TWILIGHT (2008)

Add Review To List
Add Film To List
Write Your Own Review

"Yeah. Um... I had an adrenaline rush. It's very common. You can Google it."

Okay, so you all know how into the vampire realm that I am, and how I was looking forward to this film like none other. I think this is the first time since I've joined this site, too, that a major vampire movie has hit that I could enthuse over on the site, since I joined just after "30 Days of Night" hit DVD. It was nice to be in my realm. So I saw this movie expecting exactly what it ended up being, an awesome movie based off of an awesome book. I started to read the series because another site that I use, a chat site in fact, called MNC (Stands for "MuggleNet Chat." Yeah, it's a Harry Potter chat site.), had a lot of people on it talking about the book. While the majority of the people said that the book and series in question were utter and complete crap. However, there were a few on the site who disagreed and said that the series was amazing. I'm glad that I decided to buy "Twilight" and see what happened from there, so that I could make my own opinion based on the book. I was definitely not disappointed, and halfway through the book, I had Mom buy me the second one, "New Moon," and then I got "Eclipse," the third one, and finally "Breaking Dawn," the final book in the series. Right now, I've finished "Twilight," "New Moon," and "Eclipse," and I am halfway through "Breaking Dawn." As the days got closer and closer, I couldn't wait until the movie came out, and then the reviews came out, and I saw what I expected to see, people saying the movie was actually good, and that their initial thoughts on the series were pretty much wrong. I wasn't really surprised. lolz. Now that I've finally seen the movie, as I've said already, I was definitely NOT disappointed. This is now one of my favorite Vampire Movies of all time.

The director of this movie is one that I've never heard of, but has directed movies that have hit audiences very hard, like "The Nativity Story" and "Lords of Dogtown." This director is Catherine Hardwicke. She does a great job with the series. To be honest, though, I was a bit worried about how the movie would turn out. There are a few things that'd have to be done just right so that it didn't end up stupid. However, Hardwicke knew exactly what was needed to turn the movie to gold, and executed her judgment as such. Like I said, there are so many details about Stephenie Meyer's book, that, if done the WRONG way, could make this movie a near disaster, but it turned out to be awesome, like I knew deep down that it would. What surprised me even more, was the fact that my DAD enjoyed it, and he's not a very big Romance guy. He said that the way the mixed the love story in with the vampires was awesome, and those are my sentiments because, like my Dad, I'm not much of a person for love stories. The writer of the book, as I've mentioned earlier in one spot, is Stephenie Meyer, and it really was an awesome book, that, like I said, ended up surprising me. I know that I myself am not a love story kind of guy, but this really exceeded my expectations for the book anyway. So with such an awesome book, you've got to get a writer that can make it into an awesome movie, right? Well such a thing happened with screenplay-writer, Melissa Rosenberg, who also wrote for eight episodes of the popular show, "Dexter," which I've never seen before, but hear is very good. The writer really does a great job of capturing Meyer's work, and making it into a movie, and that's what is great about the movie, is how it played so well from Book to Movie. The director and the writers of this movie definitely worked together really well, and yes I DO mean writerS, since Stephenie Meyer helped with the writing as well, and not just by writing the book. Definitely a great job in developing this movie.

The visuals of this movie were also spectacular, I thought anyway. The whole general feel of the movie, was the feeling that I got as I read Meyer's book, and that's definitely a very good thing. I was most worried about the visuals of this movie because, though I was dying to see the movie, the poster, or at least a couple for them, had Pattinson's face all screwy looking, and I was like, "He better not look that weird in the movie." I, however, unlike everyone else, thought that the effects in the trailer looked really cool. I like how they made the vampires look and everything like that, since it really tied everything together nicely, and it made it so that the vampires looked human, and able to pass as human, but at the same time be something MORE than human, since they're supposed to be the most beautiful, attractive, and gorgeous kids in the school in the small town of Forks, Washington. The look of Vampires is something that's always interesting to see when you're dealing with Vampire movies because everyone else has their own take on it, and Meyer's was new to the whole genre of movies, so I definitely enjoyed that a lot. The general feel of the movie, like I've mentioned, was what the book felt like. Forks, Washington is supposed to be a very dreary and wet town that doesn't see the sunshine a lot, which is why the Cullens live there peacefully. The one thing that I was most worried about, though, was how they would make Edward look when he stepped in the sunlight. The book said he sparkled like diamonds, which I think is completely awesome to read and keep in your head, but when you're putting it into a huge movie like this, it's something that you've got to put together VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY CAREFULLY. They did great with it, I thought. It was a subtle sparkle, but something that you could still notice. I think it looked awesome. So kudos for that. Also, Bella's old red pickup truck was perfect, it looked pretty much EXACTLY as I imagined it while I was reading the book, so that's a good thing, too. So the visuals department of the book was definitely done very well, and kept the movie going and made it even more awesome than it already, which is a lot to begin with, I know. lolz.

