Most of this has already been heard before, but this is me putting everything in one place and being coherent rather than fangirlish and "like, what?"
Twilight. We counted months, we counted weeks, we counted days, and counted hours until we managed to get to the theatre, get our tickets, get in the theatre, sit through previews for movies that we really didn’t care about at the time, and then we finally saw the movie.
I am a happy little fangirl.
If I wasn’t a fangirl, and if I hadn’t been lurking on the internet for gossip, news, notes, or pictures, and if I hadn’t actually taken time out of my life to think, “What was it really that brought Bella and Edward together? Why is it that I loved the books so much? What should my expectations of the film be?” I would probably have played a game that involved me sitting in the aisle and scooting a few inches closer to the screen every time Bella said she wasn’t afraid, Edward said “you have to stay away”, and every time the post-production crew used a speed blur for vampires running super fast. I would have gone from my three-fourths back seat to touching the screen, giggling all the way.
But I didn’t. Because I was a happy little fangirl. I took each moment individually, watching for when certain elements of a character revealed themselves. Carlisle taking the lead on dealing with the nomads. Rosalie stating how Bella’s protection or death doesn’t affect her. Famous lines taken directly from the book- the stupid lamb and the sick, masochistic lion. Praise to this, for the little moments make my life complete.
Sad little life, no?
Twilight, for me, is built on character interaction rather than a true thriller plot. The way everyone relates to each other is what causes the tension and conflict in Twilight. This is why I’m going to go character by character in this review.
Bella Swan, Kristen Stewart. I’m going to come straight out and say that for me, from still frames from the movie, Kristen Stewart was Bella Swan to me. I’ve seen many fan-drawn pictures, along with people posing as Bella, but none of them really cinched it with me. Kristen Stewart, in her face, height, and still posing, is My Mind’s Bella. That doesn’t quite forgive her sub-par acting, but I really had much lower expectations for her. The combination of her exceeding my expectations and looking the role so perfectly is what saved her from Fangirl Wrath. She’s filling big shoes, and I really do think that it’s better to cut her slack than cut her wrists over a role that the casting department saw fit to put her in.
Edward Cullen, Robert Patterson. Ay, dios mios, we have a teenage heartthrob in the making. Robert’s success with me, on an acting standpoint, is bold choices. From everything I’ve learned about acting, taking emotions to their highest level is what makes things interesting. It’s up to the actor to take those overemphasized emotions and make them believable. Robert could have been mildly uncomfortable during his first Biology class, but no. Robert’s Edward was noticeably pained, struggling to keep in control and not murder the entire classroom. You remember Jasper was described as “the guy who looks like he’s in pain.” Robert won the I’m In Pain Game by quite a lead. Other moments came together so beautifully my face felt ready to catch on fire. Rescue from muggers, and the look that made five grown men turn tail and head for the hills. Standing in the sun and looking at Bella, expecting her to run away because he thinks he looks hideous. *A side note- I do like the effect they used for the diamond-skin. The effect reminded me more of his skin coated with sharp glass, but that’s part of what it’s supposed to do. Attract some, repel others. Vampires are still creatures of horror.* And I LOVED, with capital L, when Robert was getting the venom out of Bella. Even though I knew how it was going to end, he convinced me that the desire to feed and the taste of Bella’s blood, his brand of heroin, was too much, and that he was going to kill her. Shivers down my little fangirl spine.
I’m going to go to Rosalie next, because she’s on my mind. Transitioning Rosalie from page to screen was interesting for me, mostly because I could see facial expressions transition perfectly. In the kitchen scene especially, I watched her go from “Why am I doing this?” to “I hope you’re happy, human, that we made idiots of ourselves” to “Who does this stupid mortal think she is?!” to “You are unnatural, and in the grand scheme of things, insignificant” to “Your death would be of great convenience to me. Do a girl a favor, kay?” Rosalie probably viewed Bella as something short-lived, much like a fad. Her family’s obsession irritated her, and in the end she just didn’t get why something ridiculous could be so important to someone else.
I have to go to Jasper next, because he’s Jasper. Jackson Rathbone gets bonus points from me for bringing a depth to Jasper’s character that wasn’t seen before in Twilight. Bella mostly passed over him as, “And this is another Cullen, Jasper,” but Jackson as Jasper really stood out to me. He was different from the others in the sense that he wasn’t as comfortable as the others with living a human life. This also reminds us of Jasper’s backstory, and how he didn’t hunt for the Cullens. He found Alice by chance, and it was Alice who brought him to the Cullens. It is established that Jasper disliked hunting, mostly because he felt his prey’s emotions before they died, though he did not feel the need to give up nor did see an alternative to human blood. It’s much easier for Alice, because she saw the life she would eventually lead with Carlisle, and was prepared to become a vegetarian. For Jasper’s limited role in Twilight, the book that focused much more on Edward and Bella, Jackson did a very good job. He receives my oh-so-important approval. CITATION ON HOW JASPER’S EMPATHY-POWER WORKS:
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0062503/bio Better believe it.
