Last night I went with my Mom to the midnight showing of Twilight, thought I’d share some of my thoughts on the movie. I may share some spoilers to those who haven’t read the books, so don’t read on if you want to be surprised.

The film didn’t have the biggest of budgets and, unfortunately, it showed. Some of the vampire special effects – shots of Edward moving quickly – were a little silly with the “speed” effects. They did the classic “speed up the film” for some of them, and for some there was a weird movement special effect. The one time I felt they showed the quick movement the best was during the baseball game. I thought that was done well and was a fun scene to watch.

I didn’t feel like there was much character development. I wish that they had been able to write more character developing into Edward. I felt they established character traits of the other vampires too harshly. For example, no question in your mind that Rosalie doesn’t like Bella. It was a little harsh.

Jasper didn’t say much, but his facial expressions were pretty hilarious – not that I think they were supposed to be taken this way. But from reading the books you know how he has a hard time dealing with his new eating restriction. I kinda felt he was Christopher Walken-ish with his hair and facial expressions which made me laugh sometimes, but in spots where I *think* they wanted you to. (I’m kind of a terrible movie goer, I find lots of stuff funny when the audience is quiet)

I was tired of Bella’s character by the end of the movie, but this has to do with character development.

I did like how they kept the Bella narrative.

Look for Stephenie Meyer’s cameo. I think it went unnoticed since I only heard myself to react to it.

I wish time was spent on the lullaby Edward wrote for Bella. I thought this gave you such great insight to really how mature he is while reading the books. In the movie you don’t get that at all, you just see him playing it for her.

I could keep going, but I need to take the boys to school, then take a nap! 😆 Overall, I felt the movie was fine. I’m sad to see a budget really affect the story. I’m hoping that if this does well enough and they plan to film the next one, that they will have a better budget available to them. I think most of my “problems” with the movie were budget related. I liked the characters fine (Alice is charming), felt the dialogue was wanting sometimes, and mostly enjoyed getting to see the movie with my Mom.

If you see it this weekend, let me know what you think! As for me, I think I’ll re-read the books.