‘Twilight’ @ Midnight: Lots And Lots Of Longing
Posted by anastasia on 11-21-2008
I’m still tired. After trekking out last night to see the midnight screening of “Twilight,” I can’t seem to drink enough coffee this morning. My husband thought I was certifiable. He accused me of being a “fan.” While I’ve read the entire series and admire the phenomenon, i.e. Stephanie Meyer’s literary crack for teen girls, I wouldn’t call myself a “fan.” More of a cultural anthropologist or curious Ypulse founder wanting a first-hand glimpse of the mania happening around the film. I wasn’t disappointed. They opened up an additional theater at the Sony Metreon for the overflow from the first 12:01 sold out show. The theater was packed with mostly teen girls, very racially diverse, and traveling in packs. A few guys here and there, some parents and the lone older man with a long white beard…hmmm….
The theater cheered when the lights finally went down, they laughed at the preview for the new Wayans Bros. dance movie spoof, they cheered at the Harry Potter trailer and then the movie began. I thought Kristen Stewart nailed it as Bella, and that the casting of Bella’s parents, Billy Black and teenwolf Jacob were all spot on. The Cullens – Edward was sufficiently dreamy and Alice sufficiently perky. The makeup artists went a little overboard with the white powder on Dr. Cullen, Esme was nurturing enough, Emmett was definitely oversized, Rosalie was both nasty and kind of trashtastic with the high heels and jeans, and Jasper just looked sort of constipated all the time – in a funny way.
Casting aside, I thought the movie was S-L-O-W. And I’m 37, from a generation that is supposed to be able to sit through slower paced movies. It’s just too hard to translate Meyer’s ability to build that ridiculous romantic tension page by page to screen without it getting to be a little much. It didn’t bother me that she used the same words to describe Edward over and over again in the text because it moved. But on film, I felt like the abundant screen time given to longing stares was just too much. Also startling – the part where Edward admits to Bella that he’s been sneaking in through her window to watch her sleep for the past few months – many in the audience reacted uncomfortably to hearing that onscreen. In spite of their undying (no pun intended) love, it sounded creepy!
Still, I didn’t hate it. I appreciated the gloomy yet beautiful Pacific Northwest setting. I loved the vampire baseball scene. I think Bella will singlehandedly bring back the 90s Seattle grunge style. As someone who read the books and liked them enough, it was satisfying but not great. I’m still a bigger Harry Potter fan who likes my fantasy worlds more detached from reality.
As I left the theater, I heard one girl say she was excited to see it THREE MORE TIMES — a true blue fan. I also heard lots of criticism in the chatter down the escalator: “the special effects sucked,” “I don’t see how anyone who didn’t read the books could sit through this,” etc. I have no doubt “Twilight” will reap in big bucks, but the movie’s limitations may keep it from expanding the phenomenon beyond its existing fan base.
P.S. Alyx, our Ypulse Youth Advisory Board member, also saw “Twilight” last night. Look for his review next week. I’m dying to know what he thought…
Categorized under: Movies & Music
November 21st, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I really felt that the first 2/3 of the book dragged. If I hadn’t heard so many great reviews I wouldn’t have kept reading long enough to get to the good stuff and be drawn in to the rest of the series. I am sorry to hear that they didn’t condense that slow high school fluff beginning more to get the movie moving.
November 24th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I watched Twilight with 3 co-workers opening weekend. It was not a good movie, but it was so FUN. I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more, in spite of my earlier brush with death as 100 screaming teens rushed to the move theater, threatening to trample us slower moving twenty-somethings. In fact, watching it with teens–from those that “booed!” when Jacob’s character appeared on screen to those entreprising girls in the front row using their cell phones to record each of Edward and Bella’s passionate moments–made the movie even better. I hope that their shrill shrieks and screams, uttered each time Pattinson smoldered onto the screen, made it into the DVD’s special features.