Twilight (2008)

Clearly someone at Summit must have looked at the popularity of the "Harry Potter" franchise and thought they needed to emulate it. What better way than to pair heart-throb Robert Pattinson with Kristen Stewart and adapt the teen vampire series of novels by Stephenie Meyer? Good idea in principle - the stories are better than average, the characterisations and storylines have screen potential in spades - especially when we have some werewolves and good old fashioned jealousy - but somewhere along the line something happened that turned the idea into a mushy, meandering story with two stars who didn't gel at all well on screen; a script that really does no justice to the books at all - and, but for a few scenes at the end with baddie vamp Cam Gigandet as "James", leaves the whole thing totally devoid of any sense of menace or jeopardy - it is all just flat and insipid. The CGI was clearly expensive, but has dated quickly and all told this is a poor effort from all concerned... Can't wait for the sequel; I'm struggling to sleep at night!

I'm a big fan of comedy, but rarely has a movie ever made me laugh as much as this one. Genuinely don't think that cinema will ever be able to top this absolute masterpiece. This is what Louis Le Prince disappeared for. Tarantino, Scorsese, Kubrick, Spielberg -- they all quiver and shake at the mere mention of Twilight. Even if they were immortal vampires with an infinite amount of time, none of them could ever make a movie near as ground-breaking. A support group needs to be formed as this movie caused them to spiral into an identity crisis.

> (5/5, originally reviewed 11/18/24)