i’ve seen twilght twice now (both times with friends who vehemently despised it and proceeded to trash it all over town) and, honestly, i did not think it was overly terrible. yes, there were some things that could have been done better, but there always are. this movie could never have been made in such a way that it pissed absolutely no one off. i think it was a good adaption of a book and a fair stand-alone film. i mean, yeah, the acting was a bit dodgy (the second time I saw it it could have easily been a comedy) and the plot a bit here, there and everywhere - on which I will elaborate in a second – but at least it was respectable.
on to the criticism.
for people like me, who’ve read each book a million times and are tempted to scream “why the FUCK did they rename the biology teacher? really, what did that achieve?!” in the cinema, the film was rather lacking. and it was definitely too rushed. especially when they went into the “meadow” and it was like a fricking chink of light though a couple of leaves and he stood and looked pissed for a second and then she was like “woah, eddie, you’re gorj” and he was like “boo hoo man, i’m a fecking killer wah” and then they moved on. it was shockingly cavalier for one of the definitive scenes in the novel/film. and they weren’t even in love yet. ORDER OF EVENTS, PEOPLE. so yeah. that almost ruined the whole thing for me. it was, like, “keep the fuck away from me, mortal *sparkles* no wait, i love you!”
at least, that’s what i got from it.
the only other thing that REALLY bugged the crap out of me was bella’s lullaby. crap as. crap, crap thou-shalt-be-hung-drawn-and-quartered-carter-burwell-crap. so beautiful and complicated that she can’t believe only one pair of hands was playing it (or something like that)? i think not. the left hand was all octaves and the right hand used about three notes.
i could have composed something better.
BUT, that being said, i don’t think it was a bad film. not, as in, it was first-rate cinematography or acting or special effects (did ANYONE ELSE see that sad excuse for tree-climbing?), but that had quite a nice tone. i sometimes feel resentful of movies because of their tone, but this one was acceptable. it was suitably grey but also romantic and mildly comic. i was scared that whoever wrote the script would interpret twilight as some sort of saddo horror flick or sappy romantic comedy,
TANGENTING
that’s the thing about films as opposed to books – you can read books however you like and kind of project whatever mood you’re in onto it. like, the first time i read twilight i read it as a vampire novel with bits of romance, the second time a romance with bits of vampire… books just sort of adapt to your mood. the same book can tell you ”woo! he SPARKLES!” or “my life is a lie,” depending on how you’re feeling. whereas films are like “this is it. this is what’s here. there is no room for interpretation… or mental activity period, really. now watch it on pain of death.”
DE-TANGENTING
but they captured it quite nicely.
in short, i will definitely be seeing new moon.
