[wbassett]

[img]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l190/wbassett/HTS/MovieReviews/Twilight/518rNOWZ4UL__AA240_.jpg[/img]

Actors: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson
Directors: Catherine Hardwicke
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Number of discs: 2
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Summit Entertainment
DVD Release Date: March 21, 2009
Run Time: 122 minutes

[img]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l190/wbassett/HTS/MovieReviews/Twilight/twilight16lg.jpg[/img]

Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) doesn't expect much when she moves to the small town of Forks, Washington. Unless you're a tween, don't expect much from Twilight either.

It's not a totally horrible movie (like Blood and Chocolate), but it's not a true vamp movie in my opinion either. My wife did like it though, so that says volumes- First that it isn't scary in the least, second that there is no blood at all, and the violence is tame and obvious. Lastly, I guess it was romantic to her. Don't get me wrong, I actually like a good romance now and then, and even caught myself sniffling up at the end of the Notebook... although I claimed I was just clearing my throat.

Before I get too far into the reveiw, let me say that one of the many genres I have neatly categorized on my 6.5' wide by 8' high DVD shelves is a genre section dedicated strictly to Vampires. There is of course Interview with the Vampire and the horrible sequel, John Carpenter's Vampires and Vampires: Los Muertos, Dracula (1931 with Bela Lugosi), Stephen King's Night Flyer and Salem's Lot, Shadow of the Vampire, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dracula 2000, Dracula II Ascension, 30 Days of Night, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and bought my daughter the entire TV series), and of course Twilight. I am totally hooked on True Blood and will have season one as soon as it comes out. I have more but don't feel like going down to my shelf right now, but I think I made my point! Oh... I totally forgot one of my favorites- Lost Boys!
So yeah, I like vamps. It's just one of many movie genre's I have and part of my horror collection. With that said, back to Twilight.

[img]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l190/wbassett/HTS/MovieReviews/Twilight/twilight6.jpg[/img]

I never read the book, so hopefully it is much better than the movie, or at least explains things that the movie doesn't. For instance the Vampires in Twilight seem to be able to go out during the day. I know the movie takes place in the state of Washington, and Washington can be a rather rainy and dreary place. Thing is even an overcast sky during the day has lots and lots of UV (I've gotten my worse sunburn on an overcast day) and Vamps and UV normally don't go together well. The Vampires in Twilight don't seem to have a problem with 'mild sunlight' though. They also break another classic Vampire 'rule'- They can be seen in mirrors, however this one has also been broken in other flicks too and is starting to become acceptable.

[img]http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l190/wbassett/HTS/MovieReviews/Twilight/twilight-backlot-21.jpg[/img]

I guess it's the whole 'family' thing that really made me snoot my nose. Not like a brood of vamps, but literally a family that was somehow turned into vampires, but still tries to function as a family. In Twilight the Vampires of Fork, Washington are not only integrated with the population, the father, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, is the town doctor. The 'kids' even go to highschool. And of course these are good vampires that denouced the drinking of human blood and only feed on animals.

The main focus though is on Edward Cullen, a 17 year old that has been 17 for around 200 years. Edward spends his days going to school (when it's overcast out, and it always seems to be overcast in Fork, Washinton) and other than that hangs out in a pretty posh mansion.

Edward pretty much stays to himself in school, and for obvious reasons he doesn't have a girl friend. That is until Bella Swan moves to Fork to live with her father. Of course the only open seat at school is next to Edward... which naturally means romance ensues. Bella of course doesn't know Edward is a blood sucker, and thinks he's just being rude at first. Naturally she changes her mind after Edward appears out of nowhere and literally stops an out of control van from crushing Bella. And what is even more impressive to a gal than saving her life? Stopping a two ton van with one hand and then cooly hopping over a truck and leaving without saying a word.

I understand what Twilight is and isn't, and obviously it works for the tween set because it made a killing at the box office and the DVD sales are through the roof. For people that like their Vamps a bit more vicious and bloody though, Twilight is more like a vampire fairy tale and the die hards probably won't like it... and I will even include the diehard younger vamp fans too.

Aside from the issue of them being able to go out in sunlight, the other thing that turned me off was the fight scenes. It was so obvious that they were on wires and doing wire work that even though the wires themselves were digitally removed, you could tell exactly where the wires were just by the motion. At least I'll give them credit for not CGing everything, but there is plenty of CG floating around in Twilight, some good, some not so good.

And what is a movie without the antagonist? There must be a bad guy, so naturally there are the bad vamps to shake things up a bit with the human protecting good vamps.

[MOUSE]Fun Facts: When the 'evil vampires' make their first appearance, actors Cam Gigandet, Rachelle Lefevre and Edi Gathegi are all wearing little slippers painted like bare feet.[/MOUSE]​

Still, like I said, this wasn't nearly as bad as Blood and Chocolate and BandC was geared for a more adult audience! At least I can give Twilight a pass because it wasn't really intended for adults, it was targeting the younger tween set and it seems to have done that well. Blood and Chocolate... well I disliked it so much I tried giving it away and nobody else wanted it either! At least Twilight was watchable.

