Edward Cullen Is This Generation's Mr. Darcy And I Have The Fangirls to Prove It

WHO: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and a bunch of people that have been in tons of stuff, but we really don't know who they are. Except for Anna Kendrick: Camp is pretty much one of my favorite movies.

WHAT: If you haven't heard of Twilight by now, you are probably living in on of the underground villages from Gurren Laggan. Actually,no,I'm pretty sure they've all heard of Twilight,too

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a HUGE Twilight fan. I picked up the first book more than a year before New Moon (that's the second book for the uninitiated) was released; I was instantly hooked and I've never looked back. I've followed this movie through every aspect of it's production: Back when Paramount's MTV Films had it and we were worried they would mess it up, through the lapse of that contract when we were all worried there would never be a movie, to Summit Entertainment's acquisition of the film rights, to casting news and first cast pics, and beyond. Pretty much for the better part of a year. So needless to say, I was expecting a lot from this movie.

OVERALL: I LIKED IT. The cast and crew worked with what they had and made a pretty faithful adaptation. And they didn't have a lot. The budget for this movie was $37-40 million. In comparison, the first Harry Potter movie had a budget of $150 million. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but find me a movie adaptation that is.

That said...

LIKES:

• THE. SOUNDTRACK. WAS. AWESOME. One of the best song-compilation soundtracks I've ever heard.

• The Cullens: I want me some more Cullens. Especially for the fantastic Elizabeth Reaser who shines as Esme and Ashley Greene who is adorable as Alice. And Kellan Lutz was Emmett.

• All the added stuff: I think that the little bits that screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg added depth to the supporting cast and made for some humorous moments.

• The supporting cast: The actors breathed life into characters that are a little too in the background in the book. I knew people like them in my high school. It was nice to see. Also, major kudos to Billy Burke for turning Charlie from "Bella's Dad" to a fully formed person.

DISLIKES:

• My absolute biggest problem with the movie is the end. And it's not the fact that they changed it:


SPOILER WARNING!

My problem with the ending isn't so much the fact that Victoria is there glaming it up, it's the fact that EDWARD COULDN'T HEAR HER THOUGHTS. Cuz Victoria would have to be spewing some pretty nasty thoughts. WHY DOESN'T HE HEAR HER?!?!

END OF SPOILER WARNING


• Edward's "gift": The special abilities that Edward and his "sister" Alice have are major components of their character. I wish they had gotten more attention.

• Jacob's wig. I cannot express in words how much I hate that thing they put on Taylor Lautner's head.

• Various facial expressions. They know who they are.


CAN'T DECIDE:

• The seemingly controversial sparkle: I didn't hate it. It wasn't that bad.

• I missed seeing Edward drive his "special occasion" Aston Martin. But I got my fill of black Aston Martins in Quantum of Solace so it's OK.

CONCLUSION: I saw Twilight at a midnight showing and again the next day (Saturday). I have to say that it actually was better the second time. Without the fangirls screaming and the over-arching worry that the next moment would horribly mess something up, I was able to enjoy a movie based off one of my favorite book series. I realized after the second viewing that it would probably be somewhat confusing for someone that hasn't read the books. But they set out to make a movie for the fans and I think they succeeded.

RATING: 9