Twilight (2008) Movie Review
Twilight (2008) Movie Review
Curiosity almost always gets the better of me when it comes to watching movies. Out of pure curiosity I’ve ended up watching films like Wild Wild West, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and American Ninja, among so many others. And so Twilight, the 2008 movie adaptation of the book of the same name, is the most recent movie I ended up watching just to see what it was all about. I’ve known about the Twilight films for years; not only were they huge box-office successes, but over time they got a reputation for being absolutely terrible. Twilight and its sequels are from roughly the same era as “Baby” by Justin Bieber, Hannah Montana, and Wii Sports; to me, this movie is like a relic from the past. The film was a huge deal for a while, but now in 2020, nobody seems to talk about it anymore. Meanwhile, other blockbusters from that time, like The Dark Knight, Avatar, and Transformers, are discussed a lot more, or at least it seems that way. Did a bad reputation ruin Twilight’s longevity? I was curious to see what the movie had to offer. Plus, it was a big-name movie that I’d never seen before. So I sat down and watched the original Twilight.
Twilight follows seventeen year-old Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) as she moves from Arizona to the small town of Forks, Washington, where her cop dad Charlie (Billy Burke) lives. Soon after arriving at the local high school, she captures the attention of Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a member of the infamous Cullen family, usually avoided by nearly everyone. Why the Cullen family is so different is not clear to Bella at this time. Edward acts very strange around Bella, and when she is almost hit by a car, he appears out of nowhere and stops it from hitting her with just one hand. Bella demands answers, but Edward doesn’t give in, and instead warns her not to hang out with Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), a Native American guy their age who is a family friend to Bella and lives on the local Quileute Indian reservation. He tells her that the Cullen family and the Quileute Indians are mortal enemies. Bella does some research and finds out that Edward and the rest of the Cullen family are all vampires. She talks to him about it and he tells her the truth about being a vampire. Bella and Edward begin a romance and she is introduced to his family, some of whom welcome her, some of whom are concerned that she’ll tell everyone else their big secret. There are bigger frish to fry, however, because there are aggressive, human-killing vampires that have come to Forks and started murdering people. The two vampire groups have a big fight, and at the end of the movie, Bella and Edward go to prom together.
This movie is probably one of the most strongly hated films of all time so I feel like writing another bad review for it is almost pointless, but I can’t give Twilight that much praise movie-wise. Twilight is the movie equivalent of loud mouth-breathing: super awkward, somewhat amusing, but ultimately just annoying. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson have virtually zero chemistry together and they both turn in completely dull and wooden performances. The rest of the cast doesn’t do much better; in fact very few of the characters come across as likable at all. The most likable character is Bella’s dad, who just can’t figure out what’s going on. Most aspects of this movie range from mediocre to just plain bad, the direction choices are kinda weird and the script is really terrible. There are so many moments of excruciatingly awkward silence in this movie, I’m not even sure why they were included. At its worst, Twilight borders on painful to watch. The color palette of the entire film is white-gray and pale gray-blue, making for sort of a drowsy experience overall. This isn’t necessarily a boring movie but if you’re not invested in the relationship between Bella and Edward, it’s quite possible that it will become uninteresting to you quickly. You can’t go into this movie expecting cool vampire action either, all the action scenes are super watered-down and unexciting, plus the CGI is laughable at times. This is probably supposed to be a movie intended for teens to watch, but I feel like the large majority of people my age wouldn’t be into this if it came out today, even though it was a massive smash hit in 2008. Realistically this is a movie that should appeal to middle school girls (typing that didn’t make me feel great about watching it), so I understand that the standards for its technical quality are less important than a compelling romance between the two main characters, but still: Twilight is not a good movie.
The thing about this movie that actually interests is me is not the content of the film itself, but rather the impact it had on culture and the influence it has had over the years. One could argue that the Harry Potter series started the YA-film trend, but I think Twilight really set it into furious motion. Without Twilight, it’s hard to tell if movies like The Hunger Games or Divergent would have been very successful, if made at all. We most likely have this movie and the series it created to thank for that type of film’s popularity. However, it seems like production of that style of movie has slowed down dramatically; the YA-film trend was left in the late 00’s and early 2010’s, just like Twilight effectively was. This film also helped to make gigantic stars out of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson at the height of its popularity, and to a lesser extent Taylor Lautner as well, although I suppose the later installments in the series gave him more exposure. Kristen Stewart has been in a few notable movies since, although she is still primarily known for playing her Twilight character. The same can be said for Robert Pattinson, although he seems to be having a quiet career resurgence in more critically acclaimed slightly under-the-radar films like Good Time and The Lighthouse, and is starring in the upcoming Christopher Nolan movie Tenet. Taylor Lautner has basically fallen off completely from mainstream movies. I think that because none of the main actors have gone on to have careers that lived up to the Twilight hype is probably one reason why nobody really talks about the series anymore. Sure, Twilight has always been popular, but compared to Harry Potter or The Hunger Games, it’s nearly forgotten. For a movie with so much influence that left behind a legitimate legacy on Hollywood, it’s interesting that this movie is barely talked about these days. Maybe it’s because it just isn’t that great of a film anyways.
Safety chart:
Violence: 3/10 - Vampires fight each other, some off-screen violence. There is some blood as well but not much.
Language: 1/10 - Nothing much at all.
Drinking/smoking: 1/10 - Some adults hold beer cans.
Twilight isn’t very well-made or well-executed, but it’s probably not as terrible as I’m making it sound. You’ll like it if you enjoy YA-style movies, and it has a solid soundtrack as well. Maybe Twilight hasn’t crossed your mind in a while, and it is far from a masterpiece, but it’s possible that it deserves to be held in a slightly higher regard, especially considering how many people out there hate this film and everything it represents with a passion. What it does represent is a time forgotten and left behind by many. Generally poor quality aside, this is at least a somewhat entertaining movie. I’m giving this a C- as a grade. I can see why Twilight became such a big deal, but I can also see why it’s been left in the past.
