The Couch Potato Dishing out life through the couch she is sitting on.

Before I proceed, I should tell you that I am a Twihard (a Twilight fan through and through). I have read the four books (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn) several times already. And I went to the moviehouse with an open mind. Actually, I went to the moviehouse thinking I will be viewing a totally different story from the one in the book.

So okay, for the uninitiated, Twilight is written by Stephenie Meyer about a high school girl Isabella “Bella” Swan who came to Forks from Phoenix to live with her dad, Charlie, who is the Chief of Police in the always rainy and gloomy small town in the Olympic Peninsula. In a stroke of fate, she meets the Cullens, the mysterious family mostly avoided by people of Forks. She falls in love with one of them, Edward Cullen, who embodies a true blue perfect gentleman except that he’s a vampire. There goes the twist of the novel.

Now let’s go to the movie review…

The movie started out with the hunt. The Cullens are a different breed of vampires. They drink animal blood instead of human blood, “vegetarians” in their words. The first scene is great because we are given a feel of how a hunt happens. Then comes the next scene of Bella preparing to go to Forks, getting her cactus. So okay, let’s stop at this scene… WTF is the cactus for??? That’s a wasted scene! One of the many. I totally cannot get that scene. Really.

Now, Bella is picked up by Charlie, her dad. It’s supposed to be an awkward moment, Bella used to calling Charlie behind her back. But it was never shown that way. Or maybe because Kristen Stewart, the girl playing Bella, has the same expression in most scenes. Trying to look intense but failing to do so. And here’s something I also cannot get… how come Charlie is not reserved? He is supposed to be an awkward dad whereas the character in the movie is a jolly, funny type of dad. That’s okay with other stories but we are talking about Twilight here! Why change the character’s traits???

Okay so Charlie told Bella that he already got her a truck, an old, rustic, beat up Chevy that he got from Billy Black, an elder from the reservation La Push. Billy in my mind is somewhat an old Indian guy who looks a bit somber. Billy in the movie is irritatingly blase. Billy was there, together with the un-hunky Jacob Black (played by Taylor Lautner). They were all so chummy in the scene. That was actually not in the book. Another wasted scene for me. They could have stuck to the movie where Bella saw the truck the minute she sets foot in Charlie’s place.

Next scene is Bella going to school in his beat up Chevy truck. Students are in the parking lot. She meets students Jessica Stanley, Mike Newton, Angela Weber and Eric Yorkie. In the book, Bella was befriended by Jessica and she introduced her to everyone at lunch. Mike is an okay guy who is smitten with Bella. In the movie, Jessica and Mike are super noisy! Angela is not the shy, kind girl in the book. She is a super thin girl in the movie that seems insignificant in most scenes. Eric, on the other hand, is a squirrelly guy who can’t stop talking!

Scene is at lunch and the Cullens are making an appearance already. Emmett and Rosalie, Jasper and Alice came in. The impact was… duh?!? Then, of course, Edward (played by Rob Pattinson), came. The girls in the cinema hooted! I was one of them! Hahaha! He is wow! Except when you try to be objective, he looked like he was dipped in a bowl of flour.

to be continued…