Life on Florida’s West Coast

My Take on Twilight

This afternoon I went and saw Twilight. One of my friends was taking her 14-year-old daughter and two of the daughter’s friends to the movie and wanted another adult along for the ride. Though it is not a movie I would have chosen on my own, I was OK with keeping my friend company and being able to see what all of the hype is about at the same time.

My first thought is that Twilight is to today’s young teens as Flowers in the Attic was to young teens when I was that age. We’re talking about two very popular series of books that made a splash with the younger end of the teenage reader group. Both had movies made to follow on the tailcoats of the wildly successful books. The main difference in that the movie for Flowers in the Attic was pathetic. The movie for Twilight was actually quite skillfully executed.

I know the movie cut out a lot of what was in Twilight the book, but show me a movie based on a book that doesn’t do the same thing. There’s just never time to film everything that is in most novels. Nonetheless, most of the story in Twilight would make sense even to those who have not read the book version.

I was perplexed as to how anyone would find the character of Bella Swan irresistible after seeing the film. She is morose, unenthusiastic, dull, and monotone. The actress portraying Bella (Kristen Stewart) speaks in a whiney, breathy way that seeks to simulate emotion, but it falls flat. It’s that same voice quality Neve Campbell uses in all of the Scream movies. After talking to the teens I saw the movie with, I was assured that the Bella of the book is deeper, more romantic, and compelling.

Overall, though, the film was intriguing enough to compel me to borrow the book from my friend’s daughter. I asked everyone in the car on the way home to refrain from giving me the details about the future of the story, as I would rather read about.

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