Thoughts on Twilight movie

OK, So I promised I would post my thoughts on the Twilight movie for those that might care. I would like to say that overall, I try to just enjoy movies and not critique them too harshly. It is hard. I am very critical of acting and directing especially, so it is hard for me to just enjoy any movies (or tv shows, or plays...). I have learned to expect nothing so I will not be disappointed. It is also hard to enjoy movies with Wes watching with you. Not one mistake will go by without comment or making fun of. Luckily with this movie, I expected less than nothing as most of my friends panned it. Because my expectation to like this was so very very nonexistent, I found that I did think it was alright. I MIGHT even go so far as to say I liked it a bit.

I actually enjoyed the book. Thought it was an interesting take on the whole vampire thing, and a very different story. It didn't make sense, but I was happy to suspend my disbelief and just enjoy the sappy, silly love story. The writing was poor. Very poor. But she had a good idea that intrigued me and I wanted to read more-to read the whole series (and I did). Bella was far too whiny in the book. Edward was far too willing to ignore her faults in spite of his century+ experience with people. And lets be honest, what the heck was she even doing with Edward when Jacob was the one that treated her so well. Edward is like the bad dangerous boy that she cannot resist and Jacob is like the nice guy that treats her well. Weird...anyway...

I bring all this up because it brings me to my first point about the movie...the acting. Given the material, I wondered how the actors could even do it. I saw the girl playing Bella in the movie Speak, and she is a GREAT actress. I hoped this role would not ruin her. I have to say that given the character and material, she did remarkably well. Bella was much more manageable to me than she was in the book. However, the main important thing to get that movie right was to have some MAJOR chemistry between Bella and Edward, and there was none. Can I also throw in here that the entire Cullen/vampire clan with the exception of Esme and maybe Alice was miscast. Rosalie was a character I actually liked int he book-this was SO the wrong actress for her. All the Cullens were way wrong...

One more very annoying thing for me...what the heck was the sparkling thing in the sun. It sucked. Where were their awesome special effects? That was like-hey lets throw some minimal glitter on our actor and call it good. What the heck?! Was this a studet production on a shoe string budget or a Hollywood movie? SO BAD!!

And the final fight-come on. It was just so minimal. Again, was this a budget issue or were we really making the choice to show so little of the fight and to do it in the background while we focus on Edward on Bella only. Duh.

Best characters/actors: Jacob & Esme (also must mention here that the evil vampires were great as well-especially the evil chick-she rocked!!!)
Worst characters/actors: Rosalie tops the list with the rest of the Cullins (Edward & Dr Cullen included, Alice excluded) in second place.
Worst scenes/effects: glittering vampire, and fight scene.
My favorite scene: the very last 10 second of the movie. Please oh please give evil Miss vampire much more screen time in the next movie!

I give the movie a 2.5 of 5 stars. I did not HATE it, but I didn't like it a whole lot either. It was middle of the road at best.