The Storyline of this movie, is one that I already know, having read the book, but with any Book-To-Movie adaptation, you never really know what's going to happen. It could end up incredibly close to the book and be phenomenal, like "Harry Potter," or it could be incredibly FAR from the book, and be good to a certain extent, but never as good as the movie was, or even worse than that, like Stephen King's "IT" was. So Naturally, that was something that I worried about quite a bit. I mean, since it was such an awesome Book, I was of course worried a small ounce that the movie would slaughter the book, however, mainly I knew that it would do good at what it was supposed to do. The other thing story-wise that I was worried about, was that it would cut a few of the scenes, since it's almost immediately known that they're going to have to cut a few things at least. The last thing that I kind of hoped they'd do, and they DID end up doing, was using Bella's voice over to talk through stuff. It was used perfectly, she didn't talk it over the WHOLE movie, but just in certain scenes, and that turned out great. The storyline, as I already knew would, carried along very nicely, and was fun and interesting. I really enjoyed it in both book, and movie form. Isabella Swan has just moved from a huge town, to the small town of Forks, Washington, much as she doesn't want to. What she finds though, is that she has fallen in love, but her new love interest, is not of this world. At the same time, animal killings have sprung up around town, and caused a stir with the locals. It's an awesome story, that mixes the otherworldly with romance, and everything balances out nicely. It definitely keeps you hooked on the movie throughout the whole thing, and you won't be disappointed. That's for damn sure. Definitely a great job with the storyline.

Kristen Stewart stars in the lead role of this film as Isabella Swan. Isabella Swan is the daughter of Renee and Charlie, who are a divorced couple. For most of her life Bella had lived with her mother, Renee, and done everything with her. At the same time, up until she was four, she had spent two weeks up in Forks, Washington, with her father, Charlie. However, after four, when she could speak for herself, she no longer wished to go to Forks because she was miserable, and so she decided to stop going to Forks to visit her father. However, now at the age of seventeen, Bella's mother has decided to go on a big road trip and move to Florida with her new boyfriend, Phil, so that he can work on his career, as well as for many other reasons. Since they aren't really planning on staying at one place for too long, Bella decides that she wants to go spend the year with her father up in Forks, Washington. When she finally arrives there, she finds that Charlie is still the same, as well as everyone else, and begins the long process of falling into a new school, and everything. She makes new friends, such as Erick Yorke and Mike Newman. Erik is pretty much your average nerd, and always acting as such, and Mike pretty much falls in love with Bella, and doesn't really let her out of his sight for long. She also meets Jessica Stanley, who becomes her best girl friend, and they hang out together as well, same with Angela. Jessica is basically your average pretty girl, while Angela is more laid back, and conservative. Bella is doing well with these people on her first day, when she notices a group of very attractive kids who sit away from everyone. She finds out that these are the Cullen kids, the adopted children of Dr. and Mrs. Cullen. She soon notices Edward, as she sits next to him in Biology, and she slowly falls in love with him, though he seems to be unable to stand her. He disappears the next day, and doesn't return for a few weeks. When he DOES return, he seems to be calmer, and she soon realizes that he's fallen in love with her. That's when she discovers his secret, as well as the legends of the Quileute Tribe, an Indian Reservation near where she lives. Edward is a vampire, but he's not like all the others. Him and his family are Vegetarians, so to speak. They only drink the blood of animals, and do not harm humans. Soon she meets his family, and finds that everyone is incredibly nice, and accepts her as part of their family. Well, all except for Edward's sister, Rosalie. Everything seems to be doing great for Bella. At least until James and his small coven decide to show up. Kristen Stewart IS Isabella Swan. There's no other way to put it. She does perfectly as Bella, and gets every feeling, emotion, and clumsy action of Bella down, making it a perfect character. She delivers a performance that is convincing, believable, and realistic, and makes the character one that you can feel for (Since she has fallen in love with something that is incredibly dangerous, but doesn't care.) and even relate to (Since I'm sure you've fallen for someone whose dangerous, to say the least.). She was definitely a great casting choice for this role.

