Some Observations...
On the "Twilight" book and the movie that just came out recently.
First, something a fan of the books posted on her DeviantArt journal
The pacing for this movie was TERRIBLE.
I didn’t believe in Bella and Edward’s love AT ALL. They got rid of so many of the important scenes and lines in the book that made me melt into a puddle at the romance of it all. This movie didn’t have that. Kristen was so bla and uninterested as Bella that I sometimes felt like she barely liked Edward, much less LOVED him. Robert was better as Edward and used what he had to work with I guess. It just felt like the two were kind of indifferent towards one another and then BOOM they’re in love. The movie completely raped the meadow scene too BTW. One of the best scenes romantic wise in the book. Instead of it happening after their relationship is established, Bella wanders off into the woods and Edward follows and it is here that she confronts him about what he is. She figures it out, he throws a few branches then he spits out the “So the lion fell in love with the lamb.” line. WHAT??? They’re in love now? And after that crap we get a 60 second montage of their “love” that’s nothing more then a shadow of what was in the book. Even Bella’s lullaby was raped. They don’t even mention that he wrote it for her. He’s just playing it on the piano for a few seconds during the montage. At this point I was trying to put myself in the position of someone who’s never read the book and felt that I wouldn’t enjoy this movie at all!
Another problem I had was with the Cullen’s themselves. So much information about Edwards’s family is in the first book. They are barely there in the movie. Bella and Edward talk a lot about this kind of stuff in the book. Bella has a lot of questions and Edward answers. The biggie being how Edward got changed. We get a 5 second sepia toned flashback of that as well as a 3 second flashback of Esme. They don’t mention her attempted suicide or anything. Even in the baseball scene she barely says a word to Bella. She barely says anything at ALL. I think Rosalie and Alice have a total of 2 lines and I can’t remember Emmett and Jasper saying ANYTHING. Bella seemed to not give a crap about any of them either.
The bad guys were fine. They were pretty close to the book I guess but since Alice apparently isn’t important they didn’t bother to put in that very interesting James/Alice story. Kind of a big deal, Summit. Oh well, since they didn’t bother to have Alice talk to Bella much I guess the conversation of how Alice doesn’t remember being human doesn’t matter. All of these interesting character interactions are what made me love the book so much.
I think they should have split the book into 2 movies. I didn’t think they’d need to but it’s the only way of getting all of these important scenes in the movie. I can’t imagine anyone who hasn’t read the books liking this movie. This film is only a fraction of what it could have been. I feel awful because I went in with low expectations and it was worse then I thought. The lovey mushy gushy romance I wanted to see on the big scene was smooshed into one 60 second kissing scene. God this movie pissed me off. I didn’t want to be “that fan” who is upset because they didn’t wear the same outfits described in the book or anything like that but seriously, Summit, you could have done MUCH better.
And now, my two-cents...
Not to sound like a devil’s advocate... but I think Twilight fans who found the movie disappointing are getting something of a taste of what us who aren’t fans of the series have been feeling like.
I heard about the series from some people online -- some fans, some others who didn’t like the books -- and decided to take a look for myself. Fortunately I had a local friend from work who had the books and she lent me her copy of the first book to read.
To be frank, I wasn’t impressed with the plot or characters. Bella came off as bland and someone that really wanted to make you love her, but failed miserably. Edward appeared as some general creep who overplayed the “loner/emo” card one too many times. None of the other characters really struck me as any sort of interesting; even the Cullens, who are supposed to be the “big bads” of the book, but they looked all schlocky in execution.
Even when it came to the romantic interaction between Bella and Edward, it fell all flat as an open can of soda. There didn’t seem to be an ounce of chemistry between them, and their falling in love seemed forced.
I returned the book to my co-worker, and left it at that after I’d finished the whole book; Twilight just doesn’t really “sing” from my viewpoint, and I can tell you from the get go that I’m a big sucker for romance stories. Even ones of an impossible/it will never work type that seems to have been a hallmark for a lot of shows and books in the past decade or so (anyone remember CBS’s Beauty & The Beast with Ron Pearlman?).
Now we come to the Twilight movie, and I hear a mixed bag reaction from the fans; some liked it, others -- like Candy -- didn’t. And I find it somewhat funny that fans that didn’t like it -- aside from the obvious reasons of a lot of stuff left out, etc. -- is that they found the story lacking and the two main characters have no chemistry together.
You could blame Hollywood or the director for failing to comprehend the book, or not getting their info from Meyer herself, but I really think that if you boil it all down, the real reason Twilight fans found the movie so wanting, was for the reason a lot of us who read the book didn’t like it either.
In all honesty, it’s a poor plot with clumsy character chemistry, that tries to be a sweeping epic romance. Sad to say, it failed.
That’s my informed opinion, anyway.
And that's pretty much all I have to say about that . . . save for one little blurb about the whole deal:
Real vampires don't sparkle.
