Twilight the movie is a film based on the first novel of a four novel series written by Stephenie Meyers. The three other novels are entitled New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.
Twilight the Movie Story
The Twilight story is mainly about Bella, an awkward teenager who moves to Forks, Washington, to live with her father. She has to contend with a new town, a new school, and a father who wants a renewed bond. At school, she encounters the Cullen family--more specifically, Edward--who are vampires. She and Edward begin a dangerous romance.
Mr. Cullen has taught his family to live on animal blood instead of human blood, which is one of the reason they have not acquired suspicion wherever they have lived. Unfortunately, there is a trio of bad vampires who lust after human blood and when they sense Bella is a human, one of them begins to track her. Edward and his family proceed to save Bella while trying to dispatch of the tracker.
Cast
- Kristen Stewart, Bella Swan. Notable movies: Jumper, Into the Wild, and Zathura.
- Robert Pattinson, Edward Cullen. Notable movies: Harry Potter movies, Little Ashes.
- Billy Burke, Charlie Swan (Bella's dad). Notable movies: Untraceable, Ladder 49.
- Peter Facinelli, Dr. Carlisle Cullen. Notable movies: ''The Scorpion King".
- Nikki Reed, Rosalie Hale. Notable Movies: Lords of Dogtown.
- Cam Gigandet James. Notable Movies: Never Back Down, Who's Your Caddy.
Movie Tidbits
Twilight was made for less than $40 million and made $70 million in its debut. The original budget of the movie has also garnered a lot of criticism (see below). MTV Films and Maverick films were the two companies that owned the rights to produce the work, but the script could not be made to their liking, so Summit Entertainment received the rights to produce and distribute the film.
The author, Stephenie Meyers, makes a cameo in the diner scene where Charlie asks Bella if there are any boys in town she likes. She is sitting at the counter using a laptop.
Criticisms
The low budget has caused many criticisms and was the reason there were bad reviews of the movie. The special effects were lacking and the low-end wire effects could easily be seen, especially in the scenes where Edward is climbing a tree with Bella on his back and when James leaps through the air at the ballet studio at the movie's climatic ending.
Kristen Stewart has a few scenes of being over-dramatic and of bad acting. There is a scene at the hospital near the end of the movie where she is retorting something Edward has said, but she spends twenty seconds or so sputtering out some grunt and monosyllables.
A more light-hearted criticism is the fact that Edward's adoration seemed more stalkerish. His looks, the way he gazes at Bella, and appearing in her window might seem endearing to Bella, but if someone tried that in real life, the cops would be called.
Overall
Twilight the movie was made with Twilight fans in mind. It follows the book pretty faithfully and all of the actors were chosen well, especially Billy Burke as Charlie. If you have read Twilight or the entire series, then you will enjoy this movie. Someone new to the Twilight universe may have a hard time following along as some of the dialogue in the movie is meant to quickly reference something in the book. So if you plan on seeing this movie, read the book beforehand. You don't absolutely have to read the book, but it helps. Hopefully the success of the first movie will continue on with the second movie, New Moon, which is slated for a late 2009 release.
Midnight Sun
Stephenie Meyer wrote a parallel book to Twlight called Midnight Sun which is essentially the same story, but from Edward's point of view. This book was leaked onto the Internet and she has decided not to publish it because of that reason. It is rumored that she loaned it to someone on the set of Twilight the movie and it somehow found it's way to the Web.
