Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-04-06
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 117 minutes

Special Features
Audio commentary with Stephenie Meyer, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson

Synopsis

        TWILIGHT, based on the acclaimed novel by Stephenie Meyer, is the highly-anticipated movie of the ultimate forbidden love affair between a vampire and mortal. Boasting a whole host of bright young talent including Robert Pattinson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Kristen Stewart (Into The Wild, What Just Happened) and Cam Gigandet (Never Back Down, The O.C.), the screenplay is written by Melissa Rosenberg (Step Up, The O.C.) and directed by the Award-winning filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke (Lords of Dogtown, Thirteen).

Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) has always been a little bit different, never caring about fitting in with the trendy girls at her Phoenix high school.  When her mother remarries and sends Bella to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she doesn’t expect much of anything to change.  Then she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a boy unlike any she’s ever met.  Intelligent and witty, he sees straight into her soul. 

Soon, Bella and Edward are swept up in a passionate and decidedly unorthodox romance.  Edward can run faster than a mountain lion, he can stop a moving car with his bare hands – and he hasn’t aged since 1918.  Like all vampires, he’s immortal.   But he doesn’t have fangs, and he doesn’t drink human blood, as Edward and his family are unique among vampires in their lifestyle choice.  To Edward, Bella is that thing he has waited 90 years for – a soul mate.  But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal pull of her scent, which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy.  But what will they do when Laurent (Edi Gathegi) and James (Cam Gigandet), the Cullens’ mortal vampire enemies, come to town, looking for Bella?

Customer Reviews

Could have been better
I was really excited when I saw the film trailers but was disappointed after watching it. Kristen Stewart who played Bella had the perfect look but I just got annoyed with how weak she was. Edward played by Rob Pattinson was so moody, and looked annoyed throughout the film. I wouldn't have said they had any real chemistry. I just felt that the whole thing was a bit of a farce. It was redeemed slightly by having a fantastic soundtrack- I've actually bought the CD, and I loved Peter Facinelli as Carlisle Cullen, and Billy Burke as Bella's father

Disappointing
It's a well known fact that some books do not make great movies. Twilight is one of them.
Whilst remaining faithful to the plot, the characters are not nearly as rounded and as complex as in the original novel. In fact, the two main characters seem somewhat dull, especially Edward, who is an extremely watered-down version of the Edward we meet in the novel.
On the whole, the film works as your typical girl-meets-boy-and-faces-adversity teen movie, and it is watchable. But having read and loved the novel, I feel that it should have been much more than that. The book attracted a wide audience, despite being initially aimed at the young adult market. However, the film doesn't have the same demographic simply because it's not quite good enough to attract the same wide audience.
It's a shame, because it could have been so much better if more thought had been put into it.

Best movie in over a year
I went to see this the weekend it first came out on the recommendation of some people who had read the books - definately the best movie I have seen in a very long time! I love pretty much all vampire movies, but essentially this is a love story and it loses none of it's integrity from either genre in translation to film. The chemistry between Bella and Edward is fantastic and that's central to the film - it's rare to see that, and essentially given that their epic love is supposed to compare to Rome & Juliett I'm so glad they got the casting right. The movie's also not shot in the typical smoothe Hollywood fashion, instead it's much more vivid with interesting camera angles that completely draw you in. The scenary in the film is also absolutely amazing and gives the film a real vitality - it's almost worth seeing for that alone regardless of the story.

The film got me so addicted I decided to read the books to find out if they were better (inevitably they were as you get the extra detail), and then I went back to see the movie with a different friend which was an interesting comparison. Actually the essence of the books is captured really well - as I said the chemistry between Bella and Edward was vital. As to the rest of the casting, having read the books I absolutely couldn't fault it (which is rare). The movie makes perfect sense without reading the books, so it can definately stand alone. In order to translate a book to film, inevitably some really good scenes from the book have to be cut, and the changed script in places did help to convey some of the additional information that you need to understand the context. However, on second viewing (after reading the books) I was left a bit baffled as to why they changed the some of the scenes and story order completely unnecessarily (e.g. the change to a field trip, going to Port Angeles before Bella works out fully what Edward is). Also, whilst I get they were probably playing up the 'vampire movie' angle, the books didn't need to focus on the 'other' vampires hunting and I would have preferred the movie not to spend so much time on those additions, but to instead tried to convey the sense of time passing a bit more - the book is set out over an entire academic year where as the movie tells us 'a month' (via Mike's prom referenc), which is worth remembering if you are wondering why Bella and Edward go from frosty to talking about forever quite so quickly in the film! The extra scene that I did, however, absolutely love was when Edward took Bella up into the trees - great effects, absolutely amazing scenary and you got a real sense of the romance between them - I really missed it when I read the book!

As I say, an absolutely brilliant move, well worth seeing. It's one of the very few movies I've every paid to see twice and would be willing to pay full price for the DVD.