Starring in the role of Edward Cullen, Bella's Vampiric obsession, is Robert Pattinson, whom you may know as Cedric Diggory from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Edward Cullen is the "Adopted" son of Dr. Carlisle Cullen. He has many adoptive brothers and sisters, too. There's Alice Cullen and Jasper Hale, who are a couple, and there's also Rosalie Hale and Emmett Cullen, who are also a couple. Edward's "Mom" is Esme Cullen. Edward is the only one of his family to have not found a partner to love, and cherish for all eternity. And it is all eternity quite literally, since Edward Cullen is a vampire. However, Edward is not like every other vampire in every other vampire movie, he's got different qualities. For one, instead of sleeping throughout the daytime, Edward doesn't sleep at all, and neither does his family, who are all vampires. Edward can also walk in the daylight. The whole sun burning the skin thing is mere myth according to this movie/book/series, which I'm cool with. Sunlight, however, makes a vampire's skin sparkle like diamonds. That may sound stupid, but when you watch the movie it's very subtle, and is actually really cool. Edward is also unlike his whole family, in and that he's got a special ability. Edward can read the minds of everyone around him. Well, almost everyone. Edward is fine with everything in school, even the new girl Isabella Swan, or Bella, as she prefers. At least until Biology, when she sits next to him, and he notices that her mind is completely closed to him. He's furious, and hates her for being unable to figure her out. He tries to switch classes, and that doesn't work, so he takes a trip with his family to go and hunt for blood, animal blood of course. When he returns, he's calmer, and becomes infatuated with Bella. He asks her questions and follows her around. Soon he starts sneaking into her room at night to watch her sleep and such because he just cannot leave her alone. She's his own personal brand of heroine, as he says in the movie. Soon, she is almost run over by a car. He saves, her and soon she is on to him. When he shows up in an alleyway to save her from some thugs who were going to rape her, she is even more on to him. Soon she figures it out, and now he explains his whole world to her. He laughs as she asks about the cliches on vampire lore, and goes on to ask her questions and figure her out. Soon he decides to introduce her to his family, and everyone is enthused. Save for Rosalie, of course. He is happy with everyone reaction to her, except for Rosalie's, and is embarrassed when they cook Italian for her. When he tells them that she already ate, and she says it was because she knew that they didn't eat, Rosalie breaks the salad bowl that she was mixing, and rants about it. Edward just tells her to do like he does and ignore her. Edward decides to take Bella for a game of Baseball, after meeting Charlie formally. As they show Bella how vampires play baseball, which is an awesome scene to watch, but one I'm not gonna explain (You'll have to see it yourself, lolz!!!!!), a group of vampires shows up, and they pose a threat to Bella. Now Edward must make sure that Bella is safe, as well as make sure that this new group stays far away from her. Soon, one proves to be fatal to that plan. Robert Pattinson, despite every other "Twilight" fan's objections, I thought, was a great pic for Edward from the start. He did a great job as Cedric Diggory in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," so I knew that he's a great actor, and now a favorite of mine. He really gets everything about Edward down. His actions, his mood swings, his curiousness, his feelings, and his overall outlook on things, as well as his emotions, and his infatuation for Kristen Stewart's character, Bella. He does all that VERY well, and really gets the character down, delivering a rock solid performance that is completely convincing, completely believable, and completely realistic, and makes it a character that you can feel for (Since he's so in love with Bella, but he knows that he's a danger to her, and is resistant to getting too close, lest he hurt her, or possibly even kill her, since he wants her blood so bad.) and even relate to (Since I'm sure you've been in love with someone beyond any reason, and yet you think you'd be bad for that person sometime before. Maybe not like "Threat-to-your-life" bad, but some kind of bad for that person. I know I have, anyway. LOLZ!!!!!). He was definitely another great casting choice for this movie.

