I kind of feel like I’m conforming to some crazy pop fad (which generally isn’t really my style) in liking this movie but well…. I actually liked it. I really did. Here’s how I got into the whole “Twilight Phenomenon”…

Last summer some of my friends were reason the books and they sounded interesting. Actually my friend Amanda’s description of it sort of reminded me of a TV show I was watching at the time, Moonlight. Once she got into more details it was a little different, obviously, if you’ve ever seen Moonlight and read Twilight. But it seemed somewhat similar in the fact that a human fell in love with a Vampire lol.

Anyways, I wanted to read Twilight but never got around to it, for whatever reason. Then when I came home from school in December, knowing that the film was coming out and I really wanted to see it, I went and bought the books.

Side Note: Just a little background on me, I’m generally not much of a reader. Aside from books that I was forced to read in school, I’ve read the Harry Potter Series once (I tried for a second time but couldn’t get past chapter 3 of the first novel) and I read a bunch of Lurlene McDaniel’s novels (my favourites/the only ones I really remember were The Time Capsule, the Dawn Rochelle series, and the Angels series) from about grade 8 through 11. Other than that there hasn’t been much that I have read by choice.

So, I read all four books in two weeks. I planned to go see the movie when it was at the Movie Mill in Lethbridge (they play usually play movies that are done in normal theatres, so by this time, it was not really in theatres anymore) with my friend but things happened (mainly weather, but there were other factors too) and we never made it.

So, as you all probably know, the DVD came out today. So, I meandered over to Wal-Mart, only because its the only place in town that sells movies (I live in such a wonderful town…. those of you who know me well, know that that is sarcasm! lol), if I had a choice I wouldn’t buy it from Wal-Mart, but I would have to drive for 30-45 minutes to go anywhere else. I said to my parents before I left that I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t have any left, but I found the display near the front of the store and it was almost empty, but there were some copies left, including a few 2 Disc Special Editions, which is what I wanted because I’m obsessed with special features and behind the scene stuff. I always try to get the special editions of every movie I buy! lol.

I was actually supposed to do something with my friend, but I was waiting for her to text me because she had to do something else first, so I was like well I’ll just watch the movie, if she texts me I’ll watch the rest later. She didn’t, so I just kept watching until I had watched EVERYTHING on both discs, except for the audio commentary.

Before watching the movie I knew who basically all of the cast was, mostly because I had become so obsessed with the story after reading the books that I wanted to know everything about the movie, sicne I still hadn’t seen it. I had also seen so many interviews and clips from the film and behind the scenes and stuff. I pretty much knew the whole film, without actually seeing it yet in one full piece. Its the most I’ve ever known about a movie before seeing it, aside from the general story line.

I had heard lots of people talk about the film. I heard a lot of mixed reviews about it. Some people absolutely loved it, most of them because they are teenage girls who think Robert Pattinson is the most gorgeous thing on the planet, which will only last until the next biggest thing comes out, or they grow up, not that I don’t think he’s good looking. I think he is pretty good looking, aside from his nasty hair which he runs his fingers through way too often, but I’m not obsessive over him. I grew out of that obsessiveness quite some time ago. Anyways… I also heard people who thought the film was alright. Nothing spectacular. And of course people who hate it because it was too different from the book and blah blah blah….

But, someone I work with, who enjoys movies a lot (actually most of us do, everyone is always planning to go see movies together) and whever we get on the topic of Twilight she always says it was good except for the terrible acting. She’s not the first I’ve heard say that the acting was bad so it wasn’t surprising to hear someone say that.

Now for my opinion! lol. I was actually pleased with it. Some stuff was obviously not how I had pictured it, but when reading the book, we all imagine things differently. There was a fair amount that they had changed, but not overly. Its common for the screenplay writer and director to make changes to make it work in motion picture format, whether it be adding and removing scenes and dialog or just completely changing how scenes or storylines go. But the fact that they had the author, Stephenie Meyer involved in the whole process really helped to make me appreciate it even more. She was involved through everything from casting to final editing. She even had a cameo in one of the diner scenes.

After hearing so many people talk about how so much was different from the book, I was actually happy with it. They kept a lot of the same stuff. A good portion of the dialog was the same as in the book. A lot of the scenes were very close to how I had pictured it. There wasn’t way too many things changed like in a lot of other movies that came from novels.

Some of the actors portrayed their characters differently than I had pictured them.

I actually like Jacob in the movie. I didn’t like him or Billy very much in the book but Billy was actually kind of funny and Jacob was was nicer than I had him in my head from the book. I like some of the high school kids much better in the movie than in the book. Like Eric. He never really left an impression on me in the book, but I really liked him in the movie. He was funny. They guys were all goof balls and I hadn’t really pictured them that way before.

Picturing Elizabeth Reaser as Esme was hard before seeing the film becuase I thought she was kind of odd looking (not really in a bad way) on Grey’s Anatomy and I just generally thought she was odd, so I had a hard time with it before. But now, I really like her.

Nikki Reed did a good job as Rosalie. She wouldn’t have been my first choice since she’s basically supposed to be the most beautiful person ever (she is pretty but I just didn’t see her as Rosalie) but she portrayed the character of Rosalie really well, like the actual acting of it, was great!

I pictured Emmet as bigger maybe a bit shorter, but I like Kellan Lutz for Emmett. He did good job too and Emmett is one of my favourite characters! So I was happy with his job. Wasn’t Emmett supposed to have curly hair? His hair is too short. But I still like him.

The short hair on Ashley Greene looks a little odd (I like her with long hair) but she did a decent job. Alice is another of my favourite characters but I wasn’t quite as happy with Ashley’s portrayal of her as I was with Kellen’s of Emmett. She didn’t do a bad job, but I saw her differently. It doesn’t help that they don’t develop her character as much in the movie, so my opinion might change with New Moon.

Robert Pattinson as Edward was a good choice. Honestly I can’t think of any other actor who I would rather play him. I mean obviously I didn’t think of him for the role before, but he did a good job. I can see why some people might think his acting in the film was bad, but I think he was trying too hard lol. Because of the lack of character development it was kind of hard though. But I saw an iterview a while back where he was explaining how he chose to play the character and he basically said that he saw Edward as a “tortured soul” and I could definitely see that, but in doing so, he left out some of the sense of humour that you see in Edward in the novel. Again, it comes back to the lack of character development in the movie. But I think he did a pretty good job.

Kristen Stewart…. I have issues with her. I thought she did a decent job as Bella. Her acting wasn’t bad or anything, but …. I don’t know. I’m not really her biggest fan. I saw this video on YouTube, that has now been removed, of some people on MTV (I never watch that channel so some of you might know what I’m talking about) talking about an interview I believe one of them did with Kristen Stewart and some one else for another movie and they were asking her stuff and then asked about Robert Pattinson and she was jsut really weird about it. She was almost rude. I’ve thought she was kind of odd in other interviews I’ve seen. Including Live at Much, as others have said, she didn’t seem to want to be there. They made comments about Rob but I think he’s still in disbelief of how famous he is now because of this film. But Kristen doesn’t seem to appreiciate it. I don’t know. I would say “maybe its me” but I know there are others who agree so I know its not just me. Lol.

Anyways, I know I left out some actors/characters but this is getting long and I was going to go to be an hour and a half ago! So, I will leave off with saying that I liked the movie more than I thought I would! But I recommend reading the book before seeing the film, if you haven’t already. Actually, I recommend reading all the books first.