'Twilight'- Cheap and Disappointing
Hundreds of screaming fans lined the outskirts of the Hollywood Arclight theater last Thursday, eagerly awaiting one of the seven midnight showings of the long awaited "Twilight" movie.
"Twilight" tells the story of a young girl named Bella who moves to Forks, Wash., and falls in love with a vampire named Edward. Edward struggles between his love for Bella and his suffocating desire to kill her.
The movie, based on Stephenie Meyer's bestselling novel, ranked a near 70.5 million in its opening weekend but left many so-called Twilighters upset and disappointed. "I'm sad, they didn't really follow the book and it seemed like they were going for cheap laughs," said 15-year-old die-hard-Twilighter Morgan Bouty, who attended the 12:03 a.m. showing, while sporting a "Team Edward" T-shirt.
Although this movie caused an enormous stir in the pop culture realm, fans agree it did the book very little justice. Firstly, it seemed that the casting call was hosted by Stevie Wonder, although to be fair to the great musician, one would have to be both blind and deaf to ignore the horrendous acting of Rob Pattinson, who "plays" Edward Cullen and Kristen Stewart, who "plays" Bella Swan.
Another miscast would be actress Nikki Reed, who was chosen to play Rosalie Cullen, described in the book many times as, "the most beautiful woman in the world." The casting directors felt that "classic blonde beauty" was an indication to take an Italian-Cherokee actress, paint her face white, bleach her hair, and to top it off, dress her in some stripper shoes.
Following a disastrous pattern of costumes throughout, the rest of the clothing seemed largely taken care of by JC Penny. Edward, the supposed to be rich and sexy vampire, wore an old grey jacket again and again and ...again.
Meanwhile, the car he drove, a supposed-to-be slick, limited edition black Volvo, was a small grey Pugeot look-a-like from the '90s. The make-up was no better. Amusingly, the make-up artists forgot to paint the actors' necks as well as faces. As a result, actor Peter Facinelli, who plays Carlisle Cullen, prances about with a chalky white face and a tan neck.
Not to mention the replication of vampire paleness seemed to be achieved through RiteAid Halloween paint; both obvious and cheap. But besides the not-so-important details on miscasting and makeup, was the fact that Summit did not follow the book and the movie was basically turned into a satire.
In the scene where Edward and Bella exchange their first kiss, the director felt it acceptable to put Bella in her underwear for some perverted Hollywood necessity, which wasn't the case in the first book or at any other time until the final book in the series. Pivotal scenes were not included, while previous non-existing moments were put in for some unwarranted clarification. Important characters were given three lines or less, their depth simplified.
"Twilight," the movie, was like a cheap mix between "The Lost Boys" and "She's All That" and nothing like the well-done "Interview With a Vampire" or "Queen of the Damned." Rob Pattinson mimicked a slow witted vampire, adding uber-long pauses between his sentences rather than the extremely literate character described in the novel, while Stewart proceeded to twitch every now and then to truly portray the infinite pain of impossible eternal love.
In short, this-should-have-been-straight-to-DVD flick deserves a definite Razzie and not the countless hours of coverage and thousands of hyperventilating fans that it received. "I saw this for my sister," said 19-year-old Liz Rosebanks. "I didn't know it was going to be funny; I thought it was all about crazy love and stuff but it was just like a regular comedy."
Alas, Hollywood ruins yet another great book this year along the despicable Narnia films and nauseating I Am Legend remake. Hopefully Harry Potter will do better in June.