Billy Burke of the movie "Fracture" stars in this movie as Isabella Swan's father, Charlie Swan, who is also the Police Chief of the small town of Forks, Washington. Charlie used to get Bella at his house from Arizona every Summer for two weeks, and those were always the highlights of his Summer, however, at the age of Four, Bella decided that she didn't want to come up anymore because she hated it up in Forks where it was always rainy and dreary and she was never happy. This nearly tore Charlie apart as much as his separation with Renee, Bella's Mom, did. However, when he heard that Bella was going to come up and live with him for the year, he was nearly excited to death, and had been talking about it nonstop to his friends, like Billy and Jacob Black, and anyone else in town who would listen. Charlie is the parent who is most like Bella. She's quiet, he's quiet. She doesn't like to talk about her feelings too much, neither does he. She doesn't dance and doesn't like to dress up, and HE (Thanks Raoul. lolz.) doesn't dance and doesn't like to dress up. So when Bella arrives it's kind of awkward at first. However, they start to get used to each other a lot, and she starts to cook for him, and he takes her out quite a bit. He's really happy to have her with him again, and loves that fact. However, it seems bad timing, since lately many different people have been showing up dead all around the area, and he begins to worry a lot about it. He investigates the killings, and deduces that it's due to an animal. As he's worrying about this, he receives a call, telling him that his daughter, Bella of course, has just nearly been killed by a car driven by Tyler Crowley. Charlie is furious with Tyler, even though it's not Tyler's fault, and Charlie promises to take away his license. Even though Carlisle Cullen, the doctor, assures him that there was no harm done to Bella, and that she'll be a-okay, with little to no scratches. She'll definitely be okay. Charlie's used to Bella getting hurt though, she's a VERY uncoordinated person, and he's taken her to the doctor's office quite a bit. Now that he's finally got Bella back, he worries about how little time he spends with her because he wants her to be happy. However, he also still tries to get involved in her life, and does his best to talk about what girls would normally talk about since she's his DAUGHTER. He asks her if there are any boys that she likes, as embarrassing as it is for the both of them. She says no, but later on he finds that she's going out with Carlisle Cullen's boy, Edward. He's OK with it, but he's still leery about how she's treated, since he IS after all, her Dad. Soon, one of Charlie's best friends is killed, and now he finds that the killer is not actually an animal, but a human, as he and his men find a set of tracks. As much as he is not happy with it, he turns the investigation over to the State Police, and hopes that his town, and Bella especially will be safe from harm's way. Billy Burke does a great job as Charlie, and looks pretty much like I'd imagined Charlie to look like when I was reading the book. He plays the character of Charlie very well, and gets all of Charlie's emotions, feelings, worries, and general issues down and done very well, as well as Charlie's overprotectiveness of Bella, and really makes it a great character. He delivers a performance that is completely convincing, completely believable, and completely realistic, as well as making it a character that you can really feel for (Since he's finally got his daughter back after what seems like a long time, and now there's a killer on the loose, so he's driven to make sure that she's safe and out of harm's way, while at the same time trying to protect the little town of Forks, Washington, and losing a friend in the struggle.) and even relate to (Since I'm sure that you've probably seemingly lost someone, or someTHING even, and finally gotten it back, only to discover that something could go horribly wrong with it, and I'm also sure that you've had a terrible time before, where it seems that everything is going wrong for you. I know I have, anyway. lolz.). He was definitely yet another great casting choice for this movie.

