On a Friday night in the dead of winter, you look forward to spending a relaxing evening snuggled on your couch, watching an action-packed blockbuster or fantastical romance. A fantastical romance wins you over, only you choose the worst movie to watch—Twilight. Love is important in a romance, but not if every other aspect cowers under its reign. Unfortunately, the main characters were the royal subjects under the reign of love. How would you feel if the two most important characters were intent on gazing into each other’s eyes instead of focusing on the major events in the movie? Wouldn’t this just ruin your Friday tranquility? And even worse, you feel as though you are trapped in mob of people in Manhattan, and can barely make out the characters’ faces. Everything you see is somewhat blurry and you can’t make anything out. How awful! When watching Twilight, my view of the main characters gazing absorbedly into each other’s eyes was obscured by a shaking camera. The movie was the polar opposite of what I was expecting on my relaxing Friday evening. For $37 million worth of poor acting, directing, props, and costumes overseen by Catherine Hardwicke, Twilight did not make the cut. Compared to the first of four books in The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer, the screen version of Twilight disregarded the depth, love, and passion found in the book. The dialogue was emptied of any meaning it previously held. The setting was not accurately depicted. Overall, the director did not capture the true essence of the book, and the movie was a disgrace to global fans, and most importantly, to Stephanie Meyer.

Bella Swan and Edward Cullen are the two main characters in the fantastical romantic drama. In the novel, Bella is a simple girl. She is quiet, but is smart and well aware of her surroundings. In the movie, Bella is depicted as clueless and scared of everything around her. Edward Cullen’s magnificent character is tortured similarly. Edward is the first of seven vampires that Bella meets. In the book, he is agile, intelligent and is overwhelmed with emotion. On screen, all Edward seems is angry up until his relationship with Bella. After Bella and Edward become involved, the movie is focused on their relationship rather than the intensity of the plot. Despite the terrible execution of the movie, even with the accentuated negative aspects of Bella and Edward, I must commend the choice of actors for the movie. The movie would have been a lot more interesting had the actors had the opportunity to show their capabilities. Many of the scenes required much stronger feeling than what was exhibited, and from past movies such as Panic Room and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Kristen Stewart (Bella) and Robert Pattison (Edward) definitely have the ability, but not the opportunity. The costumes chosen for the characters were also accurate, but without the opportunity to act, the characters did not create a strong positive component for the movie. Instead of using the characters as something to reel in attention, the director discarded the chance at a great production.

The direction of the movie suffered greatly with Catherine Hardwicke as the director. I absolutely hated the way she chose to tell the story, and it was rushed. Many scenes that were significant in the book were completely ignored in the movie. There was poor organization of the scenes, and in its entirety, the movie was inaccurate. Unfortunately, the vision of Stephanie Meyer did not coincide with that of Catherine Hardwicke’s, and this was very noticeable in the choice of setting. Unlike Meyer’s description of the school Bella attends, Hardwicke’s vision is a large, multi-story building compared to Meyer’s many small, one-storied buildings. This is one of many differences between the two versions of Twilight. At the climax, Bella was lured by the antagonist to the place she went as a child to dance, the place the antagonist deemed her death bed. The readers of Twilight were at the edge of their seats, yet during the movie they were bored. The climax was not obvious in the movie, which is a vital part to a story. Under Catherine Hardwicke, Twilight became the worst version of itself.

The lighting in Twilight allowed me to see the characters, but the blurry camera made it difficult to make out the staring competitions Bella and Edward were constantly engaged in. I’m sure Catherine Hardwicke had interesting ideas about different angles to shoot the movie from, but just as everything else, this was not accomplished. One scene that had taken place in the forest was shot at a very good angle. Unfortunately, as the videographer shot the scene, he let the camera shake. The videographer was clearly content with such work, and Catherine Hardwicke didn’t oppose. This derailed the entire movie, making it difficult to watch and not get dizzy from poor filming. In the same forest scene, Edward shifted from tree to ground to tree once more, and this is one of the few examples complementing the movie. Edward’s shifting was extremely fast, a blur, and the special effects created a seamless look. Had the camera been kept level, had the dialogue been improved and the acting been more expressive, I might have actually enjoyed the scene.

Twilight, no matter how good a book, was transformed into a terrible movie. The lack of emotion and depth of the characters made it boring and uneventful, and easy to fall asleep to. Catherine Hardwicke had a terrible vision that was not completed, and the potentially incredible cinematography suffered for it. The circulation of this movie was unfit for any vampire, lacking complexity, character, and love.