4 stars
FYI for anyone reading this that may not know-- I (Emily), Sue and Cath drove out to Wyoming for the sole purpose of watching this movie on opening weekend with our other sister Amy, her daughters, my mom and dad (mom was sick, so didn't end up going) and our brother (Matt) and his wife (B). We thought it would be a lot of fun to be able to see it together. Plus, we like any excuse to spend the weekend with the fam, that is always a good time.
I thought it only wright that someone did a review of this movie, since most of us saw it together. I'm going to try to do a collective review, that includes what we all thought. I can do this since we spent so much time talking about it afterwords (hee hee). As a whole, we all liked it. I don't think we have ever all agreed with each other so much! Here are the thoughts we all had on some particular points of the movie:
Pattinson: We all loved him!! Upon first hearing he was cast, I was on board 100%. I was familiar with him from his role in Harry Potter (Cedric Diggory) and it just clicked with me. We agreed that he has a very intense face and it worked well with Edward. Some had a slight problem with his eyebrows, but he was forgiven (not me! Loved the eyebrows). We all very much liked his hair. Very much. The only execption to our love of Pattinson was Sarah, she has been against him from the start, he was nowhere near her interpretation of Edward, not that any of us know what that is exactly, as she is unable to explain it properly. After seeing it, she admitted that he did a good job, but still.....
Stewart: She totally nailed the look of Bella we thought. There were a couple of times for me, where she seemed a little awkward (and not in a Bella way, just awkward), but I didn't hold it against her too much. I saw her on Letterman a few days before, and that is how she talked in real life, so I guess that is just her. It wasn't detrimental though, so no big thing.
The rest of the Cullens: We LOVED Jasper and found him so funny! We thought Emmette and Rosalie were perfect (we were skeptical of Rosalie before we saw it, but were won over quickly upon seeing the picture). Esme was great (very small part), Alice, I wasn't totally in love with, but I'll live. Our biggest problem was Carlise. I think we all agreed that he nailed the part, but he looked wierd. I really like Peter Facinelli, I just thought the blond hair was strange looking and compromised his look quite a bit. I am now thinking that's really shallow of me since I thought he played the part very well, so I have decided to let go the problem I had, and just say that I was happy with him.
The Quiluetes: I thought Billy was perfect. Jacob too, our only concern is how many power shakes are they going to have to force down that kid to prep him for New Moon?
Charley: That actor did a great job. I thought he portrayed him perfectly, yet he wasn't at all what I pictured, but I adjusted nicely. I seemed to have the most trouble with him.
Edward's diamond skin: We (excepting Kelly) were really happy about how they did that. How Edward acted before and after was a little -eh-, but the effect itself was better then I expected. Let me just say, that the moment I heard they were doing a movie, this was my first thought - How cheesey it will be to see the diamond skin. I thought that no matter how they did it, it would look terrible and just weird visually. But they made me eat my words. I thought they did it very subtle and was impressed that it wasn't over the top. So bravo!
The baseball scene: We enjoyed this scene very much, we did think they could have spent more time showing it, it was a little short. We all seemed to like the song (supermassive black hole - Muse) and thought it went great with the scene. We also really liked Alice's pitching.
Spider monkey: Yeah, we really liked that line.
Edward's Volvo: Most found it too wimpy looking. We expected a more sporty looking Volvo. Sue called it "hatch-backy" and that sums it up pretty well.
Overall: We thought they did a great job of adapting this book into a movie. It is hard to make everyone happy (impossible I should say) but I think they made wise decisions on what to leave out and what to add. I cringed a few times, but it seemed to be more with the directing then specific actors. I think a different director might be a good thing, but I can live with this one I suppose. Two members of the family attended that hadn't read the books: Matt and Scott. Scott has heard a lot about them from his wife and daughters, and Matt probably a little from his wife (and sisters). Both of them really enjoyed it! Matt is even planning to read Twilight when he is done with Les Mis whenever that might be. He thought the story was really interesting and cool. While watching it, I didn't think anyone that hadn't read the books could possibly like it, but I was very happy to hear that they did. I guess I was wrong. It's good to be wrong sometimes.
I am sure I have left some stuff out, but I pretty much wrote this so we had a place to continue discussing the movie if we'd like (comments). So no worries, whatever I missed, I am sure we will discuss it fully below.
I am so glad we took the time to go out there so we could all see it together! That was a great idea I had. Yes, I'm smart. I had a lot of fun seeing everyone! Hope the Phisters and Co are having fun at Disneyland this week. Ride Splash Mountain for me.
