Stephenie Meyer's Story Gets Some Well-Deserved Editing in Twilight

A couple of weeks ago, my friend and I went to see Vampires Suck, a movie that spoofs the first two installments of the Twilight film series. This reminded me that I’d never actually seen the movies myself, though I read the books last year. I decided that it was time to remedy this situation, and not only did I put Twilight at the top of my queue, I told my parents that they had to watch it with me whether they liked it or not. They veered toward “not,” especially my dad, who is disturbed by the way vampires have become such a prominent part of pop culture of late. But when the movie was over, he told me, “Well, that was nothing like what I expected.” And he meant it in a good way.

Twilight, which is directed by Catherine Hardwicke with a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, is based on the first installment of Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling young adult series about a plain Jane named Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), who moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona, where she lives with her flighty mother, to rainy Forks, Washington, where her father, Charlie (Billy Burke), is a police chief. They haven’t seen much of each other lately, making the transition especially awkward, though Charlie is a kind man who wants his daughter to be safe and happy, and this comes across well in the movie. Though her insistence on calling him “Charlie” feels a tad disrespectful, Bella and her father have a pretty good rapport, and one of her more admirable traits is her concern about his well-being when she finds herself endangered toward the end of the movie.

Bella is a bit of a morose oddball who immediately reminded my mom of Lydia Deetz, the goth girl at the heart of the movie Beetlejuice and its subsequent animated spin-off series. I hadn’t made that connection before, but it’s pretty apt. One might also draw parallels with Beauty and the Beast, as Bella is an oddball with a self-sacrificial streak who’s close to her father and who falls in love with a man who is, in some sense, a monster. Additionally, her name means “beautiful swan,” calling to mind Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling; Bella is rather awkward and clumsy, but she dreams of one day attaining the otherworldly grace of the Cullens, the strange family of whom she is so enamored.

The trouble is that the Cullens are vampires. She can tell from the start that there’s something different about Edward (Robert Pattinson), who is standoffish to the point of being rude when they first meet in science class. He then vanishes for several days, but when he returns, he is much more polite, and they begin to forge a tenuous friendship that is complicated when he rescues her from a classmate’s out-of-control car. Bella can’t forget the superhuman strength she witnessed, and when he comes to her rescue again, she begins to investigate his idiosyncrasies in earnest, with some help from longtime family friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner).

It isn’t long before Edward confirms her suspicions, confessing himself irresistibly drawn to the scent of her blood. Though he has tried to keep his distance from her for her own safety, Edward is just as smitten as Bella, and soon he agrees to attempt a romantic relationship, which leads to her meeting his adoptive family, all of whom have long sworn off human blood, instead satiating their thirst by hunting animals. Most of them welcome her warmly, but when they meet with a trio of vampires who are passing through the area, leaving a grisly trail in their wake, Bella gets a grim reminder of the fact that most vampires have not gone to such pains to make themselves civilized. Though Edward has sworn to protect her, will he be able to shield her from the vicious tracker who sets his sights upon her?

Perhaps the first adjective that comes to my mind in association with the Twilight series is “melodramatic”. Bella narrates the books, and we really get the sense that we are peeking into the diary of a teenage girl. Meyer isn’t a particularly stellar writer, and she gives us pages upon pages of Bella talking about Edward’s absolute perfection in the most eye-rolling of terms. Thankfully, though Bella does have a truncated narrative presence in the movie, almost all of this extraneous description is cut out, with the result that Bella becomes much more tolerable. The movie distills everything down to two hours, and for me, this is an improvement because, frankly, not all that much happens in Twilight. What does happen is interesting, but you have to read through a lot of rambling to find those nuggets of really compelling story. Some will argue that the movie leaves too much out or that it makes unnecessary changes; these are certainly complaints that I have had about the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies. But as a mere casual fan of this series whose chief complaint was irritation with Bella’s narrative style, I was very happy with how the movie zipped along.

