So, I went last night to see the new, hyped-up movie Twilight, based on the wildly-popular series of books by Stephanie Meyer (I have read them all, and they are really great:). My husband is even enjoying them (he is just finishing book 2), and that is saying something for a mostly-popular-with-teen-girlies novel. I had very mixed feelings about seeing a film based on a series that I have enjoyed so thoroughly, but as I had a chance to go with a fabulous bunch of ladies (you know who you are...holla!), and I really never pass up a movie-going venture, I went out on opening weekend to see the latest blockbuster.
*Twilight (2008), directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Hardwicke is a really good director, and has several amazing films under her belt, especially focusing on modern, teenage themes (ie. Thirteen, The Lords of Dogtown, etc.), and has also done the production design for several great flicks, which gave me a pretty high expectation for the coolness factor of this movie. While I did enjoy many aspects of the film (the casting was surprisingly good, except for the Rosalie and Jasper characters, and the sets were beautiful), other parts of the film were so distractingly wrong that I couldn't just enjoy the experience. I went in with the plan of setting aside my preconceived images of the story, set up to be an optimistic viewer, and the strangest things kept getting in my way! For a movie for the teen-set, the love scenes were totally awkward and stiff, giving only one moment to the god of chemistry, and the music (crucial to a film for this age-group) was so loud and disturbing, even through scenes of intense conversation, that I could barely concentrate on the plot at hand. Over all, the two main characters were very well-cast and appealing, despite bad make-up and dialogue, and really bad special effects (I knew that this would be tough, given that so much of the book is Bella's internal monologue). I am glad that I went to see this film, but I can't help but feel disappointed, considering that the film-makers got so much right, and such stupid things wrong:( I fully expected a new vampire movie to go above and beyond the range of Interview With the Vampire, but it seems that technology has only gone backward in effect.
One more complaint, and then I will cease my whining: Are there no natural blondes to be found in young hollywood? I mean, is it too much to ask, in a film that requires several uber-beautiful, blonde, pale vampire characters, that one of them not have a wretched dye job? It was as if they found the darkest haired, most brunette-y actors and gave them a bleach job from a drugstore box of Clairol! Very strange, especially coming from the land of sunshine:)
Anywho, sorry for the downer, and I truly hope that you are able to overlook some of these flaws, and enjoy the movie. Better yet, skip the movie, and enjoy the books!!
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