Twilight (Two-Disc Special Edition)
by Catherine Hardwicke
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DVD details
Actor: Kristen Stewart, Robert PattinsonDirector: Catherine Hardwicke
Brand: PATTINSON,ROBERT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 122 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-03-21
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Summit Entertainment
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- AC-3; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC
DVD Reviews of Twilight (Two-Disc Special Edition)
DVD Review: Second-worst (after Tunnel Rats) movie of 2008.
Summary: 1 Stars
Twilight(Catherine Hardwicke, 2008)
Having read Stephenie Meyer's insanely popular novel Twilight, I didn't really feel the need to see the movie, which I was reasonably sure that the film adaptation of it was going to be one of the worst movies of 2008. (Sure enough, it showed up on a smattering of the ten worst movies of 2008 lists.) I figured I didn't need to actually watch the silly thing to use it as a benchmark for the mediocrity of American film at the beginning of the new century. My wife, on the other hand, kept telling me that I wasn't allowed to attack the movie until I had actually seen it. As usual, my wife was right and I was wrong, so last night, I sat down and watched Twilight. Despite my initial, knee-jerk reaction when the adaptation was announced that it was going to be a bad movie, I'm having a hard time grasping just how much I underestimated the clawing, sucking awfulness that is the movie version of Twilight.
In case you've been living on a Hittite commune for the past five years, here's a quick plot synopsis: Bella (The Safety of Objects' Kristen Stewart) leaves her mother's home in Phoenix, Arizona to go spend time with her father Charlie (Untraceable's Billy Burke) in Forks, Washington, distinguished by being the cloudiest, rainiest town in the continental United States (as one of the characters points out). The local school is small, and on her first day, everyone already knows who she is; she finds herself afflicted with a popularity she doesn't necessarily want, but falls in with a relatively harmless group. Until, that is, she looks up at lunch and catches the eye of Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson, from the more recent Harry Potter movies). Cue violins. (No, seriously, cue violins. The soundtrack is not subtle.) Problem is, Edward and his family are vampires, and the whole idea of a vampire and a human falling is love is taboo on so very many levels. And yet still, they must find a way to persevere, even after a rogue band of vampires (the evil vampires, as opposed to the good vampires, I guess) latch onto Bella as, seemingly, a particularly delectable morsel who would be perfect for an after-dinner mint.
The movie's biggest problem is that it manages to take every existing flaw the book has and magnify it, while dampening the few things that book actually did right. Stephenie Meyer, while incapable of writing characters who have more than two dimensions (in fact, I think Twilight is the first time I considered writing about one-dimensional characters), is pretty darned good at plotting, and writes in such a way that no matter how much you despise the book's flaws, you keep turning the pages simply to find out what happens. She does this by skillfully interweaving a number of plots. Here, everything except the main plot--Bella and Edward's relationship, which segues into the mini-vampire-war--gets exceptionally short shrift. The tension that results, in the novel, from Bella's pursuit by a human suitor, Mike Newton (Michael Welch, from the recent Day of the Dead remake), is almost entirely absent; the only remnant of it we see is a snide comment from Newton in a scene that advances the Bella-Edward relationship. And Bella's relationship with Jacob (Cheaper by the Dozen 2's Taylor Lautner)? Well, you wouldn't know Jacob is one of Bella's oldest friends unless it had been mentioned in the opening moments. He pops up in four or five scenes, only one of which gives him enough lines to actually show that this kid can act.
For that matter, with a few exceptions, the acting here is competent. Unfortunately, two of those exceptions are Stewart and Pattinson, but having seen Stewart in a few movies before, I know she's normally pretty good at this acting gig (The Safety of Objects is one of those movies that few people saw and everyone should have). I think a lot of the problem derives from the script (I don't need to address that again, do I?), and the rest of it from the motivations of these characters. While thousands upon thousands of words have been written about this topic already by much better-known and more articulate critics than me, I can't just ignore it. The character of Bella is, on many levels, offensive in today's climate. While this is kind of glossed-over in Twilight, it comes to the forefront in New Moon (the film adaptation of which is scheduled for release later this year); from the second Bella and Edward's eyes meet across that crowded room, Bella exists only for Edward. She immediately loses any sense of herself as an individual, and as a result, the audience also loses any sense of her as an individual. Great role model for modern girls! (I should also note that had this character been written by a man, there's a good possibility that the author would have been castigated, if not crucified, for portraying a woman, especially a minor, in such a negative light.) But back to my original conceit in this paragraph, which has to do with the acting. The other actor I normally find enjoyable who really drops the ball in this flick is Peter Facinelli, who plays Edward's foster father Carlisle. I've seen marmosets with more acting chops than Facinelli displays in this movie, and once again, I'm kind of confused; even in terrible movies, Facinelli usually brings enough to the table to stop them from being entirely unwatchable. Here, he's just pale and two-dimensional, and once again I guess I have to put it down to the script.
So I guess it's time to castigate Melissa Rosenberg, who adapted Meyer's novel. She normally does TV work; in fact, this is only her second feature script. The first was Step Up, which should probably tell you everything you need to know. (But, really, she also writes for Dexter? I'm confused.) This was a hatchet job par excellence. If you're going to do something bad, make it remarkably bad, and Rosenberg rose to the occasion. From Rosenberg onto director Catherine Hardwicke, who started her career as a production designer under such luminaries Penelope Spheeris (subUrbia), Bill Fishman (Tapeheads), Mario van Peebles (Posse), and John Herzfeld (2 Days in the Valley). What on Earth happened? She stepped into the director's chair and lost any indie feeling that had to have rubbed off from working with such folks, and has since cranked out the overwrought and overrated Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown (for which I do not have enough expletives), and now this. One of the good decisions made when adapting New Moon was switching directors, though if you have to go from frying pan into fire, why not choose Chris Weitz, who destroyed the film adaptation of The Golden Compass? It doesn't matter how much my wife makes fun of me, there's no way I'm even going to consider watching that turkey unless I find myself stuck in a week when I haven't had a chance to write an awful review.
My initial reaction was to give the movie zero stars, but I only do that when it was either so bad I abandoned it halfway through (which I have done with less than ten movies in my entire life) or when it is, in some way, patently offensive. Had Twilight been a fantastic book that got this bad an adaptation, it would have qualified on the latter criterion. But Twilight was not a fantastic book, it was a mediocre one, and so no matter how bad an adaptation it was, there's really not that much worse one could have made it. Sp when I give the movie half a star, don't think I'm doing so for any redeeming qualities. It's like leaving a one-cent tip for a particularly awful waiter. I cannot urge you enough, if you have suffered through this monstrosity, to go rent Let the Right One In, released in America at the same time as Twilight, covering much the same ground, and doing it orders of magnitude better. For months, I've been telling people that Let the Right One In is "Twilight, but good." Now I can say that with the authority of having watched Twilight. But I want those two hours of my life back. (half)
Description of Twilight (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) doesn?t expect much when she moves to the small town of Forks, Washington, until she meets the mysterious and handsome Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson)?a boy who?s hiding a dark secret: he?s a vampire. As their worlds and hearts collide, Edward must battle the bloodlust raging inside him as well as a coterie of undead that would make Bella their prey. Based on the #1 New York Times best-selling sensation by Stephenie Meyer, Twilight adds a dangerous twist to the classic story of star-crossed lovers.Bestsellers in DVD
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