A disclaimer: if you like my Twilight posts because you hate Twilight and like to see me poke fun at it, you will find less to like in this post. Even if I wanted to bash the Twilight movie, I would be hardpressed to do so: it’s pretty great. But never fear, haterz; the snarkiness will return next week when I set in on New Moon.
As I said, Twilight the movie is awesome. It’s as if they traveled to the future, read my posts, and then went back to create the movie. All along, I’ve been saying that the plotting in Twilight is incredible; it keeps me reading, even though I occasionally couldn’t figure out why I was reading (it’s kinda like being a Mets fan). It was the writing, and particularly the female voice, that drove me insane. The fact that Twilight is in first person is what makes me want to occasionally destroy it.
Twilight the movie is in third person. In essence, all of the terrible things I hated about the book have been removed. All of the things I liked about the book have been amped up. I actually feel jealous that I didn’t write the movie, because it’s so entertaining. Anyone who says otherwise is jaded by feelings that were brought in from the book (or their perceptions of the book, if they haven’t read it).
Girls who say that the movie ruins Edward are correct. The book portrays a perfectly chivalrous, self-sacrificing, confident, gallant man who is her savior from the boring, terrible life she leads. The movie portrays a boy who is madly in love with a girl who he’s permanently in danger of killing violently. You can’t make a story with more tension than that. “I love you, but I also want to kill you and I don’t know if I can stop that from happening” is the real drama of Twilight, and the movie portrays it excellently.
Edward of the book is never awkward. He is angry, aloof, dangerous and mysterious, but never uncomfortable or at a loss for words. When she is introduced to his family and Rosalie flies off the hook, Edward is totally speechless. He looks painfully uncomfortable. Anyone in their right mind would be. The whole “I’m flying around in the woods showing you how powerful I am” thing looked a bit campy, but explained a point that the book failed at doing effectively: Edward could snap her in half.
Ms. Meyer tried to convey that point in the book, but since Bella was so enamored with him, she never really is afraid of Edward. And since we’re only privy to her perspective, it seems like Ms. Meyer is taking the fact that Edward is a vampire killing machine glibly. But when the movie is put in the third person, the whole thing makes so much more sense. Edward throws himself across the room when he starts making out with Bella; he was getting too involved. He was losing it. The Edward of Bella’s perception (and thus, the Edward of the book) doesn’t lose it, ever. And it doesn’t make any sense to readers who see the situation from the outside. But anyone who’s ever been in a remotely physical relationship understands the thin line that you walk tenuously when you start making out. The fact that the results of Edward losing control would result in Bella’s death instead of a baby is an incredibly heavy problem. One, I daresay, that is worth writing a novel about.
In addition to providing a perspective that makes the book make sense, the book knows where to cut and compress scenes. The story makes perfect sense, even if I hadn’t read the book (this is more than can be said for half the Harry Potter movies, so say the critics). They bridged unnecessary parts swiftly and smoothly, and make the movie move fast. I was kind of upset that this relegated the Cullens to non-entities in Twilight pt 2, but it had to happen.
The boys who say that the movie is wussy and brooding have obviously never seen a really wussy movie or a seriously brooding one. I would submit The Science of Sleep and Garden State for consideration in those respective categories. For the record, the former makes me want those two hours of my life back, which I would immediately deposit in another watching of the latter. I like brooding. And in fact, there’s probably not enough brooding in the movie. The movie moves fast.
In addition to rendering the book well, it adds in subplots and foreshadowing (see, Stephenie? Was that so hard?), fleshes out Charlie and Bella’s mom, and makes Mike a lot less of a whiny pushover.
But it does suck in this regard: the cinematography made me want to punch someone. Stop circling. Just stop. Also, the slow-mo pensive moments were weak, as a result of occasional poor music choices and lack of skill at directing the brooding (they should have had Zach Braff sit in and advise on those parts).
But on the whole, I give the Twilight movie an A-. If I hadn’t felt dizzy half the time from the circling cinematography (okay, seriously, this isn’t Wild America), it would have bumped up to the A. In short, I’d watch that film again.
Tune in next week to see New Moon go down (literally? metaphorically? you’ll have to tune in to find out!). I even bought the New Moon candy bar to eat while reading, to help me get in the mindset.