Twilight

So I saw the Twilight movie today with some friends, and obviously the books were in the back of my mind. Talk about a book sensation: everybody talks about the Twilight series now like they talked about Harry Potter the last couple of years (everybody in Utah, anyway). As a lifelong leisure reader, I liked the story. I got sucked in and I read all four books. As an English major who is studying great literature and learning the techniques used to write that great literature in order to write better myself, I can't help thinking these books could have been written better. The moon imagery in the titles; the reinvention of vampires and werewolves; fight scenes, especially with the Volturi; the sensory detail readers get when Bella becomes a vampire are all great techniques Stephanie Meyer used to pull her readers in. And it's good that she used them because I have never followed a more whiny or naive protagonist than Bella. The problems in Bella and Jacob's relationship were visible long before they actually became problems; predictability like that is really hard to get away with in fiction and I didn't feel like Ms. Meyer earned it elsewhere in the story. Some of the turns in the story are great because they're totally unexpected, like when Edward disappears, but the pleasure of the plot twist was lost in page after page of Bella's pain. The section in the last book when we got out of Bella's head and into Jacob's during her pregnancy was great; why couldn't we have had something like that for the most dragging part of the story? But let's not dwell on the series; people have strong opinions. Let's talk about the movie.

The movie was fabulous! I can't think of anything from the book that was cut out of the movie, anything that was changed except maybe a few minor details. The actors were great: Dr. Cullen looked a bit younger than I imagined; Edward didn't look quite like I expected either but he pulled it off fabulously; Bella was pretty enough for the interest in her from other students to be believable and she was just clumsy enough to match the book (and not whiny at all!); Rosalie and Alice hit their characters right on the mark. The scenery was gorgeous. Actually seeing what Forks and the surrounding area might look like has totally changed for the better the image in my mind when I think of the books. The special effects matched the story and blended in to the fabric of the movie pretty well, and the music was beautiful. I want the soundtrack even if I never see the movie again. Even the ending was well done, indicating the possiblity of sequel movie but designed so that it will still work even if a second movie never comes out. My official stamp of approval on this movie: It is worth seeing at least once, especially if you've read the books.