By Meher Ahmad
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The much anticipated “Twilight” movie was released on Nov. 21, and among crowds of worshipping fans, I was one among many who left with a sense of disappointment, shock and perhaps even hilarity.

The film version of the hit book series described the romance between the brooding vampire Edward and the brooding mortal Bella, both of whom continue to brood in various settings for roughly 78 percent of the movie. The characters are hardly dynamic, upholding the same aura of mysteriousness throughout the whole film.

Although I have read the first book, I haven’t re-read it until every detail was clear in my head. The plot-line in the movie was followed roughly in the same order as the book, but the romance between Bella and Edward was obviously rushed. The book creates tangible tension between the two characters, who dance around each other for a good month until they actually approach each other. In the movie, it only took a few scenes of awkwardness for the two to progress into staring longingly at each other lying in a field of flowers and proclaiming their undying love.

The tension described in the book was instead replaced by unbearable awkwardness. Perhaps romantic tension reads better in books than in films, but I was uncomfortable in my seat watching the increasingly awkward encounters of Bella with various people of Forks, WA.

The rushed plot line was only half of the problem, however. Director Catherine Hardwicke attempted to create an artsy style of presenting the gushing romance but instead created an obvious gimmick. There were several sepia-toned montages in the movie, narrated of course, by question and answer sessions with Edward and Bella. The camera focused many times on only the actors’ eyes, then panned out into a glamour-shot pose with wind blowing in their hair, an evident gift for crazed fans. The epitome of cheesiness, however, was the scene where the ever-brooding Edward played DeBussy on a grand piano in an empty warehouse with a dramatic light shining at an angle over his chiseled jaw as Bella looked on dreamily.

In order to keep the viewer informed, the director sacrificed a sense of unity in the movie by cutting to scenes without any introduction to them. More than once, the audience left the brooding face of Bella or Edward suddenly to see a group of vampires attacking someone, and then abruptly returning to the ongoing brooding.

The only aspect of the movie I enjoyed was the sweeping shots of the North-Pacific landscape accompanied by some surprisingly interesting music, with songs by Iron & Wine and Muse. Hardwicke created a bluish tinge to the entire movie, creating a beautiful surrounding for the characters to gaze into each others smoldering eyes for prolonged periods of time.

Accompanied mostly with dramatic, theatrical music, however, most of the film appeared to be a slow-motion, angst-y music video rather than a coherent movie. In fact, I would say that most of the hour-long shows on television do a better job of creating an enjoyable work of entertainment than “Twilight.” It felt more like a prolonged episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” with less dialogue and more, you guessed it, brooding.

Overall:
F