3/5 Oh so terrible, but amazingly addicting. Love it, but wonder why.
  by A. King
If I were rating this movie solely on quality of the film, it would get one star. if i were rating it solely on how much i love to watch it even though it's awful, it would get 5 stars. SO I averaged it and got 3.

The dialogue is horrendous, the effects cheesy, the music (not the soundtrack which is great, but the score) indescribably awful. It looks like a made for TV movie.

However- I can't stop watching it. i saw it 3 times in the theater and pre-ordered my own copy. It entertains me. Plus, Edward is nice to look at... oh, James too. LOVE James.To me this movie is absolutely hysterical- where it doesn't intend to be. The scene where Edward first sees Bella in class and he looks as if he may throw up on her??? Great! The look that Billy Black and Edward exchange as they pass each other in their cars? Priceless. I love the baseball scene! But the crouch down and prepare to fight stance they take at the end... Can anybody say Power Rangers? But just mentioning all this makes me want to watch it again. I know it makes no sense. It just has that power.

I should be embarrassed to like this, but I'm not. I will watch it over and over again proudly. I will recommend it to anyone I can. Watch it and love it. But know that it's terrible and know that it can't compare to the book and that all of it's charm is due to it's cheesiness.


1/5 Much ado about nothing
  by E. Ambrose (CA, USA)
The only people on earth who are allowed to sparkle are as follows...

1) Drag Queens. A Drag Queen who does not emit sparkly fabulousness from the core of their being is a very sad thing and should be given a hug.

2) David Bowie. Need I say more?

Someone needs to explain the why's and wherefore's of this whole "sparkly vampire" business to me. I really don't understand it at all. Going out in daylight... OK, Dracula could do it if he were well fed, so why not? But sparkles?

Anyway on to the meat of this review... (which will likely get thoroughly ignored as there seems to be so much hype over this flick)

As far as I can tell, Twilight has no plot. At all. There aren't any conflicts until the last 20 minutes or so. There isn't any drama. This is a vampire movie with no conflict among the main characters, only teen angst and Bella and Edward mooning over each other. The dialog between Edward and Bella would be better if it were done with semaphore flags. Thank goodness I had rifftrax going during those awkward silences. The really sad part is that neither of them really seems to have any real reason to angst over their boring lives. Nothing's really keeping them apart. The few glimpses of indistinguishable backup high schoolers didn't have anyone telling Bella what a horrible person she was and no one went to torment "the new girl."

Anything that could be remotely called interesting would have been centered around Bella's sheriff dad and the "maulings" (read: vampire attacks) he's investigating. But the script instead goes to focus on Bella and Edward's wangsting.

Anyone who thinks of Bella as a Mary Sue, I agree. This is perhaps the worst case of published marysueitis I have ever run across. Everyone likes her. She always gets her way. People drop everything to save her even if they have utterly no interest to do so. To make things worse, I found her to be a horrible character in general. There's one scene where one of the indistinguishable backup high schoolers is asking her out to the prom and she isn't paying the poor bit character the slightest whit of attention, preferring to gaze longingly at Edward in the distance. I'm sorry, but that's just rude and under most circumstances would probably make someone a bit miffed. I don't care if the poor guy is a bit character, I'd rather a small look at any of the their small dramas, because I could at least see that they had things going on in their lives from the tiny glimpses shown in the film.

Speaking of small bit characters, the best one is some poor construction or engineering guy in a hard hat who finds himself hunted by the "OMG bad vampires." I'll give the redshirt credit, the shadowplay on the screen says that he gave them a fight and with an iota more depth, he would have fought them off. :) Go redshirt, go! I'm told that scene was not in the books. It makes me lose all desire to ever read them.

As seems to be the trend for this movie, the villains aren't developed at all. They are clearly "OMG EVOL!!!1!!" because they act like, well, normal vampires and because they see Bella as an interesting snack. Were they given more depth or a motive at all, I probably would have started to root for them. As it was, I was bored silly.

Aesthetically speaking, the film wasn't terrible, although I could have done with less cool toned lighting. Kirsten Stewart is a pale deadpan enough without the camera making it even more obvious. Also, the soundtrack has a rather pretty piano piece in the middle, supposedly composed by Robert Pattinson. I hope he manages to get himself fired from the sequels before his entire career goes down the drain. He played a good Cedric in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

I wouldn't recommend Twilight to anyone. No amount of pretty camera work or tiny scene additions could save this movie from a script that would have been better used as toilet paper.

5/5 Became a fan after the movie...
  by Tyrisell (Vancouver, WA USA)
I had heard about the fantasy books by a friend when they first came out but didn't have the time to look into them. By the time the movie came out, I'd nearly forgotten about the book referral, but asked my hubby to take me as it looked like a good vampire romance flick. The scenery of the Pacific Northwest forests, rivers, and coastline was breathtaking and as a native to this area, it was like going out into my own backyard which made the film that more appealing. I was so captivated by the actors portrayal of the characters (the facial expressions and emotions brought out of the characters by Rob, Kristen, Peter, Nikki, and the rest were mesmerizing) and the depth of the back-story left me desiring more! The very next day after viewing the movie in the theater - I raced to the bookstore to grab the first book. I was hooked, read through all four books (plus went to the authors website to read the extra materials she had posted there) in a week. Then, still not satisfied, went back and saw the movie several more times - IN THE THEATER, something I've never felt compelled to do before - because I was so drawn to the characters and the story. This may have been written for the young adult audience but I'm 32 and a parent of four children, and still found the story to be well worth my time.

