounded in reality and a batch of action scenes to fill in rocky storytelling spots. Twilight's cast also should be commended for nearly living up to Meyer's unobtainable standards.

Twilight movie cast and crew

Directed by
Catherine Hardwicke


Kristen Stewart

Sarah Clarke

Matt Bushell

Billy Burke

Gil Birmingham

Taylor Lautner

Gregory Tyree Boyce

Justin Chon

Michael Welch

Anna Kendrick

Christian Serratos

Nikki Reed

Kellan Lutz

Ashley Greene

Twilight movie images

                                                       Click here for more images

Twilight movie overview

the Twilight producers were absolutely positive. First, Twilight was a vampire tale. Second, there was a part of it that thirsted for teenage blood. And third, adolescent girls were unconditionally and irrevocably in love with it. Indeed, American booksellers have hailed the author of the saga, which runs through four novels, as the new J. K. Rowling — Stephenie Meyer’s first instalment selling more than five million copies in the US alone, and thereby helping to fill the void left by the departed Boy Who Lived. The fact that the film version arrives Stateside in what has become the pre-Christmas ‘Potter slot’ will only boost the comparisons.

In contrast to the wizardry franchise, however, the director here manages to improve on the film’s papery progenitor. While a succession of helmers have struggled to condense Rowling’s ever-expanding tomes into a digestible screen serving, Catherine Hardwicke hits top gear from the outset, rattling through the early exposition and never once allowing the painful teen brooding that floods Meyer’s book to overflow into insipidness. Meyer is a devout Mormon, her tale a metaphor for carnal abstinence, allowing young girls to splash around in a pool of obsessive love without having to swim in the turbulent waters of scary teenage sex.

The author, who had final cut, thought Hardwicke’s first cut a little too steamy, hence the interaction between Bella and Edward becomes even more intimate, Hardwicke employing close-ups and avoiding the exposed flesh captured by the wider lenses. The director, of course, understands the teen audience — consider Thirteen or Lords Of Dogtown — and she conjures one of the most beautiful films of the year. Former Potterer Robert Pattinson (Cedric in Goblet Of Fire and Order Of The Phoenix) is staggeringly handsome, as are the rest of his vampire brethren. The backdrop, meanwhile, the lush forests of the Pacific Northwest, is truly breathtaking, Hardwicke sending her stars hurtling up towering trees and sinking into deep moss.

The lead performance too is strong, Panic Room and Into The Wild star Kristen Stewart consistently excellent. She is the vehicle through which audiences are carried on their journey, and her keen intelligence prompts a mature performance. Bella is both vulnerable and strong, a three-time damsel in distress, requiring Edward’s white-faced knight to save her, and yet courageous enough to surrender to danger and send an immortal bloodsucker into a frenzy of desire. Said bloodsucker Pattinson struggles at times — it’s a demanding first lead role, requiring him to project a perennial restrained desire. He settles down eventually, but not before he’s treated us to a series of hard-faced pouts.

Despite the presence of vampires, Twilight is a romance, not a horror, and anyone hoping to sink their teeth into a juicy gore-fest will be disappointed. There is action, of course, ignited by the arrival of a trio of wandering neck-biters (who, needless to say, are impossibly good-looking) that feed on the locals and lust after Bella’s blood, leading to a showdown in a be-mirrored ballet studio. Hardwicke sensibly introduces these rogues early. And yet, while she does have action credentials (working on Three Kings before shooting Dogtown), the sequences are occasionally predictable, the wire-work sometimes obvious.

She also struggles with the depiction of vampires in direct sunlight. Meyer’s saga was prompted by a dream, in which she saw Bella and Edward lying in the forest, sunlight twinkling on the vampire’s exposed flesh. In truth, Hardwicke would have liked to exorcise the scene, but it’s too important to the author. She turned to ILM, although despite their best efforts, Edward’s spangled skin looks a little odd.

Twilight movie review

Twilight's a mix of the good, the bad, and the truly ugly. Fortunately for Twilight fans who've been working themselves into a frenzy over the film's anticipated release, what works in Twilight heavily outweighs what doesn't. Director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg do a great job of not only capturing the tone of Stephenie Meyer's teen vampire romance book but improving it with dialogue grounded in reality and a batch of action scenes to fill in rocky storytelling spots. Twilight's cast also should be commended for nearly living up to Meyer's unobtainable standards.