-- Stephen
First, something a fan of the books posted on her DeviantArt journal
The pacing for this movie was TERRIBLE.
I didn’t believe in Bella and Edward’s love AT ALL. They got rid of so many of the important scenes and lines in the book that made me melt into a puddle at the romance of it all. This movie didn’t have that. Kristen was so bla and uninterested as Bella that I sometimes felt like she barely liked Edward, much less LOVED him. Robert was better as Edward and used what he had to work with I guess. It just felt like the two were kind of indifferent towards one another and then BOOM they’re in love. The movie completely raped the meadow scene too BTW. One of the best scenes romantic wise in the book. Instead of it happening after their relationship is established, Bella wanders off into the woods and Edward follows and it is here that she confronts him about what he is. She figures it out, he throws a few branches then he spits out the “So the lion fell in love with the lamb.” line. WHAT??? They’re in love now? And after that crap we get a 60 second montage of their “love” that’s nothing more then a shadow of what was in the book. Even Bella’s lullaby was raped. They don’t even mention that he wrote it for her. He’s just playing it on the piano for a few seconds during the montage. At this point I was trying to put myself in the position of someone who’s never read the book and felt that I wouldn’t enjoy this movie at all!
Another problem I had was with the Cullen’s themselves. So much information about Edwards’s family is in the first book. They are barely there in the movie. Bella and Edward talk a lot about this kind of stuff in the book. Bella has a lot of questions and Edward answers. The biggie being how Edward got changed. We get a 5 second sepia toned flashback of that as well as a 3 second flashback of Esme. They don’t mention her attempted suicide or anything. Even in the baseball scene she barely says a word to Bella. She barely says anything at ALL. I think Rosalie and Alice have a total of 2 lines and I can’t remember Emmett and Jasper saying ANYTHING. Bella seemed to not give a crap about any of them either.
The bad guys were fine. They were pretty close to the book I guess but since Alice apparently isn’t important they didn’t bother to put in that very interesting James/Alice story. Kind of a big deal, Summit. Oh well, since they didn’t bother to have Alice talk to Bella much I guess the conversation of how Alice doesn’t remember being human doesn’t matter. All of these interesting character interactions are what made me love the book so much.
I think they should have split the book into 2 movies. I didn’t think they’d need to but it’s the only way of getting all of these important scenes in the movie. I can’t imagine anyone who hasn’t read the books liking this movie. This film is only a fraction of what it could have been. I feel awful because I went in with low expectations and it was worse then I thought. The lovey mushy gushy romance I wanted to see on the big scene was smooshed into one 60 second kissing scene. God this movie pissed me off. I didn’t want to be “that fan” who is upset because they didn’t wear the same outfits described in the book or anything like that but seriously, Summit, you could have done MUCH better.
And now, my two-cents...
Not to sound like a devil’s advocate... but I think Twilight fans who found the movie disappointing are getting something of a taste of what us who aren’t fans of the series have been feeling like.
I heard about the series from some people online -- some fans, some others who didn’t like the books -- and decided to take a look for myself. Fortunately I had a local friend from work who had the books and she lent me her copy of the first book to read.
To be frank, I wasn’t impressed with the plot or characters. Bella came off as bland and someone that really wanted to make you love her, but failed miserably. Edward appeared as some general creep who overplayed the “loner/emo” card one too many times. None of the other characters really struck me as any sort of interesting; even the Cullens, who are supposed to be the “big bads” of the book, but they looked all schlocky in execution.
Even when it came to the romantic interaction between Bella and Edward, it fell all flat as an open can of soda. There didn’t seem to be an ounce of chemistry between them, and their falling in love seemed forced.
I returned the book to my co-worker, and left it at that after I’d finished the whole book; Twilight just doesn’t really “sing” from my viewpoint, and I can tell you from the get go that I’m a big sucker for romance stories. Even ones of an impossible/it will never work type that seems to have been a hallmark for a lot of shows and books in the past decade or so (anyone remember CBS’s Beauty & The Beast with Ron Pearlman?).
Now we come to the Twilight movie, and I hear a mixed bag reaction from the fans; some liked it, others -- like Candy -- didn’t. And I find it somewhat funny that fans that didn’t like it -- aside from the obvious reasons of a lot of stuff left out, etc. -- is that they found the story lacking and the two main characters have no chemistry together.
You could blame Hollywood or the director for failing to comprehend the book, or not getting their info from Meyer herself, but I really think that if you boil it all down, the real reason Twilight fans found the movie so wanting, was for the reason a lot of us who read the book didn’t like it either.
In all honesty, it’s a poor plot with clumsy character chemistry, that tries to be a sweeping epic romance. Sad to say, it failed.
That’s my informed opinion, anyway.
And that's pretty much all I have to say about that . . . save for one little blurb about the whole deal:
Real vampires don't sparkle.
-- Stephen