Twilight

I'm a little embarrassed to admit, but I got chills...from the Harry Potter preview! It was amazing, and I can't wait! I only bring up Harry Potter because I have heard several comparisons between JK Rowling and Stephanie Meyer, and I want to make my opinion very clear...Meyer is NOT the next JK. It is not even a comparison to me. Meyer's writing is still very juvenile, and it felt like several of the books were rushed out and thoughts were not completed. I could go on for hours about Meyer's flawed writing, but this review is about the movie, so I will focus.

I can understand why these books and this film are such a big hit for teens. Every teenage girl wants to find the perfect man...someone who is obsessed with them and willing to do anything for them because they are so in love. I do not think it is realistic to lead teens to believe that this could happen to them while they are in high school, but none the less, I understand the "all or none" perspective of teenage girls.

I felt the movie was short, but I didn't feel that there was much left out...they did a pretty good job of including the important parts of the book (in contrast, Harry Potter is so involved that there is no possible way to include all of the necessary and essential information in such a short period of time). Robert Pattinson was much better than I was expecting...he was not as attractive and I would have expected Edward to be, but I felt his acting really brought out the character. My favorite casting was that of Ashley Greene as Alice and Jackson Rathbone as Jasper, and I hope to see them in the future films.

I have a few complaints about the film. For being such a small town, I felt the school was too big, and I believe it is unrealistic to expect that the new kid would make such a big difference in a school that large. I hated Kristen Stewart's acting and felt that she was not right for the role. I will admit, I hated the "Bella" character throughout the entire book, so it is not surprising that I am not a fan of the actress or the character in the film, but I was hoping to find some endearing quality in her. The film obviously had a low budget which is why the special effects were so poorly done, but the running looked absolutely ridiculous. And speaking of ridiculous, the lines were so ridiculously cheesy that I was gagging for the majority of the film. When making a film based on a book, it is not required to use the same lines from the book in order to get the same effect. I was not impressed with much of the casting, but I have heard that they might be recasting for the next film which I think would be a mistake. I hate when any film recasts for the sequel and feel that, if they did not feel the casting was right, they should not have rushed the project in the first place. If you really care about a project, it doesn't matter how long the casting takes because it is more important to get it right the first time...otherwise your sequels will always suffer. And if they are planning to make the next three books into movies, they better get cracking...those kids aren't getting any younger! I can not in good conscience give this movie any more than 2 pigs...sorry to all you teens who are obsessed with it!