Robert Pattinson (and his extraordinary head of hair) and Nikki Reed had particularly rough jobs as their characters are described with such hyperbole in Meyer's books that no human on the planet could possibly look the part. And let's face it – no one in the cast looks exactly how every reader pictured the characters. We all have different visions of Edward, Bella, and the Cullens floating around in our heads. So kudos to Pattinson and Reed for tackling roles that got them picked apart in pretty nasty reports when the initial word of their casting surfaced. Pattinson's and Reed's performances as Edward and Rosalie should silence all the naysayers.

Through a minimal amount of voice-over we learn Bella's leaving Arizona – and the sun – behind to live with her dad, Police Chief Charlie Swan, in Forks, Washington. Her first day at school she makes friends with Jessica, Angela, Eric and Mike, and spots…cue drum roll please…Edward Cullen. Be still our beating hearts – his already is.If you've read the books, you know Bella falls quickly for the strangely cold, strangely detached 17 year old who occupies the same table at lunch every day with his brothers and sisters. The Cullens stick together and their fellow high school students tend to leave them alone. They're not ostracized, but they're definitely not the first to get invitations for sleepovers. But Bella sees something everyone else apparently misses or wisely chooses to ignore.

The film puts Edward and Bella together quicker than the book, which is fine because the most interesting parts of Meyer's story focus on Bella and Edward by themselves. Edward has to deal with balancing his desire to bite Bella with his longing to kiss her, which makes for one angst-ey vampire. And all Bella knows is that she's found the guy she wants to be with; the fact he's a vampire is pretty much a non-issue.

The Cullen family is the exception to the vampire rule, opting to feast on animals rather than people. They've adapted well to this lifestyle and although they're by no means totally immune to the smell of humans, they've progressed to the point where they can live amongst us fairly normally. But when vampires who do love humans – to death – come to town, it's up to Edward and his family to keep Bella safe.

Meyer's story takes place in Forks, Washington, and filming in the Pacific Northwest was absolutely the right decision. The gloomy, overcast skies further add to the brooding quality of the tale, and of course are necessary since these vampires come out in the daylight but stay out of the sun (their sparkling skin would be a dead giveaway they're something outside the norm).

Pattinson as Edward totally works. Now he's known to millions of Twilight supporters around the world, but Hardwicke cast him when practically no one (other than some Harry Potter people) knew his name. Pattinson took the film Edward to a slightly darker place than the book Edward, and in doing so made him more appealing - on multiple levels.

Also earning high marks are the performances by Billy Burke (Charlie), Taylor Lautner as Jacob (though his screen time is extremely limited), and the actors who play the Cullen family – Elizabeth Reaser (Esme), Peter Facinelli (Dr Carlisle Cullen), Nikki Reed (Rosalie), Kellan Lutz (Emmett), Jackson Rathbone (Jasper) and stand-out Ashley Greene whose Alice is exactly as written in Meyer's book series. Anna Kendrick, Justin Chon, Michael Welch, and Christian Serratos fill the roles of Bella's classmates and are actually more interesting as portrayed onscreen than in the novel thanks to Rosenberg's ability to speak teen.There aren't as many quiet romantic moments between Edward and Bella as there are in Meyer's book, which of course has a lot to do with the fact you cannot cram every page from the book into the feature film. Yet I really missed a few of the more memorable tender scenes between the two that stand out in the novel.Also, the meadow scene… Well, it's not the book's meadow scene that's for sure. Still, it's in the movie and that's thanks to tireless campaigning by director Hardwicke who knew how important it was to Twilight fanatics. And, sadly, the baseball scene seems off. I can't put my finger on exactly what's wrong with it, but it feels a little forced and hokey at the same time. Maybe it's the baseball caps.I'm also not sold on Kristen Stewart's performance as Bella. Sticking this in the 'bad' section is a stretch – she's a good actress and it's not like she delivered a terrible performance. It's just this Bella never seems happy, not even when she finds out the impossibly gorgeous vampire is in love with her. Does Stewart smile in the film? I honestly can't remember, but if she does it's a rare occurrence. I didn't buy Stewart as a teen in love.

While Facinelli's performance as Dr Carlisle Cullen is spot on, his transformation from a brunette with a normal Caucasian skin tone to a bleached white blonde actually elicited chuckles from the preview audience. The first time he appeared onscreen was one of those moments that yanks you out of the film because it's so strikingly obvious he's in make-up.

Horrible, horrible special effects also serve to pull the audience right out of this imaginary world of Twilight's vegetarian vampires who live alongside humans. Edward's ability to run lightning fast looks about as cheesy as you can get, and the sparkle effect is disappointing. Summit Entertainment should have given Hardwicke a larger effects budget so she could do justice to critical ingredients of the story that didn't have to do with performances. Seriously, why skimp on the effects budget when you've got a potential blockbuster film franchise hanging in the balance?