Twilight is probably the biggest and most hyped up book-to-movie release since Harry Potter. But then again, the sudden cult following was still a big question mark in terms of how good it would actually be in the box office charts. Lo and behold, in just it’s first week, it has already grossed $69,637,740 and took over the number one slot from Quantum of Solace. What was more impressive to me is that its production budget was only $37 million while Quantum of Solace was at $200 million and it grossed THREE times more than what Quantum had done in 2 weeks. Wow. So the question is, was it really as good as advertised and worth all the cult following?

Since I have not read any of the books (nor do I plan to), the trailer of the movie had me saying how bad it would already be even before I had watched it. I thought all the hype would not only destroy whatever good would come out of the movie, but believed that it would make it utterly terrible. I was thinking more in the lines of cult fans coming out disappointed with their heads hanging and wondering why the heck they were wearing all their Twilight shirts that said “Team Edward” at the back.

Twilight is a love story between Edward, a vampire played by Robert Pattinson (who also played Cedric in Harry Potter!), who has fallen in love with Bella, a human played by Kristen Stewart. The whole movie actually revolves around their “forbidden” love affair because of what Edward is and what the consequences of losing control with Bella would mean. The other problem is the fact that there is another group of vampires, those who seek human blood, who have taken in the scent of Bella, and are hunting her as they had discovered her. The first part of the movie was rather draggy, but definitely got better when we (those who haven’t read the book, and there were very few of us) finally understood why Edward was so appalled by Bella at the start. The action picked up even more when the other brood came in and started to hunt down Bella while the family came in and protected her.

Did I like the movie? Surprisingly yes. There’s something about the mystery behind what was coming next that really peaked my interest. There was a part while watching the movie that I realized I was involuntarily squeezing my fiancee’s hand beside me when the chase scene was on, which was quite funny, hehe. There were some really disappointing parts though like the scene where James was killed. It was so anti-climactic and I kept saying to myself, “that was it?!“  But there were some really good parts like the baseball game they played in the thunderstorm and when the brood came in and found Bella. That was pretty cool.

As a non-reader of the books, it was pretty entertaining and at least I wasn’t disappointed. But for the die-hard readers, I’m not quite sure how they rated the film. I read quite a few reviews that said how the movie didn’t portray some characters the way they were described in the books. But apparently it isn’t that big of a deal. This is a correction thanks to k who commented on what was written here. Thank you :-)  I would suggest that you go watch this movie if not for the sheer curiosity of what all the hype is about. And if I would be interested in what happens in the sequel, I guess it means this first one was good enough for a second serving

Personal Rating (out of 10): 6.8/10
IMDb User Rating (out of 10): 5.8/10
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Fantasy
Duration: 122 minutes
Links: Official Site, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Trailers