Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42 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

Not much to it
I've not read any of the books, so I am just giving my impression of the film as it stands. I watched it all the way through, and did not consider switching it off, so it was not so bad as to annoy me. However, there is nothing to particularly recommend it. Not much of a plot, dull one-dimensional characters, and some fairly bad acting. The overall look of the film, and use of colours, was probably the best thing about it, but nothing outstanding. Special effects were fairly routine by modern standards, and nothing you haven't seen before. Certainly not frightening, creepy or suspenseful: in fact, no atmosphere whatsoever. I would recommend giving this a miss, and watching Let the Right One In.

Style over Substance
Maaaaan, I watched this flick at the weekend with my lady friend, as she had been raving about it, and I have to say I was really surprised. A lot of people who I thought were quite sharp and worldly-wise had also blown their wad over it, but jesus wept, what a pile of old cobblers! I'd like to know what the consensus of opinion would be if a lesser-faced individual had been cast in the role of Edward, this seems to be the only reason anyone could become infatuated with it. Terrible acting, boring plot, nothing redeeming whatsoever. Stick to watching reruns of Dawson's bloody creek if crud like this is what floats your boat, and seriously consider asking a grown-up to show you a decent film like Predator or something.....

A solemn and tiresome teen romance that happens to have some vampires in it
My other half has read all the Stephanie Meyer Twilight series and is a big fan .I cannot be bothered to invest that amount of time reading something that in all probability I will almost certainly dislike. You see I hate this modern trend of making vampires romantic ciphers. All pale brooding hotties with trembling fulsome red bottom lips and weirdly hypnotic eyes that are meant to convey some deeply troubled romantic conflict hidden within the bloodsuckers soul but In actuality are more like they have vamp flu. I abhor all that even when it is done well like in True Blood .I want my vamps nasty and rapaciously thirsty for blood , not love , you know , like they are meant to be.
Anyway despite this decided to watch the film version to see if anything about this tale would appeal on any level and well it doesn't . Twilight is a truly terrible film. Badly acted , with a terrible script it is also despite one or two unintentionally hilarious scenes ( where he carry's Bella up the mountain at super-speed I could not stop laughing - it was like Benny Hill crossed with the Vampire Diaries goes trekking ) thumpingly dull In truth it's not really a vampire film anyway . This is a solemn teen romance that happens to have some vampires in it. No attempt is made to establish the accepted mythology of the bloodsuckers( in this film they can move around in daylight and sunlight makes them all sparkly .WHAT????) and the alleged will they /won't they tension between Bella (Kristen Stewart ) and Edward ( Robert Pattinson ) is non-existent because we know they will get together but the film spends an hour brooding over this and boy , is it boring.
Once they do get it on ...well sort of and Bella is introduced to the rest of the Cullen clan who live in a house in the woods that looks like something of Grand Designs they bond over a game of Vampire baseball ( I swear I am not making this up ) but then some other not very nice vamps i.e. proper vampires crash the party and the film hots up for the last third but still not enough to make it interesting , something not helped by second rate special effects. One of the vampires gets a taste for Bella because he gets a sniff of her hair which brings new meaning to the phrase because you're worth it.
I guess I am not in the target demographic for this bilge not being female and having long ago waved tarrah to my teenage years ( which to be honest were wasted on me anyway ) but even taking this into account I am still able to ascertain whether a film is well made in a genre specific way and Twilight most certainly is not. Pattinson is pretty enough in a constipated way and has the swarthy hair thing going on but he is so flat and lifeless as Edward I almost expected Bella to cry "I haven't fallen for a vampire , I ,ve fallen for a zombie " . Not that she would ever utter anything so compelling and in fact they are on one level well matched as she is no great charisma fountain either. She matches the dull drippy wet weather perfectly as the twitchy awkward Bella who seems unhappy about things when there is very little to be unhappy about . The only thing the pair do well is stare longingly at each other .Olympic standard their staring .Good at smouldering too .
The script is arguably the most dreadful part of this debacle . Lines like "I'd rather die than to stay away from you." and "I dream about being with you forever." are dropped like tired confetti though I did laugh when Bella says to the foreboding Edward "You know, your mood swings are kinda giving me whiplash." . That's a rare moment of inspiration in a film devoid of anything real, tangible or empathetic. If you want to see a great film about a relationship between a vampire and a human watch Let The Right One In [DVD] [2008] . That is everything this is not.
Twilight is "Dawson's Creek " or some other teeny tripe mixed with The Lost Boys [DVD] [1987] but no where near as good as that sounds , and it sounds pretty terrible to me. Director Catherine Hardwicke and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg have removed most of the sentimentality and Mills & Boon bosom heaving from the source book out of the mix so I'm told , but Hardwicke's "Twilight" is still an empty shallow vessel.