twilight review!

so the twilight movie has finally been released and i, for one, was really excited to see it. some friends and i braved the masses of tweens on friday night and were able to get our first looks at the film. here are my thoughts:

• i've never been a great judge of movies. no one i know will ever claim that i have amazing taste in my favorite flicks, and will actually probably be more likely to say that i tend to love awesomely bad movies. so the fact that i liked twilight should come as no surprise to anyone. it isn't a great movie. i'm not delusional enough to think it is. but i liked it just the same.
• the cheese factor in this movie is through the roof. i mean, at times the awkwardness was straight up painful. (picture me, hands over face, cringing into my sister and whispering over and over, "ohmygod, i can't watch, i can't watch, i can't watch.") but that's sort of how the book is, you know? edward's lines are cheesy. the romance is cheesy. that's why we love it. because it's not real life. and i feel like those lines almost had to be kept in the movie to even keep the movie true to the book. if edward was just this smooth guy, he wouldn't be edward. because edward is most definitely not smooth. he's a melodramatic manic depressive obsessive compulsive stalker vampire. so while i admit that, at times, the pained look that crossed edward's film-face was over the top, i'll deal with it. besides, it's robert pattinson's face. who wouldn't deal with it?!
• speaking of cheesy lines, the lion and lamb line was kept in! and it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been! i thought the actors pulled it off much as it could have been pulled off. besides, if that line was taken out of the movie, could you imagine the riots that would cause?
  
• i didn't have as much faith in kristen stewart playing bella as i should have. because i really enjoyed her portrayal. it came across truer to bella than i thought it would, and that was a pleasant surprise i wasn't expecting. the voice over in particular set the movie for me right from the start, and i think she had the right tone when delivering it.
  
• charlie was awesome. one of my favorite characters in the movie, while he wasn't necessarily one of my favorites in the books.
• i think i was prepared for the beginning half of the movie to be rushed, so it wasn't that bad for me. some of the girls i watched the movie with were disappointed with the speed at which bella and edward's relationship developed since, as we all know, it took nearly 300 pages for that same relationship to develop in the book. but i was impressed that it even took as long as it did in the movie. i thought it was a clever adaptation in that they had to fit an entire week of back and forth questioning between the book's bella and edward into about 5 minutes for the movie's bella and edward.
• oh, the sparkling-in-the-sun scene. should have left it out... i think we all would have understood. they should also probably steer away from doing close-ups of the characters while they're flying. like, the mid-air shot of bella and edward when edward is flying from one tree to the next? baaaad effect.
  
• can i just say how excited i was that iron & wine's "flightless bird, american mouth" ended up being the prom song playing in the last scene? which was also my favorite scene in the movie. i love love love that song.
• um, i want a volvo c30. cutest little sports car ever.
  
• supporting cast: i've said it once, i'll say it again. i have a girl crush on alice. which is why i wish she was in the movie more, but i guess we can look forward to that more now that the next books are being adapted! oh, and dear jasper: what is up with your expressions?! you are so cute in real life! why do you look so strange in the film? love, kahea. emmett and rosalie are perfect emmetts and rosalies, and i loved the supporting cast playing bella's human friends. jessica in particular was awesome in that way that she was the girl you knew in high school that you were great frenemies with. bad vamps = bad vamps. and hot james was, well, hot.
• baseball scene was actually better on the big screen than i thought it was in the book. maybe because i'm not a big baseball person. or sports person in general for that matter. that look that rosalie shoots bella when she's called out...i think i've seen my older sister give girls that look before. i pitied them, and i pitied bella.
• what can i say about jacob? not impressed with the wig. pull it back in a pony-tail and maybe it'll work. and that's all i've got. i figure i'll have enough to say about him in the next couple movies. (though isn't the actor playing jacob just adorable?)
  
• the makeup. hmmmmm... i think here i have to join the critics and ask what the eff was up with edward's lipstick?! i mean, i get that they have to have pale skin (though carlisle's skin may have been a bit too powdery), but edward's lipstick is practically darker than mine.
• i think one of my least favorite scenes was the hospital scene. and i'm not sure what this says about the entire movie itself, so i'm just going to write it here and see what everyone else thinks. i'm talking about several lines of dialogue specifically. those lines where edward is telling bella that she should go to jacksonville and bella starts freaking out saying how he can't leave her and all that. and i don't know. that felt rushed for me, more than the entire beginning part of the movie did. but i think it felt rushed because the beginning was rushed. it just felt like, "really? you're that in love with him already? i didn't get that..." so i don't know. that was my big complaint with the script, i think. i'm just not sure if that one little complaint is a reflection on the whole script, you know?
  
• biggest drawback of the movie for me was the crowd in the theater i watched it in. i mean, i get that people love robert pattinson, and love edward's character even more. but seriously? you're in a public theater. so that means you should shut up during a movie. if you want to cat call, yell out some pretty disgusting suggestions (that, btw, would be totally illegal because you're all jail bait), and propose to the actor on the screen in front of you, wait until the movie comes out on dvd, rent it, and do those things in the comfort of your own living room. i mean, yes, there were times when i laughed out loud at the awkwardness. and even more times when i clenched my hands in anticipation for what i knew was coming next (i.e. the big kiss), but i'm not going to sit there screaming. but i guess that's what i get for watching it with 13 year olds. my one consolation? the theater gave away raffles right before the movie started. just pins, posters, t-shirts, and the grand prize of all three. guess who won the grand prize? that's right, yours truly! so when i walked back to my seat with my loot, some 15 year old begs, "ohhh, can i have it, pleeease?" and i get to snootily say no, then hand it all to my little sister. best moment ever.

alrighty, so those are my thoughts on the new twilight movie. overall, on a scale of 1-10, i'd give it a...6.5 or a 7. i'll definitely watch new moon and anything else they adapt, and i'll probably see twilight again. i think i've convinced my boyfriend to see it with me on wednesday when hopefully all the tweens will be in school.

he owes me BIG for apaloosa.