Movie Review

My first impression of the movie was that it definitely was lacking compared to the book. However I did expect this as I have never seen a movie that was based off of a book that was better than the actual book. I realize that it just isn’t possible to fit 500+ pages of content into a movie that is a reasonable viewing length. I was glad to see that the main skeleton of the story was present in the movie. They did stay close (sometimes painfully so) to the characters from the book. Mike Newton for example came across as a total dork, at first this irritated me until I remembered reading somewhere in the book that Bella compared him to a “golden retriever”, then his character made more sense.

My first and biggest complaint for Edward was his hairy chest!!! In the book, Bella constantly compared him to “marble” that was “smooth, hard and cold”. He should not be hairy!!!! “My” Edward was not as tortured and angry as this one seemed to be. I felt that in the few parts of the movie where he actually lightened up and even smiled a little he was much more relate-able. But most of the time he had this horrible frowning tortured face that was somewhat depressing.

I understand they had a measly (compared to others such Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter) $32 million budget to work with. And they did an ok job with the effects they used, however there were a few times throughout the movie where the word “cheesy” came to mind. I guess I am spoiled to the more expensive, elaborate special effects of most movies today. However with the movie having made over $70 million in it’s first weekend I am expecting much better stuff from the next movie. I also hope that as the movies continue the characters will further continue to develop. I felt like there was so much missing from this movie in the build up of the characters. I can’t really assess how most of them did because we barely saw them.

After all was said and done though I did enjoy the movie and will most likely purchase the DVD as soon as it is available. I have been hooked on the story since I picked up the book for the first time. It was interesting to see even some of that come to life on the big screen. It will never replace the books for me but will supplement it instead. I am now looking forward to see what they’ll do with New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.