2.5/4 Stars
The population of Forks, Washington: three thousand, one hundred and twenty people. In addition to being a small community, where government and law enforcement are probably not the same level as in a large metropolis, Forks is cloudy and rainy. We can see why Forks is the perfect place for a family of sunlight-fearing potentially murderous vampires.
Bella Swan, played by Kristen Stewart, is from Arizona, and says at the outset of the film that she will miss the heat after moving to live with her father in Forks. The funny thing is that she really won’t, as she will prove to be eager to jump into the arms of a cold-skinned vampire named Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson.
Let’s rewind a bit. Bella goes to Forks to live with her dad, Charlie Swan, who is the chief of police. Billy Burke’s Charlie is a great character. Although he has a big heart and loves his daughter, he doesn’t open up to people. One can only guess that this emotional aloofness is the cause for his divorce with Bella’s mother, who remarried to a minor league baseball player. The film tries to portray Bella’s mother, Renee, as the loving and affectionate mother who is a foil to the stoic Charlie. However, Renee comes off as a little too affectionate and condescending towards Bella almost as if she were speaking to a five-year-old. Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan and Sarah Clarke’s Renee have no on-screen chemistry whatsoever, not to mention they have no physical resemblance aside from the fact that they are both females.
Bella enters high school, but not with her friend-zoned childhood buddy Jacob Black, who goes to school on a Native-American reservation. “It would have been nice to know one person,” she says. Turns out, Bella, being beautiful and attractive yet reserved, easily makes friends. Two of them are boys, Mike Newton and Eric Yorkie, each who have out-in-the-open crushes on Bella. However, it is the mysterious and handsome albeit moody biology classmate Edward who has Bella’s attention.
Edward is everything a girl is ashamed to be attracted to: unpredictable, dangerous, and drop-dead gorgeous. Edward displays rude and weird body language to Bella at first, but suddenly becomes charming to the point Bella’s tongue almost comes out of her mouth when Edward speaks. “You’re very hard for me to read,” he says. If Edward were not a mind-reading vampire, one might be led to believe that he is implying that he finds her sophisticated. He may as well be saying “I find you attractive and intellectually stimulating.”
Next thing you know, he saves Bella from a speeding, out-of-control truck poised to turn her into a bloody pancake, pushing away the vehicle aside with his bare hand. So he’s charming, protective, and incredibly strong?
Edward casually leaves, but Bella looks like she just saw a ghost, or rather, a vampire. She may have been on the brink of death, but she has questions. Edward doesn’t oblige. “Bella. You hit your head. I think you’re confused,” he patronizes. She doesn’t hesitate to make a trust-garnering verbal gesture: “I wasn’t going to tell anybody.”
While Bella and Edward play the game of romantic tag, three evil vampires wreak havoc in Forks. Vampires Laurent, James, and Victoria are murderers, but they have the vibes of sexual assailants, not killers. The three make a man on a boat their target. Cue a cheesy villainous line from Laurent: “James, let’s not play with our food.”
Twilight is clearly an anti-rape film, as all of the enemies have disturbing molester auras. Edward even saves Bella for a second time, this time from a group of rapists instead of an out-of-control car. He’s in it for the long haul. Edward then invites Bella for dinner. What happened to doing things in order?
Nevertheless, Edward starts explaining things to Bella, but only in a way that raises more questions. For one, he can read minds, but he can’t read hers; in other words, he has telepathy, but she repels his ability somehow. It’s a metaphor for the idea that people who are deep, not shallow, are attractive. This is what all girls want to believe: that it is the inside, not the outside, that counts. Soon after, Edward dishes out the romantic quote of the year: “I don’t have the strength to stay away from you anymore.”
When Bella and Edward get some alone time in the woods, Edward finally confirms Bella’s suspicion that he is a vampire. The visual proof? His skin is sparkly, a blatant metaphor that implies that his true self is beautiful even though he is a monster. The whole vampire revelation and Bella and Edward getting hitched happen almost simultaneously, as if him being a blood-sucking demon sealed the deal. Bella wants to feel danger; she thrives on it.
As the relationship between Bella and Edward progresses, Meyer reveals things about Edward that are clearly fan-service: he is chivalrous and his family is super rich. Edward is too perfect, but at least we learn some interesting things about the vampire world. Vampires are immortal, looking always at the age when they are transformed from human to vampire. Meaning, even though Esme, the foster mother of the Cullen family, looks older than Edward, she is actually younger. You heard right. Edward is older than his mom.
In the middle of a stunning Cullen family baseball scene supplemented by the stirring song Super Massive Black Hole, the three evil vampires make an appearance. We are an hour-and-a-half into the movie, with a half-an-hour left to go.
Needless to say, the arc involving James, the most animalistic of the three, and his hunt for Bella is rushed. Within ten film minutes later, Laurent switches sides. Edward goes from mildly concerned to full-on panicking immediately. James gets in a few minutes of rapey foreplay with Bella before Edward appears and quickly rips out a piece of his throat. Next thing we know, Bella is in the hospital. And that ends a fifteen-minute segment, with fifteen minutes dedicated to the high school prom scene.
We see Edward and Bella dancing in a gazebo, with slow, romantic music playing. The scene is tender with a good change of pace. We go from rushed filming to slow filming. Bella is torn, saying that she is “dying” every second she remains human. She conflictingly submits herself to be an undead. Edward will protect Bella in every way he can, even from life as a monster, refusing to turn her into a vampire. Instead, he softly kisses her neck, beautifully ending the movie.
The first hour-and-a-half of the movie are completely fine, fantastic even. However, Hardwick dedicates less than thirty minutes to the subplot of James’ hunt for Bella. The story within this time is rushed and escalates far too quickly. We have just a few overly intense scenes that the viewer simply did not care about. We spent the first three quarters of the movie building up the romance between Bella and Edward, and just about nothing else.
Hardwick made some unique and bold musical choices. Unlike a lot of film scores, the songs had lyrics and some sounded like hippies sang them. The music was strange, but effective. People will hear Super Massive Black Hole and think: “Twilight”.
For the most part, the choice of actors and actresses was spot on. My least favorite was, as mentioned, Sarah Clarke, who played Renee, and my favorite was Peter Facinelli, who played Carlisle, Edward’s foster father. You could say that Billy Burke, who seemed emotionally stiff, was born to play the role of Charlie. Stewart and Pattinson displayed great romantic chemistry, and the actors for the Cullen family and Bella’s friends were colorful and consistent.
Hardwick portrayed the story of Bella and Edward’s romance well, as there is genuine attraction between the two. The pace at which Edward revealed his identity as a vampire kept the audience on the edge of its seat. The movie looked like it was going in the right direction, yet Hardwick was too loyal to the book during the James arc. The part where Laurent switched sides could have been left out, and the part where James toyed with Bella could have been less melodramatic. Twilight was so close to being absolutely brilliant, but fumbled in some of the final scenes. Despite its flaws, however, the story of Twilight will be remembered for its riveting romantic intricacies and metaphors.