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(Photo courtesy of Summit Entertainment)
Ciara Lanman
Contributor to the connector
In November 2008, the “Twilight” movie franchise took the world by storm. In 2021, the franchise still has the same effect. The “Twilight” saga was adapted from the 2005-2008 book series written by Stephanie Meyer.
The four-book series was then expanded into five films by dividing the final book, “Breaking Dawn”, into two films. Recently, “Twilight” fans were able to rejoice that the films were added to Netflix from July 2021.
“Twilight,” the first film in the series, follows teenage Bella Swan, played by Kristen Stewart, and her journey from Phoenix, Arizona, where she resided with her mother in Forks, Wash., To live with his father.
Bella quickly begins to realize that the small town is more than it looks and that people are not who they say they are. The mysterious family, the Cullens, are not actually humans but rather vampires who refuse to consume human blood. Despite this new acquaintance, Bella still maintains a relationship with Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson.
Knowing the Cullens’ secret and being in a relationship with Edward puts Bella in a precarious situation, she now has a target placed on her back by a group of human consuming vampires who will stop at nothing to drink her blood.
Bella is a symbol of the idyllic fantasy of adolescence. She’s the dark, brooding, and interesting new girl entering a new town, but even so, she is immediately greeted by her peers. So much so that after only attending high school for a few days, Bella has already been invited to dates and prom. Either way, Bella only has eyes for Edward, and he only has eyes for her.
Stewart convincingly plays the part of Bella. With her inability to maintain eye contact during long, frequent blinks and stammer through conversations, she captures the awkwardness of adolescence perfectly. Her body language is often very closed and in many scenes she looks tense, reflecting her brooding and mysterious nature.
However, what remains unconvincing is the romance between Edward and Bella. Both have little chemistry. The actors are tense around each other, deliver their lines without conviction or semblance of emotion and stumble in the conversation. To keep the story focused on a hot and heavy forbidden romance, filled with fate between a vampire and a human, Stewart and Pattinson leave a lot to be desired in their portrayal of romance.
The film is also heavily saturated in blue and gray tones, almost to the point of overkill. Despite the over-editing, the blue and gray hues help convey the tone of the film. “Twilight” is based in a rainy mountain town full of mysterious vampiric beings. Blue and gray help enhance the pallor of vampires by removing the natural heat from human skin.
In addition, the soundtrack of the film also improves the tone. The soundtrack includes songs like “Supermassive Black Hole” by Muse, “Decode” by Paramore, “Leave Out All the Rest” by Linkin Park and others. These artists are all leading voices in the alternative music world and deliver emotional electric guitar-based songs that add to the mysterious and dark nature of the film. The soundtrack has great cultural significance and is meant to be a time capsule for 2008, just like the film.
“Twilight” sometimes takes itself too seriously, almost to the point where audiences can, ironically, no longer take the film seriously. If you watch the film without any real stakes or expectations, it makes a lot of laughs.
The nerdy, squeaky teen movie calls for a chuckle or two. Laughing at how Edward calls Bella his own brand of heroine or when he calls her a spider monkey, that’s where the joy really comes from in this movie. It’s dirty, trashy content, where it’s so bad it suddenly becomes good, and the audience can’t look away.
Category B
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