Perhaps the biggest example of this sort of misfire was the scene where Edward first sees Bella. This scene should have been sultry and predatory, with a clear look in Edward’s eyes that he wanted to kill Bella in every way he could imagine. Instead, Hardwicke turned it into a comedy, from the first time Pattinson jumps and covers his nose when Stewart walks in the room to when he jumps out of his chair and runs from the classroom a split second before the bell rang. There were some scenes where “Twilight” just missed the mark.

Later, in one of the final scenes where Edward has to suck the vampire venom out of Bella’s wrist, the look on Pattinson’s face was downright terrible. It looked like some sort of spoof of the film that Evil Iguana Productions would come up with instead of one of the most pivotal scenes in the movie.

Cam Gigandet, for all of his 20 minutes in the movie, was the true star of the film. The final ballet studio showdown with Bella and Edward was great, and he really allowed viewers to believe in the character of James. He never was comical in his characterization and was chilling to watch movie across the screen. It is disappointing that there won’t be more to see of Gigandet in the later movies.

It’s funny to think how much analysis and speculation went on over the actors chosen to play the characters that were so significantly dwarfed Stewart and Pattinson in the film. Mike Welch played a spot-on interpretation of Mike Newton, with Justin Chon, Anna Kendrick and Christian Serratos following closely behind in their roles as Eric Yorkie, Jessica Stanley and Angela Weber. Taylor Lautner proved he will make a great Jacob Black when he grows six inches and ages six years before “New Moon” is released. The Cullens were all great, and the cheers drawn from the crowd at their arrival showed how important just their presence in the film was. Edi Gathegi and Rachelle Leferve were excellent and chilling in their respective roles of Laurent and Victoria.

However, as stated earlier, the 30 percent of the film that was bad really drew away from what was good with the rest of it. However, the other sections of the movie really were good. There was a great scene in the kitchen at the Cullen mansion when Edward’s vampire family is preparing to meet Bella for the first time that is priceless, and the baseball scene was hands-down the greatest scene in the movie. It was spot-on perfect to the book and will take the breath away from anyone who has nothing to base the movie on.

There were four major scenes that Hardwicke had to nail to not get a severe case of fan backlash: Port Angeles, the meadow scene, the baseball scene and the showdown in the ballet studio. All of these scenes were well-done with the exception of the terrible CGI used for Edward’s skin in sunlight (since when did diamonds look like sweat?). The rest of the movie, with few exceptions, fell through the cracks, with what seemed like less effort placed on them.

It would have been less disappointing if the movie has just been mediocre versus being a combination of really good and heart-breakingly bad. “Twilight” will be a success and the subsequent films in the franchise will be successes and people will go to see them and maybe Summit will do a better job thrusting the film into the all-star level that the latter “Harry Potter” films have reached. “Twilight” just felt rushed, and felt like Hardwicke settled with mediocrity instead of pushing for greatness. And, as a fan of “Twilight” who truly wished for the film to be everything everyone had hoped it would be, I wish she had achieved that greatness.

All that said, the last five minutes of the movie were spot-on perfect; enough to make any Twi-hater come back to see “New Moon.” Never has a kiss on the neck been more sensual, and never has a red-head looked more badass. You’ll see. Even if you don’t want to, you’ll go see.

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About The Author

Terri Schwartz was a Blast Contributing Editor from 2008-2009.

8 Responses

  1. Teresa

    Other than the bad typos and lack of proofreading, this was a spot-on review. I do disagree with your assessment of Rob Pattinson’s acting, however. He was good but the DIRECTING was really, really BAD. RPattz could have been soooo much better with a good director. He nailed the emotional makeup of the character, just not the execution of it on film. Bad directing, bad screenwriter. Good actors.

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  2. Alana

    Okay so i love the twilight books. i thought the movies were okay but would have been a lot better if they followed the book. the movie made me very angry it was out of order and they skip a lot of important stuff, for example they did not tell you at all about the cullen family, so u wont no how they became a vampire. also they didnt tell u about how carliel became a vampire and y he is the way he is.they also didnt even add the scene the explains why the book it called twilight .the movie would be good if u didnt read the book, it also gets better they more times u watch it. please dont pay attention to my spelling errors.

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  3. Kayla Rae

    Dane, almost all of them were absolutely horrid actors. And the ones who were good actors were given the smallest and dumbest parts.

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  4. jazz

    i thought the twilight movies were crap. They have destroyed the book for me. The actors looked like they have never acted before. I hated it !!! and i know hate is a strong word but is it true.

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  5. Darlene

    I never even heard of Twilight until my son bought all four books for his girlfriend for Chritams. Not having read the books and only seeing the movie less than a weeke ago I must say I enjoyed it. I thought the acting from both main characters were good. “Bella” was awkward and most teenagers at that age are, although I did not like the hospital scene where she gets all tongue tied becasue he “Edward” wants her to leave Forks. Edwatd of course seemed more mature, well hello he was much OLDER. LOVED the prom scene at the end where he kises her instead of bitting. I am going to go out and buy the books and read them before I see the next movies. I hopw that dosnt dpoil it for me

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  6. bellaB

    I like Robert Pattinson’s Edward. Edward is hard on himself, of course, also in the books, if you read them. Robert has skill to portray multiple faces in one shot, just like Edward should (ferocious, gentle, stale, humorous). Edwards brain doesn’t work on one level only.

    Robert is not only a pretty boy. If you look at his face, think of him when he is 70-80 years old. His face would be perfect for a Vampire even then: it’s so sculptural and unperfect and characteristic with the twists – maybe even better Vampire then, when he is older. He can display huge emotional scale, unlike many people of out times.

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