Post by BIGFANBOY on Nov 21, 2008 5:42:51 GMT -5
TWILIGHT
Review by Gary Dean Murray
At the press screening of Twilight, I knew that this wasn’t going to be my film. Other than the stoic critics’ row, the auditorium was filled with young teen girls, some of which had been waiting to get into the screening since noontime. Before the film, the audience was serenaded by a trio of young women who have a band that does songs based on the love story that is Twilight. There was this giddy anticipation that rippled throughout the audience even before the first image flickered.
The film opens in medias rea, or in the middle of things. In a voice over we hear Bella (Kristen Stewart) mulling over the idea of giving your life to save the life of someone you love. Then we go back to the beginning. Isabella (aka Bella) is a pale young woman from sunny Phoenix who must move to the small town of Forks, in the dark Washington wilderness. It seems that Mom has remarried and she must move in with Dad Charlie (Billy Burke). This town of 3,000 has the biggest high school ever for such a small area. All the kids are attracted to Bella, the girls wanting to be a good friend, and the boys wanting to be the next boyfriend.
Bella finds out that there is a mysterious Cullen family of adopted kids who are never in school on rare sunny days. The local doctor takes care of his brood. The Cullen kids are two couples and a single loner, Edward (Robert Pattinson). When Bella finds that she has to share a lab station with this brooding young man, he turns on her and stays away from school for days. Once back, one day he tells her that he likes her and the next day he warns her to stay away from him. Then he saves her by dashing to her side at breakneck speed and pushing back a car. This seesaw relationship makes Bella fall in love with him.
As she learns about Edward, Bella begins to piece together all the clues and figures out that he is a vampire. He is attracted to her because he can't read her mind. But if he would look in her eyes, he could get a very good guess of what she is thinking of. The rest makes Guess Who is Coming Home to Dinner? seem like a walk in the park. We find out that Edward has to stay out of the sun because vampires glisten like golden gods in the sunlight. Also, since Edward doesn’t sleep, he spends his nights in true stalker fashion watching Bella sleep. Oh, and the vampire clan are ‘vegetarians’ because they don’t drink human blood, just animal blood. But, Edward is attracted to Bella’s blood as if he were a crack addict and she were the mother load of rock cocaine.
The remainder of Twilight is Bella learning about the world of Edward while a terror rampage is happening around the town of Forks. It all almost builds to a confrontation between different vampire forces and the protection of Bella. This starts during a rainy vampire baseball game - yes, a vampire baseball game.
There are so many roles in this film that are small but filled with future Hollywood stars. Much like Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused, this will be a film that will be known as the starting point for the next generation of actors. Anna Kendrick, who was just brilliant in Rocket Science, gets a few moments to shine as one of the gaggle of new best friends to Bella. She does another shining beacon performance in a sea of young strong performances.
This film is going to be this generation’s Titanic. By that, I do not mean a film that will win loads of Oscars, but a film that will be viewed and reviewed by young girls looking for that two hour journey with the cute boy, Robert Pattinson. And if this audience reaction is the norm, this young man is going to be the teen heartthrob of his generation. There was a collective gasp when the audience was subjected to his golden glistening torso. He is the reason and the only reason this film will make its millions, which it will. Kristen Stewart is our girl next door. She is very pretty, but not intimidating. Every girl will put themselves in her place as the lass that drives the man-boy-beast wild.
But the biggest problem with Twilight is that there is no story. There are no true elements of danger and of peril. It exists almost as if it just exists, without any drama. We get references to a clash between the Native Americans and the Vampire clan, but nothing much is made of it. No sense of dread and doom is explored, and the villains almost seem just a tagged-onto device to give some drama to the proceedings. It meanders and drags along without any point or urgency. The star-crossed lovers work if the love puts everyone on both sides in peril. But Twilight has no such basis in story, no tension when Edward brings his new girl home, just acceptance by his family.
The fault of Twilight has to fall first on the shoulders of screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg. She never finds a compelling story to tell, just a few beats of interest. Some of her lines are laughable and the kids saying them seem lost in trying to be sincere. But the biggest error of Twilight is in the direction. Catherine Hardwicke drives this film as if she were making Romeo and Juliet when in fact Tromeo and Juliet has a stronger story. Over-brooding teen angst is never a substitute for actual dramatic structure. This film flails like a cod out of the stream.
Not only is Twilight one of the worst movies of the year, it could be one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. I can forgive some bad independent flick, but this is a major release so its sins are held to a higher degree. I’d rather have my tonsils removed via my backside than be subjected to this horrid bit of trash.
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