Twilight

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson
Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke

My buddies Richard and Verge texted me yesterday, asking me to watch Twilight with them today. I agreed kasi sa Trinoma kami nanuod--mas malapit kasi (since laging Megamall kami nanunuod ng movies if I'm with those two). So about the movie...

The movie starts off with Bella Swann, a girl from Phoenix, moving to Fork, Washington to live with her father. Adjusting to life there, she gains new friends and all. All is well until she meets Edward Cullen, a mysterious and enigmatic boy. They form a tensed and awkward friendship until one incident wherein Bella finds out that there is more to Edward than meets the eye: he's a vampire. Instead of freaking out and running away, she finds herself falling madly in love with him, and likewise. (lol!) A new world opens up for the two star-crossed lovers, as they both struggle to fit in with each others' world.

Okay, first off, I have to say that I haven't read the books. I know its mighty popular, specially with the girls, because of its mushy-mushy love story, kilig factor, and what not... but yeah, I have yet to read the first book. My actual ignorant view of the story is... its like Dawson's Creek and the kind, but with a vampiric twist. Haha!

With that being said, I looked for movie reviews just to know what to expect of the movie adaptation--and the reviews were mixed, with the most common denominator as: "it will appeal to the book fan base but not much for the uninitiated".

But hey, I liked the movie! I expected it to be crap but its actually good, and this is coming from someone who haven't read the book.

The casting was surprisingly good, with the two lead stars having GREAT chemistry. I don't know about those "stare with each other" scenes during the start, I guess that's part of the appeal of the book to generate some "kilig moments", but Stewart and Pattinson actually compliment each other.

The support cast also do their jobs well. I actually found those Cullen coven members cute as a masquerading human family. Haha! But seriously though, I can't base my criticism because I haven't read the book. So I don't know how faithful the characters remained from the book. I guess I'll just ask my friends who read the book and ask their opinion (*ahem* Ade, Donna, Jem, and Che ;p).

Some of the girls inside the cinema house were actually 'kinikilig' at tumitili during some parts of the film, so I guess the movie is successful in maintaining those 'kilig moments' from the book.

My only gripe is the low-budget special effects. I'm talking about those moments when the vampires were using their abilities (with the exception of the baseball scene with the Cullens, I actually dig that part).. like when they move fast then they have those motion blurs around them! Yeah, I know its a romance movie, but shit.. the last time I saw special effects that bad was when I was channel surfing and saw a low-budget movie in Cinemax (Cinemax!!!).

Beside the effects, there's nothing much that I didn't like. At least for me, the movie was actually successful in portraying Bella and Edward's frustration over their vampire-human relationship. And like I've said, I guess it worked since maraming kinikilig na girls sa movie house! Haha!

So I guess this is a good date movie. Girls will definitely appreciate it with those mushy moments. I don't know about the guys though. I guess guys like Dale will not like it much; guys like me and Pilep, who are vampire fanatics, will appreciate it; then guys like Myk (favorite movie of all time is the incredibly sappy/mushy Korean flick, "My Sassy Girl"), who are impossibly hopeless romantics, might actually LOVE it (hahahaha! ewan natin! tanong natin kay Myk pag napanuod niya na! hahaha!) Score: 8/10