Catherine Hardwicke, who directed the outstanding, authentic teen-focused drama THIRTEEN at the outset of her movie career, proves an apt choice for the big screen adaptation of the first in Stephenie Meyer’s wildly popular series of adolescent-pitched supernatural novels. Well cast and visually striking, it’s an impressive start to Hollywood’s latest fantasy franchise.
Kristen Stewart is terrific as a pale, clumsy teenage girl from a broken family who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to the tiny, perpetually rain-drenched town of Forks, Washington with her good-hearted, lonely dad (a nicely underplaying and likeable Billy Burke). She doesn’t immediately adore her new high school but she does make friends and is immediately drawn to the apparently unobtainable, mysterious Edward (Robert Pattinson). Edward is regarded by all the drooling girl-folk around him as an aloof hottie, though Stewart will soon learn that he is actually a vampire who hasn’t aged from 17 since 1918. He and his “family” have chosen to live a “vegetarian” vampire lifestyle and he plays down his super-human abilities, which include being able to move at high speed and “glowing” in sun light. Stewart proves to be the only human whose mind he cannot read, a sign to both of them that they are soul mates. But there are others out there who disapprove of their union and who haven’t taken the vegetarian option available to vamps.
Stylistically, TWILIGHT is lush and luscious, though it’s the casting that pays off just as much. Stewart, who has done impressive work elsewhere in variable quality movies, is a wholly credible and sympathetic protagonist : downbeat but not obnoxiously so, pretty but not a manufactured babe. Pattinson shows beauty and charisma as the swoon-inducing object of her desires. The pic unfolds as a kind of unashamedly romantic, vampire-laden ROMEO AND JULIET though it most resembles Joss Whedon’s BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER in its focus on a doomed love affair between a high school girl and a tortured, lonely, ageless vampire. Its obvious teen-angst metaphors are very Whedon-esque and Pattinson is channeling David Boreanaz, intentionally or not, as the soulful handsome member of the undead.
The sparing use of horror and special effects throughout this cinematic TWILIGHT might not find favour with those looking for visceral thrills, but does serve to heighten the impact of a spectacular, high-speed storm-set game of vampire baseball (set to Muse’s awesome “Super massive Black Hole” and kind of a Quidditch for the teen Goth set) and also the brutal climactic confrontation. On the latter front, this sequence, although extremely well done, does tend to reinforce the fact that the villains (led by Cam Gigandet) are dramatically under-used.
The movie looks stunning, with Hardwicke and cinematographer Elliot Davis making inventive use of a swooping camera and scores of lovely autumnal visuals. It sounds great too : Linkin Park, Paramore and other nu-metal contemporaries provide songs, while Carter Burwell’s score, dominated by acoustic guitar and piano melodies, perfectly suit’s the pic’s refreshingly untypical mood.
– Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