Visually the DVD looks drab and murky, but for the most part that's intentional and to portray the gloomy overcast weather in Fork, Washington. The sound to me was average. Let's just say nothing jumped out at me as far as surround channels or sub and the music didn't leave a lasting impression either. I will be watching this again and will pay more attention to the soundtrack to see if I overlooked anything the first time around... but overall it didn't blow my socks off.

The two disc DVD contains

• Audio commentary by Catherine Hardwicke, Kristen Stewart, and Robert Pattinson Muse
• music video: "Super Massive Black Hole" Paramore music video: "Decode" Linkin Park
• music video: "Leave Out All the Rest"
• Five extended scenes with director introductions
• Five deleted scenes with director introductions
• Seven-part documentary: "The Adventure Begins: The Journey from Page to Screen" Comic-Con "fandom" piece Comic-Con NY sizzle reel
• Three trailers Penelope trailer

I will say that this movie is young teen friendly, so parents don't have to worry about their kids seeing inappropriate material. It is rated PG-13 and I'd say it fits the rating well. Aside from some mild fight scenes, it is more fantasy than gore and safe for the kids to watch.

I give it :2.5stars:
The one I am really looking forward to seeing and reviewing is Let the Right One In...

 

[Sonnie]

Re: Twilight

This looks like a very interesting movie. I am looking forward to giving it a spin in the new HT room.

 

[wbassett]

Re: Twilight

Sonnie I think if you go into this knowing it's more of a teen romance movie and isn't a going for gore or shock value alone, then yeah... this isn't that bad. Originally I bought this to review and was going to give it to my 22 year old daughter that loves everything vampire, but my wife said she really likes it and wants to keep it.

To me it was kind of like coming inside on a super hot day and expecting a nice cool glass of ice water and getting semi sour lemonade instead. If you ever had that happen to you, then you know what I mean . And it has nothing to do with not liking lemondade... it's just something totally different than you expected and catches you off guard.

On a technical note, the screenplay was written in six weeks. It's actually amazing the movie is as good as it is, but seeing it was written that fast I am sure there was a lot from the book that was left out.

Still though, look at the pictures from the movie... that's a lot of sunlight to me! Vamps+Sunlight=Nasty Things

 

[Sonnie]

Re: Twilight

Yeah... definitely not the traditional vampire type movie, but I think I will like the storyline of the immortal protecting the mortal, to a certain extent. Not being a bona fide vampire movie watcher, my expectations are probably not near yours.

 

[wbassett]

Re: Twilight

Tis just one of many genre's in my collection Sonnie.

Would you be surprised if I told you I also have a Cary Grant collection! Actually I doubt you'd be surprised because we had a conversation about RomComs and both like them too.

Like I mentioned, the script was written in six weeks. I personally would have liked to have learned more about the Cullen family, like what happened to them? They must have all be 'turned' at the same time. Also they obviously retained most of their humanity and want to blend in and stay tied to us humans. To me that would be very interesting to find out more about them.

But it is what it is... It works for it's target audience. The movie is so popular that the Walmart I bought my copy from was keeping them all behind the cash register counter. I guess they must have been high theft items or something. That's the first time I ran into that at Wally World.

There is a sequel coming, but it looks like Edward is getting a smaller role in it. New Moon sounds like it will be branching off into the 'hairier' side of things and be about werewolves. I'm sure it will be just as popular as Twilight. My hope and request is to add a little more back ground information from the books. Perhaps if this turns into a full blown franchise title they will start giving us more and more tidbits as things unfold.

If you're curious, here is a list of most of my movies. I don't have everything cataloged yet but I'm getting there slowly but I'm getting there!

 

[thewire]

Re: Twilight

They are supossed to be a trilogy and while I do enjoy those types of films, this one just does not look like it is going over well with what I heard. I will give it a try since we now own this in our collection.

 

[Jeff Aguilar]

Re: Twilight

My fourteen year old son summed up the movie very well, he went and saw it with a friend. He said it is a 'Chick Flick'. We saw it the other day and it most definitely is a 'Chick Flick'. For teen girls, really. It takes place in 'Forks', WA. We used to live an hours or so away, in Port Angeles when we were first married. I refereed football ball games there at the high school years ago! It truly is a 'Rain Forest'!

 

[thewire]

Re: Twilight

I was not allowed to see the movie because I was told I was not going to like it, and I had to wait for the next movie in the series to appreciate the story. Any kind of movie with fans that will not let you see it must be very bad.

 

[Tommy]

Re: Twilight

I want my 2 hours back.... Really be glad they didnt let you watch it.