Twilight - The Movie

[HurrahforHermy]

I like Twilight, but to be honest, I don't think Bella's character has much personality, so I think it's dificult for Kristen Stewart to act her. For a movie, you've got to have a main character with some personality. I think it works as a book, but not that much as a movie. I used to like twilight more before it became such a phenomenom and such a cult. I mean, it's a good book, but it's not THAT amazing. No offence to anyone, just stating my opinion here

[Fawkesfan1]

Originally Posted by HurrahforHermy

I like Twilight, but to be honest, I don't think Bella's character has much personality, so I think it's dificult for Kristen Stewart to act her. For a movie, you've got to have a main character with some personality. I think it works as a book, but not that much as a movie. I used to like twilight more before it became such a phenomenom and such a cult. I mean, it's a good book, but it's not THAT amazing. No offence to anyone, just stating my opinion here

That's me too. She's ok character wise, but I don't think that Bella has that much personality either. For me it's both in the movie and in the book.

It's kind of sad, really. I've just always thought she was rather bland in a way.

[AurayaBlack]

I'm really, really not a fan, and I'm not that keen on Robert or Kristen. The movies just don't have a lot going for them, and they're no all that interesting.

[dobbydear15]

I am very excited for Twilight:Breaking Dawn! It's another saga that I am sad to see go Anyone know if there are plans for any other books from Stephanie Meyer?

[AldeberanBlack]

She was planning to release a novel called "Midnight Sun"

The novel would cover the story of the first novel, but this time from Edward Cullen's perspective.


But she put it on hold when some chapters were leaked.

However given the financial success of the series, I'd be very surprised if she didn't eventually release it, and more novels

[dobbydear15]

That would be awesome! Thanks so much for the info!

[phoenix45]

Ok, I really don't know how most Harry Potter fans feel about the Twilight saga (I've read a lot of stuff about how they think its stupid and vice versa). But I absolutely LOVE this series. It's not as imaginative and complex as Harry Potter but I am a hopeless romantic so I think that's why I get so into these stories. I love a good epic romance. My best friend and I have gone to see all the midnight premieres and I've read the books twice. I've already bought my ticket for Breaking Dawn Part 1. I'm sad to see this one ending too. Although I will say this, if I had to choose one series for the author to continue writing about it would be Harry Potter just because 7 books kind of get you involved with the story alot more than 4 books.

[angelskatie]

I love twilight as much as I love harry potter!

[FastDebrid]

Hmm...my favorite in this saga is no other than...TAYLOR LAUTNER in all his sexiness.hahahaha

[AldeberanBlack]

The movies don't do the characters justice. While it's certainly true that they soften Bella's character (she's deeply unpleasant and superficial in the books) and that's a good thing, they cut out a lot of her dialogue. She's very (perhaps too) introspective in the books, but in the films that just doesn't come across. It's also not helped by Kristen Stewart mumbling all her lines. Jacob and Edward also suffer from this. In the films they are really little more than glorified male models who pose rather than act. This doesn't cripple the films, but it makes them less than what they could have been.

[FurnitureP]

I hope he's not Jacob, he's just not...Jacob-y enough.

[Goddess_Clio]

I've said many times that I'm a fan of the idea of Twilight rather than the books or films themselves since I think the books are poorly written and the films are poorly acted (but to be fair their source material wasn't good to begin with so they couldn't really be improved upon) but to each their own.

Originally Posted by AldeberanBlack

The movies don't do the characters justice. While it's certainly true that they soften Bella's character (she's deeply unpleasant and superficial in the books) and that's a good thing, they cut out a lot of her dialogue. She's very (perhaps too) introspective in the books, but in the films that just doesn't come across. It's also not helped by Kristen Stewart mumbling all her lines. Jacob and Edward also suffer from this. In the films they are really little more than glorified male models who pose rather than act. This doesn't cripple the films, but it makes them less than what they could have been.

Softening Bella's character is a filmic necessity. Since the books are written in first person POV we as readers are privvy to all of Bella's personal musings, thoughts, feelings, etc. but in the film if it's not dialogue or something that can be acted physcially then we would be entirely reliant on voice overs to provide the same amount of information about Bella (and voice overs get boring and intrusive very quickly - personally I think Twilight relied on them too heavily). Changing her character to be (somewhat) more likable on screen is done so we, the audience, don't condemn her the second we see her for actions or reactions we don't know the motivation for. (I saw the first two films before I read the books so I had no idea what to expect and was entirely reliant on the actors to show me their motivations)

A great recent example of a book character being modified for the film is Lisbeth Salander from Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In the book Lisbeth is extremely anti-social, suspicious of anyone in a position of authority and doesn't display any sort of loving feelings overtly - she is an extreme introvert to put it mildly but in the books she is a sympathetic character because we hear her inner dialogue and why she thinks and feels the way she does. In a film a character like this would be 100% unlikable which is a bad thing because Lisbeth is supposed to be the heroine of the book to Mikael Blomkvist's hero and we're meant to sympathize with her. So her filmic character was softened around the edges. She opens up more, is a little more emotionally available for the audience to relate to. Her film character is so not the same as the book character but because written fiction and cinema are inherently different mediums for story telling her character had to be reinvisioned.

If Book Bella had straight up become Movie Bella she would have been a totally unlikable snot since in the books (at least by my own interpretation) she doesn't care one iota about fitting in in Forks or making friends or anything. All that stuff is kind of forced onto her in the books because she showed up with a woe-is-me-I-did-this-to-myself-so-I-must-suffer-in-silence kind of attitude. I give credit to the screenwriter for Twilight for making Bella at least tolerable in the movies.

Personally, though, Kristen Stewart wasn't the right person to play Bella. Kristen is naturally a pretty stoic actress, she's always really serious and I find her very hard to relate to since she's so introverted as a person - I feel like she doesn't let the audience get close to her, she keeps us at arms distance, there's always something between me and her that keeps me from relating to the characters she plays (and this isn't just speaking about her playing Bella but a general observation from all the movies I've seen her in). As much as I find the acting in these films to be pretty bad I can say that Robert and Taylor act in a way that allows me as a viewer to feel close to their characters but when I'm not able to relate well to the viewpoint character I find that to be a huge issue.

[StarsAndShadows]

I came across this comparison between Twilight and The Hunger Games and found it too funny not to share. Though maybe I should post it in THG thread.

ETA - I'm afraid I'm not a Twilight fan...