If you haven't read the stories, I encourage you to do so. Regardless, this film will be a treasured part of your movie collection and one you'll be sure to watch several times before you'll feel satisfied.

5/5 Obsessing over Twilight and can't wait for the DVD!!
  by Marcy Gomez (Kansas City, USA)
I came into the Twilight series not expecting much. The books were, after all, marketed to the teen crowd, so I originally dismissed it. I didn't expect much from the film. I wanted to see it not for the story, but because I knew Robert Pattinson from "Harry Potter" and enjoy the vampire book/movie genre.

4 books and 7 viewings later, I am happy to report that I am now a happily obsessed "Twilighter."

Going into the movie, I found myself hooked within the first 10 minutes. As soon as the Cullen siblings walked through the cafeteria door, I knew I was in for the ride. And by the time Edward and Bella were sitting together at the restaurant in Port Angeles, I was smitten. The love story, the beautiful vampires, and the amazing chemistry between leads Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, made this film - for me - utterly irresistible. I knew I wanted to see it again as soon as it was over, and the female relatives that I went to see it with couldn't agree more.

7 viewings later, I am still obsessed. Like "Titanic" and all the wonderful Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell tv/movie adaptations before it, I was enthralled by the love story of Edward and Bella. Edward Cullen, a 108 year old vampire trapped in the body of a 17 year old, falls in love for the first time...to a human - a young unsuspecting girl named Isabella Swan. Bella becomes equally fascinated by Edward, and this mutual fascination soon grows into yearning and love. Theirs is a Romeo & Juliet like love story but this time it's not a family feud that keeps them apart, but the fact that Edward is a vampire and Bella is a human - the predator and the prey fall in love (or as Edward puts it, "...and so the lion falls in love with the lamb"). Within the story are some other conflicts, as Edward and his family's true nature must remain a secret, and as other vampires threaten Bella's life.

Author Stephenie Meyer has crafted an irresistible tale, and screenwriter Rosenberg Melissa Rosenberg does a fine job of staying faithful with the novel. Some scenes and plotlines are changed around or omitted in order to make it work on film, but the essentials are there. Director Catherine Hardwicke does a superb job of bringing all the elements together and guiding her young cast through the journey, so I was saddened to hear that she will not be helming the sequel.

The major breakthroughs in this film, however, are the young and talented leads - Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. What started out as a small independent film has now become a worldwide phenomenon and has catapulted Rob and Kristen to the brink of superstardom. And this is no accident. The charismatic and versatile Robert Pattinson is brilliant as Edward. He properly conveys the internal conflict that rages within Edward and brings it out in full force. When he's onscreen, you couldn't take your eyes off him. His Edward can be gentle, loving and tender, but also fearsome and dangerous. Kristen Stewart brings a beautiful and nuanced performance. She is exactly how I pictured Bella and she does an excellent job of bringing the character to life. The supporting cast is also wonderful. Of the supporting roles, Billy Burke (Charlie Swan), Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen), Kellan Lutz (Emmett Cullen) and Peter Facinelli (Carlisle Cullen) are standouts. I think everyone - with the exception of Nikki Reed's Rosalie Hale/Cullen (who I feel just doesn`t fit Rosalie physically) - are perfectly cast.

I am also a fan of the soundtrack and Carter Burwell's amazing score, and I highly recommend purchasing these as a companion to the dvd. I am thrilled that the dvd is finally coming, and I although the final specs are not yet available, I hope that Summit Entertainment will release a dvd version filled with extras, deleted/extended scenes and behind-the-scenes footage. I'm a huge fan of the books and I feel that the cast and crew of Twilight has done an amazing job of bringing one of my favorite books to life. I'm looking forward to New Moon, and I hope that it will be as good as, if not better than, the first film. This film is a gem and one of my favorite love stories ever. Bella and Edward has joined the ranks of Elizabeth and Darcy, John Thornton and Margaret Hale, Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester, Cathy and Heathcliff, Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, and yes Romeo and Juliet, as two of my very favorite romantic couples that has ever graced the big and small screen.


4/5 Not bad
  by C. BIRD
I just got my Ultimate Blu-ray edition in the mail and it isn't entirely what I was expecting. The blu-ray disc, the photos, and the soundtrack are awesome, however, the jewelry box is made out of cardboard and the bookmark is nothing special. The bookmark just says Twilight on it. I have seen better bookmarks on other websites sold separately. The bracelet is decent. The watch looks like a kids watch that you can purchase out of a gumball machine. I am mostly just happy to have the dvd, but for $80, I was expecting the quality of the other items to be much, much better than they were. Overall, it probably would have been better to buy the blu-ray disc separately and then shop around at other websites, like Etsy.com, for the other items made from better material.