With the pop culture surge of "Twilight" (and vampires in general) hitting an all time high, I figured I would give the film a chance and see what was driving girls across the world to swoon everytime they saw a pasty blood sucker. What I found was a film that seemed like it was lost in adaptation. More specifically, emphasis was placed upon sexual tension instead of actually developing a story and characters that breathe within that story. Without a doubt, there is sexual tension. If there is one thing that Catherine Hardwicke does right, it is capturing the heightening sexual tension between 'Bella' and 'Edward.' Yet, what Hardwicke and her screenwriter fail at doing is establishing this sexual tension and intrigue from a base level. It seems at one moment 'Bella' hates 'Edward' yet the next time they meet, suddenly they're open with each other and ready to ravage one another. I know some will shoot back with the "but it was love at first sight!" or "thats how people meet!" No. Certainly there can be sexual tension between two strangers, even after a casual conversation, but to believe these two had this deep and rich connection after talking for 10 minutes (even though both had negative connotations of one another before hand) is about as ridiculous as believing a mini van can go from 0 mph to 70 mph in 3 seconds. There has to be a build up for such an attraction and connection to be believed, regardless of what kind of characters the story revolves around.
Another struggle I had with this film revolves around the third act which depicts a "confrontation" between Edward (and his family) and a trio of human hunting vampires. This act is just so underwritten and horribly underdeveloped that it almost becomes laughable. This is the part where I imagine adaptation from book to film hit a wall. Inexplicably and unnecessarily, three vampires (one of which has an unexplained need for Bella's blood) begin a standoff with Edward that entails the final 20 minutes of the film. This part is supposed to be climatic while showing the devotion Edward has for Bella, but ultimately it just feels like tacked on melodrama. It is not set up well and this big emotional pay off that we are supposed to get is uninspiring at best. It's almost as if Hardwicke and company noticed that anything past two hours would make their target demographic start to wain, so they cut things short. Although shorter may be more ideal for the demographic, a longer version could have definitely helped things a bit in the third act.
This ultimately leads me to my biggest question: Is Catherine Hardwicke the right director for this adaptation? From what I have seen in this film, no. She certainly was able to develop some chemistry between her two leads, but she failed to develop a cast that could act in general. This was most apparent in the acting of Kristen Stewart who seems to think the look of desire and intrigue seemingly meant biting her lower lip. Yet, Hardwicke's ability (or lack thereof) to develop acting was not the only thing that bugged me about the film. Instead, I must also account for her choice of shots and camera movements which I would deem spastic at best. In one shot she has a swooping camera and in another she has a camera rotating 360 degrees around our leads and all for no other reason then Hardwicke showing she has no idea as to what she's doing. Of course this is not to say everything she does is bad, but there are moments that detract from the story, rather than enhance it.
And thats pretty much the downfall of "Twilight", the story, direction, and characters are merely outlines that are, for whatever reason, left to be filled in by the viewer. Fans of the book may end up loving this, but then again you have seemingly had the story properly set up for you and can fill in those outlines. While the non-fans are left with nothing to become invested in.
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