Starring in this movie as our mysterious and very deadly bad guy, is "Never Back Down's" Cam Gigandet, and his character is of course James. James is a very old, and very powerful vampire. Unlike the Cullens, he is not a "Vegetarian," and does NOT drink animal blood. He belongs in a coven led by an older vampire named Laurent. James has his partner in eternity, Victoria, who is also part of the coven. Vampires all have partners in eternity. Rosalie Hale and Emmett Cullen are a couple, Alice Cullen and Jasper Hale, and Esme Cullen and Carlisle Cullen, as I've mentioned slightly before, it's just a natural fact about vampires. James' eyes are blood red, the result of drinking only human blood, whereas when you're a "Vegetarian" vampire, and you only drink ANIMAL blood, your eyes are golden, like honey, as it explains in the book. Anyway, James and his coven are like every other vampire out there, they're nomads, moving from place to place, killing and feeding, and living on the edge of humanity, unlike the Cullens, who are pretty much the OPPOSITES of all other vampires, they stay in a city or town as long as they can, and establish friendships with all of it's citizens. James and his coven have moved into the area near Forks, Washington, and are slowly working their way to the town, killing people as they get hungry, and feeding, creating quite the stir with all of it's inhabitants. When James and the others notice that the local authorities are starting to get closer to him and the rest of the Coven, they lay down a trap to set the police astray, and so they are safe for now. While they are wandering, they hear noises and sounds in the thunderstorm that don't belong to the thunderstorm, but rather belong to other vampires like themselves. They go to search, and find themselves face to face with a huge coven of vampires. They apologize when they find out that they've been causing trouble for these vampires in their territory by hunting. Soon however, James notices Bella, a human, and goes to kill her, but when the Cullens retaliate and protect her, it drives him mad. As Edward finds out, James is a tracking vampire, which means that his power is to be able to track and hunt down any prey, and do it VERY fast. He is driven to obsession by the hunt, and will not stop until either A) He catches and kills and feeds on his victim, or B) He is stopped by someone else, and destroyed, which hasn't happened yet. Now James has decided to hunt down Bella, despite Laurent's objections, but what he realizes is that the vampires are there to protect her, so he is VERY pleased to find out that the hunt will be much more difficult, meaning much more FUN than he'd once imagined. Cam Gigandet does a great job as James, and was pretty much EXACTLY like I'd imagined him to be as I was reading the book. He does a great job of playing out James' ruthless nature, and his drive to kill, as well as everything evil, mean, and downright vile about him. He makes it a villain that I'd DEFINITELY not want to run into in a dark alleyway, that's for damn sure. Cam Gigandet delivers a performance that is completely convincing, completely believable, and completely realistic. He was DEFINITELY ANOTHER great casting choice for this movie.

All in all this was one hell of a Vampire Movie based off of one hell of a Vampire Book. This is one of the very few Book-To-Movie Adaptations that I've seen that really sticks to the book that it was based off of, and does well at keeping continuity with the Book, too. Very few things were changed and I really liked that. The director of this movie definitely knew what she was doing when she took on the project, and the result of her determination is definitely a good one. She really knows what she is doing in this business, and executes her knowledge justly, making for us an awesome movie. The writer of this movie also definitely does (Thanks AGAIN Raoul. lolz.) a great job with the directing, and make it one hell of a movie. The writer really works well with the author of the book, Stephenie Meyer, which is of course an awesome, excellent, and good thing, since that way you know that you're going to have a good movie on your hands. The visuals in this movie, despite what everyone seems to think, are really done VERY WELL, and makes it one heck of a visual experience, as well as a movie that you'd definitely love. The different visuals are all covered with definite awesomeness, and really make it feel like it felt while I was reading the book. That's for DAMN sure. The storyline of this one, is one that I really like because the movie overall may not be original, but the storyline that it uses IS. It's a new twist to the realm of Vampires, and it's DEFINITELY a good twist, making it an awesome movie. I love how, like I said, it follows the book by Stephenie Meyer so closely, it shows that they know EXACTLY what they're doing, and how to execute it perfectly. The acting in this movie ties everything together perfectly, and makes the movie overall even more awesome than it already was, which is quite a bit. All of the actors and actresses deliver performances that are completely convincing, completely believable, and completely realistic, and make the characters ones that you can really feel for, and even relate to, on variously different levels. So if you don't believe me yet, then you're really DAFT!!!!! This really is an awesome movie, and one that you'll definitely love!!!!! I know I did!!!!! LOLZ!!!!! So if you haven't seen this movie yet, and know you want to, then get the hell ready and go see the movie NOW!!!!! LOLZ!!!!! You won't regret it!!!!! And if you DON'T want to see it, then go and see it anyway because you will most DEFINITELY be blown away by it as much as I was, which is A LOT!!!!! Also, pick up a copy of the series: "Twilight," "New Moon," "Eclipse," and "Breaking Dawn" in that order, and read them!!!!! You will NOT be disappointed from that angle either!!!!! They're awesome books, and this is MOST DEFINITELY an AWESOME MOVIE!!!!! LOLZ!!!!! So go and see it already!!!!! LOLZ!!!!!