The Current

Issue date: 12/1/08 Section: Arts and Entertainment

Too close for comfort: Heroine high schooler Bella (Kristin Stewart) falls for bad boy Edward (Robert Pattinson) who turns out to be slighty deader than the other boys.

This much is obvious about the newest sympathetic vampire movie to hit screens: it is critic-proof.

"Twilight" grossed around $35 million in its opening night, and finished the weekend at $70 million, far beyond other new movies such as the Bond flick "Quantum of Solace" or the animated Disney adventure "Bolt."

Fans of Stephanie Meyers' "Twilight" book series, most of them women and girls waited for hours in line to see the movie open at midnight.

There are three main reasons why "Twilight" will continue to enjoy wild popularity regardless of its artistic merit, or of how many critical thumbs point up or down.

First, fans of the book series (in which "Twilight" is the first of four) will go see the film adaptation.

Take it from someone who has both seen the movie and read the book - if you like the first "Twilight" book, you will like the first (and believe me, there will be three more) "Twilight" movie.

This is because the movie follows the book, about a dashing young vampire named Edward and a human high school girl, Bella, who fall in love, almost word-for-word. Dialogue in the movie is lifted directly from the book's pages on more than one occasion.

One example occurs when Bella (Kristin Stewart) fills Edward (Robert Pattinson) in on her theories about his superhuman strength; radioactive spiders, maybe?

In the book, they discuss this while sitting at a table in the cafeteria, in the movie it is discussed in a cafeteria line.

Also, the movie is interspersed with Bella's voice-over narration, which mirrors her inner-monologue that occurs throughout the novel.

Whether or not this helps or hurts the movie is your call.

Personally, I feel lines like "Looks like the lion has fallen in love with the lamb," delivered by vamp-stud Edward, sound decidedly less sappy on paper than when spoken dramatically on screen during close up of a white makeup-soaked English actor.

While such moments are more bearable in print, this does excuse the overall romance novel-like dramatics found in the "Twilight" books.

Continued...

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