Stewart does a good job of appearing sulky and insecure, while also highlighting some of her better qualities, including love for her parents and intellect. I’m glad that the movie gives us a little time with her schoolmates, who may seem a little bland in comparison to the mysterious Cullens but who allow her to at least enjoy a taste of normal high school life in Forks. Jessica (Anna Kendrick) is a bit of a pill, a rather phony girl who mostly seems drawn to Bella because she’s the new girl, which makes her inherently fascinating. More sincere in her friendship is the quiet Angela (Christian Serratos), whom Bella encourages when her timidity threatens to rob her of a treasured experience. Also part of Bella’s gang of school chums are friendly Eric (Justin Chon), who first welcomes her to school, and Mike, played by Michael Welch of Joan of Arcadia, who channels the same geek chic he brought to that show as a young man vying for Bella’s affections.

But mostly, it’s all about Edward for Bella. Pattinson, best known prior to this as golden boy Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is uptight but chivalrous. He spends much of the movie with a pained expression on his face, but when he smiles, there is genuine sweetness there. When it comes down to it, he and Cedric are pretty similar: drop-dead gorgeous, athletic, intelligent and, most importantly, extremely ethical. Because he is so much stronger than Bella and because, despite having faithfully kept to his diet for decades, there’s still a part of him that thirsts for human blood, there are very practical reasons for the physical boundaries he places upon his relationship with her, but Edward is such an old-fashioned gentleman, I get the sense that even if he were wholly human, he wouldn’t be clamoring to get to second base with Bella. “It’s a movie about self-control,” was my dad’s comment when we had finished watching, and this is something that’s pretty refreshing to see in a teen movie in such a permissive age.

Lautner, who has turned into such a teen heartthrob in the past couple of years, doesn’t have a very large role in this movie, but he does a good job of capturing the boyish enthusiasm of this teen whose friendship with Bella dates back to their toddler years. I also enjoyed Gil Birmingham as his wheelchair-bound father Billy, one of Charlie’s closest friends. We don’t get to see too much of the Cullens either, except for patriarch Carlisle (Peter Facinelli), a deeply compassionate physician. I wouldn’t have minded more time with this clan, especially the effusive Alice (Ashley Greene), my favorite character in the series, but we see enough of them to get a good sense of their personalities. Well, not so much “brothers” Emmet and Jasper, but they’re not particularly well-established in the first book either.

Of the villainous trio who confront the Cullens during a game of baseball, I find the suave Laurent (Edi Gathegi), who speaks with a distinct accent and is the gentlest of the three, to be the most fascinating. James (Cam Gigandet) is sadistic, as is his main squeeze Victoria (Rachelle Lafevre), who vanishes for a while but turns up in the last scene of the movie in a moment that screams “sequel”.

While these three are responsible for some devastating carnage, the movie depicts it in the least gruesome manner possible, usually cutting away before we really see anything. There is one pretty intense scene toward the end, but the bulk of it is reminiscent of the battle between Gandalf and Saruman in Fellowship of the Ring, with two supernatural beings lobbing each other across the room and not really inflicting much severe damage. I appreciated the effort to tone down the violence. Moreover, there’s practically no profanity in the movie, and Bella and Edward’s romance is still all about restraint at this point, as it is for most of the series, so we don’t see anything more intense than a couple of kisses in terms of sensuality. For a PG-13 movie, Twilight is pretty tame.

If I have one major complaint about the movie, it’s the music, which is generally loud and raucous and often threatens to drown out dialogue. I found it incredibly intrusive. I was also distracted by the fact that most of the movie is bathed in a green haze, making it seem as though I was watching through tinted sunglasses. There were other elements of the cinematography I found annoying as well, though I did like the spectacular views of the meadow and of the valley that stretches out far below Edward and Bella when he takes her to a spot that serves as an incredible vantage point.

The special effects are, on the whole, pretty cheesy. When my brother was dragged to see the movie in theaters, he particularly complained about Edward’s sparkly skin. I’m sure it made more of an impression on the big screen, but it really only turns up in one scene, and from where I was sitting, I barely noticed it. More noticeable to me were the pasty complexions of Edward and his fellow vampires. Yes, they’re supposed to be pale, but this almost looked like somebody had just come along and slathered their faces with cream cheese. Not terribly impressive.

But for the most part, I must say that I preferred the movie to the book. It probably helps that this time around, I know exactly where the story is going, and I liked the last two installments in the series much better than the first two. I think that ending gave me a better appreciation of the beginning, as did reading Spotlight, John Granger’s book exploring the literary alchemy and symbolism he believes underpin the books. Mostly, though, I think the movie version of Twilight takes a good but overwrought story and gives it some much-needed editing.