Twilight (the movie)

Ahhh. I'm not obsessed or anything, but I must admit that Robert Pattinson is delicious. A fun movie and quite a faithful adaptation of the book. My only complaint is that they left out a few of my favorite lines, and some of those lines had to do with how enthralled Edward is with Bella. I think the movie gives you must less sense than the book does of him falling in love with her. But most, if not all, of the people watching the movie know exactly what's in the book, so I suppose it's not a real problem.

I think Kristen Stewart is a wonderful actress. I have heard her described as "wooden" which I think is bizarre. Especially in this role, where her performance matches the character as described in the book, who is quite restrained and internal, and a little overwhelmed. I thought she was pitch perfect. And her and RP's chemistry is wonderful and exactly what the movie needed to translate successfully from the page.

In fact, Bella's personality is why I think comparisons to Pride and Prejudice are not too apt (despite the intial, though very temporary, emnity between the main characters). Elizabeth Bennett is very lively and proactive, quite the opposite of Bella. I think Jane Eyre is a much better template for Twilight.

Anyway, I was very glad to have watched the "Making Of" featurette on the DVD. Wow, they worked hard. Amazing the effort that went into scenes that lasted 20 or 30 seconds on screen. Even post production - digitally adding trees and rain and other details to scenes that I never would have noticed, even if I watched over and over (as many have).

I must mention that I thought the music was terrific. That doesn't tend to be a part of movies that I pay a lot of attention to (though bad music can really screw up a scene - I resent heavy-handed and overly obvious music in a movie; I don't need to be cued how to feel!) In this movie, I felt like every note really enhanced the film's many important dramatic moments . . . a musical score is not part of the reading experience, so it's really up to the filmmaker to make that work and I think they did.

I can certainly see the appeal of the whole business. However, I'm less excited about the next book/movie, as Edward is almost completely absent and it mostly concerns the town's werewolves. Fun, but not especially compelling (my most Twilight-obsessed friend is really pushing me to catch up in time for the release of Eclipse in June). We'll see.