blog.wddjr.com

Twilight is a young adult vampire/romance novel written by author Stephenie Meyer. It was originally published in hardcover in 2005. It is the first book of the Twilight series, and introduces seventeen-year-old Isabella “Bella” Swan who moves from Phoenix, Arizona, to Forks, Washington, and finds her life in danger when she falls in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen. The novel is followed by New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.

If you aren’t familiar with the book, you may want to read the story line below to get an idea of what to expect. If you have read the book, don’t read any further as it may spoil the movie for you since no movie can ever be totally true to the book.

Isabella “Bella” Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona, to rainy Forks, Washington, to live with her father, Charlie. She chooses to do this so that her mother, Renée, can travel with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, who is a minor league baseball player. In Phoenix she was a bit of an outcast, so it surprises her that she attracts much attention at her new school, and is quickly befriended by several students. Much to her dismay, several boys in the school compete for shy Bella’s attention.

When Bella sits next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, Edward seems utterly repulsed by her. He even attempts to change his schedule to avoid her, leaving Bella completely puzzled about his attitude towards her. After tricking a family friend, Jacob Black, into telling her the local tribal legends, Bella concludes that Edward and his family are vampires. Although she was inexplicably attracted to him even when she thought Edward drank human blood, she is much relieved to learn that the Cullens choose to abstain from drinking human blood, and drink animal blood instead. Over time, Edward and Bella fall in love.

The seemingly perfect state of their relationship is thrown into chaos when another vampire coven sweeps into Forks, and James, a tracker vampire, decides that he wants to hunt Bella for sport. The Cullens plan to distract the tracker by splitting up Bella and Edward, and Bella is sent to hide in a hotel in Phoenix. Bella then gets a phone call from James in which he says that he has her mother, and Bella must give herself up to James at her old dance studio, to save her. She does so, and while at the dance studio, James attacks her. Edward, along with the rest of the Cullen family, rescue Bella before James can kill her. Once they realize that James has bitten Bella’s hand, Edward sucks the venom out of her system before it can spread and change her into a vampire. Upon returning to Forks, Bella and Edward attend their prom and Bella expresses her desire to become a vampire, which Edward refuses to let happen.

The target audience is young girls and women. The box office opening clearly proved their power for a movie. The movie clocks in at two hours. It seems a little slow at first, but when it begins to move, hold on to your seat. Integral to the angst expressed  in the book, I guess it needs to be a little slow. Facial expressions, body  language, and cast chemistry is the key to this movie’s success. The two principles did a fantastic job of conveying feelings and emotions without  dialogue, making it an interesting watch. Also, the cinematography was quite superb. If only the Anne Rice movies could have fared so well. Since we already  know there are 3 more books and hopefully at least 3 more movies, there is, of course, the cliffhanger making you want for more and feeling satisfied at the same time. The cast in this movie demostrated the sensuality that should have come across in the Anne  Rice movies which were absolute bombs primarily because of no cast chemistry.

The books were targeted to the young high school female and the movie succeeded in focusing on that same audience. I personally would have preferred a little more gore, but it was very refreshing to actually see a movie that didn’t thrive on four letter words.

This movie is a “chick flick” but certainly worth taking a look.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5

(I would have given it a higher rating except  that it is more focused to the teen audience than the adult audience.)