Twilight

The insanely popular book comes to the big screen with mixed results in Twilight. Having read the book with equally mixed results, it seemed this week I either review this or The Secret Life of Bees. The title of that alone drew me off, I chose Twilight.

Bella Swan has just moved to a small town in Washington where despite being quite shy, she makes friends almost immediately. Then she meets Edward Cullen. She thinks he is quite handsome, but he appears to hate her. Turns out Edward is a vampire who, with his family, is hiding out here in Forks. Edward doesn't sleep in coffins or have fangs. No, he appears human, but has super strength and speed, and is immortal. But then a trio of evil vampires come to town, killing the local people. Can Edward stop the killing and save Bella?

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson play the leads. Stewart, having acted in some excellent films (Panic Room, Into the Wild) was quite good, convincingly having the look of an average girl and yet you can see why this vampire is so in love with her. Perhaps it helps that, instead of 99% of actors playing teenagers, Stewart is actually is one. Pattinson is okay, although at times it appears he's just trying too hard to be intense.

The special effects are laughable, albiet thankfully few. It's the rare movie where I'm glad there's only one fight scene. The supporting cast is okay, and the mega-Twilight fans out there are likely pleased with the vision that has been brought to screen. But alas, there are moments, many moments actually, where I laughed uncontrollably. (Hint: Not at the jokes.) The script needed more tweaking. The sudden popularity of the books forced the writer to speed up the script, and it shows at times.

If you're a teenage girl or a mega-Twilight fan (I've narrowed it down to about 30 million) then you will love this, make no mistake. As for me, I can go without another billion sequels. Judging by the money this will make, Hollywood probably won't listen to me. C