An Angst Vampire Flick With No Real Bite

I don’t know if this runs true for everyone else reading, but whenever a film, specifically a book adaptation, gets dubbed as a “pop-culture phenomenon” or a “pop-classic”, there are two thoughts of thinking that crop up. Indeed, while at first we’re intrigued by the prospect of the film living up to  the ‘phenomenon’ status that the writers and reviewers have naively stamped for readers to buy into, there of course comes the expected doubt and how, in actuality, many of these films that do adopt similar taglines, disappointingly don’t live up-to what these wordsmiths have suggested. Like it or not, Catherine Hardwicke’s 2008 Vampiric romantic-fantasy film of Twilight, a feature based on Stephanie Meyer’s novel of the same name, is a good contemporary example of this. While this was a film that spawned a franchise that it’s main demographic/devoted readers of the books poured their intrigue and mind towards, Twilight is film that not only manages to hinder other audiences by inheriting blundering cinematic problems that are far from being anything distinctive, but utilises tropes that have been executed better in much more notable Vampire-inspired flicks…

With her mother and step-father planning to travel around the country, Bella Swan moves to gloomy Forks, Washington with her father where she wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen. But, this is where her life truly begins. Upon attending a new high-school and meeting new friends, Bella soon encounters Edward Cullen, a mysterious and captivating student who is more than he appears. Bella soon discovers that Edward is hiding a secret, after he impossibly saves her life from an incoming vehicle with his strength and speed. Amazed and curious of what happens, Bella determinedly unravels Edward’s secret, but the truth is more terrifying than she realised. She conclusively learns that Edward is a vampire, but this doesn’t stop Bella from loving him, despite Edward’s blood-thirsty needs. However, while this unconditional love blossoms between Bella and Edward, they soon learn that their troubles are only about to begin…

While there is this predisposition for audience members who have watched Twilight before to say that this particular film was indeed laughably bad and tremendously corny, it does have to be said that Hardwicke’s film is trying to be a distinct vampire flick. Throughout the many films and t.v. shows there have been ever since the era of silent films, vampire features have always adopted many different sub-genre’s; varying from the classic melodramatic features, such as Terence Fisher’s reworking of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, to the more action-orientated flicks like we see within the Blade and Underworld film series. Even in recent years, while there is a varying-degree of blood-sucking entertainment, vampires, in recent years, have been predominately placed within teen-orientated t.v. and film; most notably within True Blood, Buff The Vampire Slayer (which was something that I grew up with), and of course, Twilight. The distinguishing hallmark that slightly separates Twilight from any of the examples mentioned and what screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg and director Catherine Hardwicke were aiming to show within the frame, is the intricacies and circumstance of an ordinary person intimately falling in love a horrific-being. Indeed, the crux of both the original source material and the adaptation is the romantic interaction that Bella ultimately has with Edward and how awkward the relationship develops for not only the two central lovers, but for the other Cullen family members and Bella’s new high-school friends. Nevertheless, while Hardwicke opens the narrative in a rather straightforward and predictable manner, with the character of Bella receiving exposition very lazily from Anna Kendrick’s character in regards to Edward and the Cullen family, once the story reaches to the 2nd act of the film of Bella discovering Edward’s true secret, it simply doesn’t take long until obligatory plot paths and awkward cinematic choices emerge. Before we delve into the performance of both Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, it’s equally as important to firstly mention the overall film-making since the formal and contextual formats that are implemented, are thrown into ruin. The stand-out formal choice that is seen throughout and adds to some of the long-winded 2nd act of the narrative, is the grainy camera filter that the film uses in its entirety. Even though this grey camera grain is supposed to visually illuminate the dim surroundings that Bella grows accustomed to and how it explains the reason why Edward and the other vampires can go out in the day, it adds to the films lack of personality. It doesn’t help, as well, the fact that the wire-mechanics (when Edward and Bella fling themselves from tree-to-tree every-now-and-then) and the CG effects are sub-par to add to this. While some people may disagree and say that the cinematography helps ground the films soggy milieu, the film was crying out for tiny pieces of variation when it came to the setting and the overall look.