Alice also receives my approval. I know she’s seventeen in the books, but I imagine her much younger in appearance, maybe around thirteen or fourteen. The blending of a childlike frame with the wisdom in her words and actions that comes from living for eighty plus years and seeing the future is what defines Alice’s character in my head. I do like the way her visions were portrayed, and how the entire family reacts to her when she says something. My favorite Alice moment was when she called for the game to stop, and instantly everyone stops. Ashley’s voice matched My Mind’s Alice’s Voice very well, along with its contrast to Jasper’s voice. Ashley was another actress I had low expectations for, mostly due to how long they left her hair, but I do approve.
Carlisle, in several words, was much less developed than I would have liked him to be. They mostly emphasized how Carlisle only turned people who were going to die, and also how much self-control he had, but the fact that Carlisle has never killed a human nor fed on human blood seems to add a aura to him that acts as a light for the other vampires. Much of Carlisle’s history would have translated well to screen as a montage. Beginning with an old church his father preached at, watching a clearly human (wo)man be burned at stake for being a vampire, and realizing that the person wasn’t a vampire, resolving only to persecute the guilty, leading a hunt on vampires, a fight scene with a beautiful being so consumed by thirst it lost all decency, and especially Carlisle’s horror at what he became after three days of burning. Another thing I had been anticipating was more backstory on the process of becoming a vampire. Carlisle was where it all began: Three days in agony and not making a sound, and eventually the decision to turn his eventual family into vampires. Another scene I would have liked was how Rosalie and Emmett became vampires. Edward and Esme’s bite scenes came together so beautifully. Seeing Rosalie being bitten, and eventually Emmett, would have been a good addition. My issues with Peter Facinelli doesn’t stem from something he did wrong. It’s just the lack of opportunities he had to do something right.
I have a similar trouble with Esme. Esme’s maternity seemed to stem from “I am Carlisle’s wife, and hence, I am the mother to his children” rather than “I feel compelled to love and protect those in need of motherly love and protection.” There were enough young people who remembered being a teenager well enough to understand what a dream-mother would have been like. Combining that with Elizabeth Reaser’s interpretation of unconditional motherly love would have defined Esme’s personality and unique role in the Cullen family better. More screen time to develop this aspect might have helped. Maybe I think this way because I didn’t see enough of Elizabeth’s performance to decide either way.
Emmett by Kellan Lutz is the only Cullen missing now. I have to give him my Approval, mostly because of how he seemed to contrast with the rest of his family in the way he interacted with Bella. To him, she seems to be a toy, a notion I overwhelmingly got in his limited kitchen scene role. Participating in cooking an Italian dinner for Bella, saying that she’ll like it because, duh, her name is Bella, and waving a knife at the poor stab-able human shows that Emmett just thinks it’s hilarious that there’s a human in the house. The mental image I get of Lamb-Bella meeting Big Scary Emmett-Bear for the first time is he would give his most terrifying roar just to see Bella fold her ears over her eyes in fear. Then he’d laugh and apologize, just to watch her blush in embarrassment. Being human is a little foreign to him, mostly because of elapsed time, and watching a human react to vampires sparks his curiosity. The immaturity combined with his raw strenght and age creates a loveable, huggable Emmett I just want to take home with me, if not for Rosalie, who would stab me with a toothpick until I had so many splinters I killed myself to get away from the pain.
Now, with the Cullens covered, there are two main groups I want to address next: The humans and the nomads. The humans, I didn’t have a problem with. They provided a nice contrast to the vampires in the way they were silly, petty, and altogether trying too hard. None of the actors fell short in this area, making their performance comic relief and emphasizing how unnatural the Cullens were. Kudos to the humans. Any arguments I have against you are with your characters, not your talent or performance.
The nomads to me could have been a bit more feral. They are indeed vampires who feed on humans, and only stick together for company, and so that they hear more than the screams of their victims. I did enjoy the scene where the nomads killed the man in the boat. It drew attention to their superiority complex when it came to dealing with humans. To them, the only thing humans are good at is bleeding. It’s not worth keeping them alive. Makeup could have done more with Laurent to create the image of a vampire. It is hard for a black man to do ‘pale white’, so they could have used something to draw attention to how their skin is hard. Some sort of sheen would have done the trick perfectly. I imagine a black marble statue coming to life and then drinking the blood of the museum curator.
Mrs. Thrash drew this to my attention, and I agree with her. Makeup was splotchy. I also, for some strange reason I can’t fully explain, kept getting more and more frustrated with Robert Patterson’s eyebrows as the film went on. I wondered why Carlisle couldn’t have been the one to get the venom out, seeing as his self-control is perfect. Jacob was a little flatter than he had been in the books. His interest in cars and in Bella was downplayed (he wanted a master cylinder, not $20!) as well as the animosity between the werewolf-based Quileute tribe and the Cold Cullens. Bella voiceovers, a central point in the first-person book, would have been extremely helpful to KEEP throughout the movie, especially during the Vampire research scene. I really want to write the voiceover now, and then sew it back into the film.
But I can’t call this movie bad. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself. And I can’t deny that this movie made me very, very happy. Twilight DVD = WANT. VERY BADLY.
And here’s a little present for anyone who finds it interesting: Edward through the ages. Because he a hundred years old.
http://robbuz.deviantart.com/art/Happy-Birthday-Edward-Cullen-89226008
