Review: Twilight (2008)

Ah, sweet relief! My first movie in TWO WEEKS.

And yes, it is Twilight. And yes, I DID go see the 10 AM showing this morning despite getting over an illness. And no, I'm not a fan of the book, and have not been waiting on edge for this movie since I first heard about it.

I know nothing of the books. I know they were written by a mormon chick and involve a hot vampire named Edward and a girl with a name only a fantasy writer would use practically (Bella).

What works:
-This is a fantasy story. Every girl under the age of 20 will DEFINITELY love this. It's got a hot romance, lots of pretty people, damsels in distress, friendly gorgeous vampires, and a prom. This is a Dracula for our generation.
-The aesthetic tone of the movie is nice. At least to me. It's what I was drawn to in the first place. The film is shot in the beautiful pacific northwest, and it's constantly cloudy. The costumes are mostly neutral colors, and all the vampires' skin is chalky.
-The best character of the story is Charlie (Billy Burke), Bella's police cop daddy, who is unassuming, likable, and intentionally funny.

Robert Pattinson (who is omg gorgeous) and Kristen Stewart's acting styles complement each other; they're both wooden, completely unemotional, and incredibly irritating. Like nails on the chalk board irritating. I found myself getting restless and frustrated just listening to "Bella" speak. It's like, get it over with already.

I haven't seen any of Catherine Hardwicke's other directorial endeavors, so I can't make any comparisons. But I will say that while this movie was not poorly directed, it was also most emphatically not well directed. I appreciate that a fantasy movie should be stylized, but it all seems rather amateurish to me.

There are possibly too many cringe-worthy moments for this movie to be considered good. I suppose, though, the story is there, and it's mostly exciting. I just can't get over the awkwardness of Edward and Bella (i.e. Pattinson and Stewart)... Eh, go see it for shits and giggles. It'll at least satisfy us fangirls until Harry Potter deems us worthy of its audience.

Grade: C+ (the + is for the unexpected yet not un-welcomed decision to have Radiohead play over the end credits)

Current Total: 65

Drool: Robert Pattinson on the cover of Entertainment Weekly

EW.com

Random News: Twilight to replace HP on Nov. 21

From Cinematical:

For all you Harry Potter fans who are also devoted to a certain series of teen-vampire romance novels, here's something that should help you deal with Thursday's devastating news about Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince being pushed back to next summer. Summit Entertainment announced today that with Harry having vacated the November 21 spot, they're going to fill it with Twilight, bumping it up a full three weeks from its original date of December 12.

While some fans wondered, irrationally, if the Harry Potter move was to get away from Twilight, Summit's CEO says Twilight never had any delusions of being more powerful than the boy wizard at the box office. "With a giant franchise like Harry Potter in the market, we had to stay clear of it," Rob Friedman told Variety -- hence the original date well away from Half-Blood Prince. "Their move created an opportunity to bring the movie to fans three weeks earlier."

Once November 21 opened up, the move was really a no-brainer. As a press release from Summit points out, movie theaters get very crowded around the holidays, and Twilight will be able to open on far more screens on November 21 than it could have on December 12. Now it'll be opening the Friday before Thanksgiving, too, which is nearly always a plus. Its only competition will be Disney's animated Bolt. The only loser here is Entertainment Weekly, whose Fall Movie Preview is now wrong again, before most readers have even seen it. (Or, from another point of view, now that issue is even more of a collector's item.)

What do you say? Are you excited about getting Twilight sooner? To those of you who have been sending Warner Bros. wrathful messages about the Harry Potter move, does this quell your anger somewhat? Will you at least be able to live and function and carry on?