Twilight

Viewer Rating:simonconnolly has rated Twilight rating: 2 Star

When her mother remarries and goes off on some worldwide voyage Bella Swan is forced to go live with her father in Forks, Washington. She had low expectations for this town but then she sees the mysterious Edward Cullen looming around. He's a very quiet guy who never really pays much attention to the ladies. So what follows is Bella more or less forces Ed to talk to her and soon after this big breakthrough he reveals that he is in fact a (vegetarian) vampire. Now usually in the film world this would result in hilarious consequences, gags and mishaps but sadly this film takes the depressing route and it leads to dangerous and dark consequences. Now unless you have been living in some kind of hole or cabinet for the past year or so then you will be well aware that this film has become somewhat of a worldwide phenomenon. The Twilight franchise, this being the first instalment, already has the potential to become one of the most successful and popular franchises in history. I'm not sure how but it seems that every single girl has fallen in love with this film, or more specifically with Robert Pattinson. Cedric Diggory has grown up and his presence in this film has led to thousands of posters being sold, bebo skins of him being made and of course to this film making a lot more money than it deserves. The thing is from what I can see in order to actually think this is a good film finding Pattinson attractive is a necessity. It was a smart move by director Katherine Hardwicke casting Rob. I say this as girls who watch the film are too busy lusting after the leading man strolling into a room in slow motion to see the films plot holes and other problems which lurk just beneath the glossy surface. For a start there is the annoyingly unrealistic school in which Bella arrives. After 5 minutes she is recruited by the cool kids and every Abercrombie and Fitch wearing twat tries to get stuck in to her. Another thing is after seeing the trailer for the second I found myself wondering if vampires and wolf people and other things only live in Washington. Now I know this sounds like I am nitpicking, which I am, but there are also some slightly more subtle but still undeniably present problems elsewhere. For a start the structure of the film is shockingly terrible. The majority of the film focuses on love affair between Bella and Edward and for me it lost steam very quickly and was unbearably repetitive. Then when something good actually happens ie non-vegetarian vampire goes after Bella all the resulting suspense and action is crammed into the final 20 minutes of the film. Also if you actually pay attention to the dialogue then you will soon realise it is really dire. I mean if you can show me anyone who has ever told another person “you're like my own personal brand of heroin” then I will show you a liar. The cast of the film are relatively good. Kristen Stewart is stunning as Bella although she was very unfairly outshone by Pattinson. If she was to star in an action film which became as popular as Twilight then maybe she could've been as famous as Pattinson is now but I guess it just wasn't to be. The pair do have wonderfully plausible chemistry though and this does save the film from becoming completely unmatchable for me. Robert Pattinson really stole the show, as I have mentioned. He this despite Stewart technically having the main role and him not being that good. He played a quiet and mysterious character which when you think about it isn't really that difficult. You have to not talk much and always look just a tad suspicious of everyone. I think most people could do that now. So all in all I thought this was a poor film. The sparkling chemistry and a fantastic turn from Stewart made it a little more bearable but regrettably the flaws outweighed the films good features. The film did win a lot of awards but don't let that fool you as it was at the MTV movies awards aka the biggest crowd pleasers ever (it beat Slumdog Millionaire for best film). The direction was also dreadful. A lot of the shots were very basic and she rarely opted for the spectacular. So basically if you are female then this will probably be your film of the year but if you just happen to like films then this should be avoided like a plague.

Review published on the 13 September 2009 20:11