Twilight (2008)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Bella Swan	Kristen Stewart
Edward Cullen	Robert Pattinson	½
Charlie Swan	Billy Burke	½
Alice Cullen	Ashley Greene	½
Rosalie Hale	Nikki Reed
Jasper Hale	Jackson Rathbone
Emmett Cullen	Kellan Lutz
Dr. Carlisle Cullen	Peter Facinelli	½
James	Cam Gigandet	½

Review

This teenage escapist fantasy cannot quite live up to its ambitions of combining serious drama with timeless romance and classic action. Everyone in the film business should know by now that making good vampire films is one of the trickiest tasks one can embark on, but Swedish director Tomas Alfredsson actually did just that earlier this year with the wonderful Låt den rätte komma in.

When it comes to thematics, Twilight bears quite some resemblance to the Swedish film, as we meet kind-hearted vampires trying to control their lust, and school loners who are so fascinated by them that they are willing to imperil themselves in order to be near the bloodthirsty. Whereas Alfredsson cares deeply for his kids and is fundamentally interested in how it would be like if vampires existed in real life, the makers of Twilight are mostly interested in re-defining known vampire rules in order to make visualized Harlequin style chick-lit. Based on the popularity of Stephanie Meyers book series, I choose to believe there are more to the books than director Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) is able to convey onto the big screen. She obviously has a vision with her film, but it is a puerile and showy vision dominated by MTV stylistics and predictable plot developments coming at predictable times. The result is a half-baked film which might please teenagers who share Hardwicke's rather banal idea of romance, but it hasn't got much valuable to offer viewers who are interested in real people – or vampires for that matter.