The Twilight Saga: Twilight
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
During the holidays my little sister forced me to go see Twilight with her and I was fully prepared to hate it. I actually expected to hate it based on several things that I had seen in the trailer. There’s an event that couldn’t possibly escape attention (or scrutiny) and some ridiculous tree climbing, but the worst part is the vampires outside during the day. There’s also a hint of the even more ridiculous baseball scene, and, even though it’s not obvious how silly the scene is in the trailer, it deserves mention. The vampires are also all heavily make-up’d and look quite a bit different from everyone else that they interact with on a regular basis. “How could a movie with so many issues possibly be any good?” I thought. “This is going to be terrible.”
- Score
- 4/10
And I was wrong. Twilight is a fun movie and I didn’t even mind those things (much) during the ride. I guess it comes down to whether or not you can accept that these two characters can fall for each other…because the part of the story that matters is the emotional connection between Bella and Edward. There is a subplot involving some “bad” vampires, but it is quickly wrapped up right after it seems like it might change the direction of the film. Another director might have detrimentally focused on that more action-oriented part of the narrative, but Catherine Hardwicke stayed true to the source material (as I understand it…I haven’t read the book), only using it as a side note to strengthen the love story. And that’s all it is: a love story. 
The bloodsuckers in the film barely qualify as vampires (certainly not in the traditional sense) and exist only as a plot device to introduce the element of “forbidden love” into the tale. But, as I already mentioned, if you’re willing to accept these things then you will most likely enjoy the movie. Twilight worked for me specifically because Bella is an incredibly easy character to fall for, but if Kristen Stewart hadn’t been cast in this movie then things might have turned out very differently.
