Twilight review

I got to go see Twilight tonight. I liked it. I went into expecting to be disappointed because I liked the books SO MUCH. I have heard from various sources that it was either spot on (it wasn't) or it was completely different(it wasn't). It was sort of a mix. Some parts were line for line out of the book, others, quite different.

Most notably, the thing I felt was lacking was the complusion I felt over the Edward Bella love story in the book. In the book, I really felt for them and cheered for them. In the movie, I found myself rolling at eyes a bit at the whole thing. It just didn't translate well to the big screen, in that respect. I also hated the entire Port Angles scene because it was totally wrong. She never made it to the book store, she never fought with the guys, etc. Other than the fact that Edward saved her and drove her home (and that she ate something mushroom based, which I thought was an odd detail to include when other important things were left out), the scene was completely different. The scene I hated was the "look at me, I'm a bad ass sparkly vampire" scene. That wasn't how it went and the sparkly sucked. The first time they showed him in the sun, he looked damp not sparkly. The second time was much better, much truer to the book and had better makeup. The only other I didn't like was the actors tended to buy into the "go big or go home" school of acting. There were a few times when they completely overacted, sometimes to the detrement of the movie. For example, Bella's "intense" face, usually just made her look pissed. And I know the fight scene at the end is supposed to be all dramatic and tense but Edward's "I'm so mad, my left eye is all squinty" face made me want to roll around on the floor laughing like crazy. It was truly bad! Sometimes, the over acting was good, like when he first got the scent of her is class. He went big and paid off by making it a funny scene. The special effects were a bit cheesy (the running and tree climbing looked totally hacked together) but it was a fairly low budget movie and not a special effects movie. It was a love story after all. They left out a few scenes that I would have liked to have seen as well. I really wanted to see Bella try to flirt the information out of Jacob on the beach

Things I liked:
They kept a lot of the laugh out loud moments from the book and added some others. There were several times that I found myself laughing, although I didn't really expect to. The bio teacher cracked me up as did the antics of the other boys in school and the line "man, let a playa play". The other thing I liked was watching Ms Lemonade jump every time a vampire suddenly appeared on screen! She added quite a bit of humor to the movie for me so if you can get her to go with you, I highly recommend it :)

Although I could have done with another actor for Edward, I really liked the choices for Emmett and Alice. In looking at still pictures, I thought I wouldn't like the casting of Jacob but he pulled it off in the movie. So I revise my early position and say "good choice" Basically, I liked the parts that stayed true to the book.

Overall, I would say 3 and 3/4 stars because it was better than just average and I was entertained the whole. With a little polish and a slightly larger budget, I think the second film has the potential to be great. Unfortunately, we all know that the longer a book, the more chance they have of screwing it up. Also, the second book, with the break up and the internal struggle has the potential to not translate very well. Only time will tell.