As much as a story of a young girl becoming fascinated by a ‘brooding’ vampire might appeal to its main demographic, one of the most notably bad things that Twilight inhabits is its contextual factors and the way they structure a story that loses the plot in the 3rd act. Whenever any film decides to use narration to distinguish a characters mood or to briefly outline a scenario at the opening of a story, there definitely is a fine line of how many times a film-maker can utilise a cinematic trope such as this one. it’s always a worry for an avid film-watcher to grasp at narration since the overuse of said film-device can wane the progression and continual flow of the narrative. Twilight is the perfect embodiment of this; a vampire flick that unnecessarily delves into the thought process of Bella too many times. The narration not only derives the mysticism of Bella’s revelation of Edward, but it also drags the inevitable and predictable catalytical point of the story. While the 1st act ends on good-steam, with Edward rescuing Bella from a car crash which leaves Bella questioning Edwards self-being and motives, it moves into a 2nd act which slows down the pace of the story. Through many interactions with Edward and visits to Google, it takes a near good 45 minutes for Bella to find out that Edward is a vampire; leaving hardly any left time to explore the romantic interaction that many would want to see… instead of a random baseball game. Yes, even when the winded 2nd act ends, it’s not long before everything begins to unravel to the point of ruin. Any and every story, including a fantasy such as this one, needs a certain application of logic in order to be deemed worthy for audiences to be gripped by, otherwise everything becomes an exercise in futility. For Hardwicke and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg however, this isn’t the case as the culmination of Twilight fixates on not only a nonsensical baseball game that feels out of place and not in-keeping with the already gloomy aurora that was established near the start of the film, but also a conflict between bad vampires that wasn’t needed for a film that should have explored the emotional depth of Bella and Edward more. The climax of the film generally feels rushed with the conflict of vampires in place and goes back to what was mentioned before, of how the film pursues obligatory scenarios that could have been done/handled differently. Even the way in which the ‘bad’ vampires approach Bella, Edward and the rest of the Cullen family, is as if they’re about to perform for song contest.

The most troublesome factor to note about Hardwicke’s attempt of adapting Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, is the direction of Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella Swan and Robert Pattinson who portrays Edward Cullen. As much as Stewart and Pattinson have good on-screen chemistry between one-another later in the film, when Bella inevitably finds out about Edwards true being, the direction and the dialogue that these characters have separately, are as boring and emotionless as the contextual devices used. With lacklustre lines like, “Oh my god, what is going on?” (when Bella notices an alarming amount of police cars outside the police station) and conversations that involve the rain, how can any audience member get on-board and relate to these emotionless protagonists. The troubling central problem of Twilight’s characterisation, is how unlikable and unappealing the central players are. While naysayers may slate Whedon’s corny aspects of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, at least it had characters that showed personality, humour and engagement for an audience member to root behind. Within Twilight however, we’re presented with a romance that is awkward, short-lived and not explored enough to the unnecessary showdown that is bestowed upon us. Even the first kiss that Bella and Edward have with one-another, a 30 second-long segment where they annoyingly move in towards each other very slowly, culminates not only the perplexing and damaging relationship, which film-viewers can’t relate with, but also Hardwicke’s direction and how so much little time is spent when Bella knows Edward is a vampire.

As much as the book received high-praise from it’s adoring readers, Catherine Hardwicke’s working of Twilight doesn’t convincingly suffice in encapsulating what other audience members were expecting. With lazy film-making, poor structuring and unapproachable characters that are as dim as the surroundings that they’re placed in. Twilight certainly flirts with the concept of innovation, but second guesses itself by going down a narrative route that doesn’t comply with the sombre and subtle-grounded tone that was established within the first act of the film. If it had stuck to its humble little premise in its entirety and focused on conveying the relationship that Bella and Edward have with each other, than you might have been reading a completely different review. With their being so much filmic entertainment for the every-day teen to submerge themselves into, with franchises like The Hunger Games, Divergent and The Maze Runner, does Twilight still have the re-watch-ability factor compared to its other brothers and sisters?…

And with that conclusion, I think it’s time for me to end this review. As always everyone, thank you for reading my latest film review of Twilight and I hope you’ve enjoyed my ‘Halloween’ special. If anyone has an opinion on either my review or on the film itself, please feel free to drop a comment down below. Next week, I will be either doing a review of the new Doctor Strange film or another film that has been recently released, I’m still choosing which one I exactly want to do. Once again thank you to everyone for reading my latest film review and I’ll see you all next week!! Have a good Halloween!! Adieu!! 🙂

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ – Alex Rabbitte