A comment about Twilight

I love Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. When I started reading the first book last summer, I could barely put it down, and I read all four books in about 2 weeks, and it only took me that long because I had to wait for the 3rd and 4th books to arrive after I ordered them from Amazon. I was hooked. At some point I might go into more detail about my opinions on the books, but my main reason for writing this is to say that I do not like the movie!!
I know that it hardly ever happens, if at all, that a movie based on a book lives up to the book. One exception I can think of to this rule is I Am David which is based on the book North to Freedom, and even in that case I don't know that it's that the film is better than the book, it's just that the book is written for a young audience (9-13yrs), as well as the fact that I saw the film before I read the book. Both are just absolutely beautiful. If you haven't seen I am David, please please do! It is such a beautiful film, and even brought tears to my husband's eyes, and he never cries!
So anyway, as I was saying, I don't think I went into the Twilight film with unrealistic expectations, because I know a movie can never live up to the book it's based on. I even was expecting to be disappointed because of course, Robert Pattinson doesn't look anything like the beautiful Greek statue of an Edward in my head! But seriously, even with the low expectations I had, it still managed to disappoint me. And here's the weird thing, every one I went to the cinema with, and almost everyone I've spoken to about it since, seemed to really like it, and I just don't understand it! Even the people who were with me in my dislike when it was in the theatres are switching teams now that they've seen it again on DVD! So of course, I decided that I just had to see it again, so that I could try to see why other people like it. I also wanted to watch it with my husband, who has never read the books, to get an unbiased opinion, because I felt that it not only didn't live up to the books, but wasn't even a very good movie taken solely on its own merits. See, I'm trying to be open-minded about it! But alas! I remain unmoved, I still think it's not only a poor adaptation, but also an unimpressive film in general.
I understand the need for cutting things out of the story for time reasons, such as there being only one school dance instead of two, and even the need for minimising certain characters for the sake of time, like Jasper who apparently had no special powers in the film, but there are some things that were just plain unnecessary. Anyway, here are some of the things that bothered me as a lover of the books, and I'm just going to stick to the things that I think were completely unnecessary in the squeezing of an entire book into the length of a movie.

• There was no dazzling. Bella just seemed to be mad at Edward the whole time, and then all of a sudden they just sort of decided they were in love. My husband even said this, although, as I've said, he hasn't read the books. He said it also just sort of seemed as though Bella was only interested in him because he was dangerous and a vampire, etc, so it seemed more like some weird fascination than love.
• Why do Bella and Charlie eat at a diner? In the books Bella instantly starts cooking and looking after Charlie when she moves in, and that's part of her whole "17 going on 35" thing. The wise-beyond-her-years thing doesn't really come across, and she just seems like a normal moody teenager.
  
• Why did they decide to cut out the part where Jacob tells Bella that the Cullens are supposedly vampires, and she goes to a bookstore to buy a book about Quileute legend instead? I mean, it didn't save any time, since Bella and Jacob still had their conversation on the beach, and Bella still researched it all on the internet, so I don't understand why they changed it. Especially since telling Bella that the Cullens were supposedly "descended from an enemy clan" doesn't break the treaty in any way, so how will that play out in the later movies?
• The meadow. All wrong. In fact, that whole bit where the two of them randomly decide to walk out of school and walk up a mountain is just plain weird. "I need to show you what I look like in the sun!!" Raah!
  
• The way they made the first kiss some premeditated thing by having Edward show up in her bedroom with the sole purpose of kissing her. Wait, I think that was even the only kiss? I can't remember now. Either way, she did a whole lot of moving and getting into it before he suddenly had to fly into the wall...
  
• I'm afraid I didn't think Bella or Edward were very good actors... *sigh*
  
• The Cullens' house?? Where did that come from?? Okay, so they got the glass thing down, but it was just not even close. And Edward's room was small and kind of messy.
  
• The clearing where they played baseball - tiny. It was supposed to be huge, what with them being super strong, super fast vampires and all. How are they going to fit the entire Volturi in there in the fourth movie?

There was a lot more than this that bothered me, or even made me cringe while I watched the movie, but these were just some of the things which I felt were completely unnecessary, even considering the need for reduction in the book-to-movie process.

Some things I sort of liked. (Yes, there were a couple of things...)

• The part where they're making food for Bella at the Cullens' house prior to her arrival. Not in the book, but I thought it was kind of cute and funny.
  
• The part where Charlies cleaning his rifle before he meets Edward, and he snaps it and says "Bring him in" Again, not in the book, but made me giggle.
• Charlie and Renee were cast quite well I think.
  
• ummmmmmmmm.........I'm trying to think of something else, but nothing is coming to me....how sad

I suppose the bottom line is that a movie based on a book should always leave the viewer with a desire to read the book. Don't you think? I'm almost positive that if I had seen this movie before I had read the book, it would have inspired not even a spark of desire. I asked my husband that question, and he said it didn't make him want to read the book either, even though he thought that overall it was an "Okay" movie.