I feel a little as though my opinion may fall on deaf ears here seeing as how I am following after 18 pages of what I am going to presume is a lot of the same material. I read a few pages, I don't really have time to read them all.
But seeing as how the movies are kind of the whole reason I joined this forum I may as well say my piece.
I myself am hoping to get into the film making (namely Directing) game, therefore I do tend to watch movies through different eyes nowadays.
Here is what I have to say about Twilight as an adaptation: It sucked.
I watched the movie before I had read any of the books. I didn't know what it was about, I don't even think I knew it was an adaptation but I went to see it because it was #1 on imdb for weeks before it was even released. I was curious.
So I dragged my poor boyfriend along to see it. Surprisingly he didn't hate it. As a stand alone film we both agreed that it was ok. Although neither of us understood why everyone was going to see it 2 and 3 times. It was average.
It did however pique my interest enough that I decided to read the books. I wanted to know what happened next!
So I read all four books, in just over a week. Work kept getting in the way.
Then, by chance, a friend offered me free tickets to see the movie again. With my new insight into the whole story I accepted, hoping to gain a new appreciation for the movie. Well... I certainly saw it differently. Not so much an appreciation as a realisation of everything that was wrong with it!
Casting:
I think that Rob Pattinson is a good choice as Edward, he certainly has the right look. However I think that his acting as Edward is all wrong. Through the entire movie he acts awkwardly and looks terrified, as if he's going to explode at Bella and eat her alive. I realise that this is sort of the underlying theme, but in the books Edward comes across as smooth, cool, calm and collected. He makes rational decisions and controls himself well (with the exception of his first encounter with Bella). Almost every other line in the book is "Edward Smiled/smirked/laughed etc etc. Which, to be honest, got tired after a while. SM was a little short on emotional descriptions in her first book. Sorry. But I don't remember seeing Rob smile once! I'm not sure if it's his acting or if he was directed to portray Edward this way, so I'm waiting for the 'New Moon' to find out.
I think Kristen Stewart is a horrible choice for Bella. Truly. Her acting is completely wrong. She seems bored and awkward the whole time, as if she's just too cool to be there. Someone else mentioned that it looked like she had forgotten her lines, and I agree, that's exactly what it looked like. As if she was doing bad improv or someone was feeding them to her.
I imagined Bella being sweet, like a mother hen trapped in a 17 year old's body. I mean as soon as she moves in with Charlie she instantly starts taking care of him and she will always sacrifice herself before anyone else. I don't see the character that Kristen brought to screen being able to do this. I think though, that the choices may have been limited. I think I read it on SM's website that they wanted an actual teenager to play Bella. There aren't really that many options floating around in Hollywood and I doubt they would have wanted an unknown carrying the whole movie. Although I wish they had taken the risk to find someone more fitting.
The only other thing I have to say about casting is this: for some reason while I was reading the book I imagined Charlie being played by J.K Simmons :
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0799777/ the Dad from Juno. Although I have nothing against the casting of Charlie, I wouldn't mind seeing my version on screen. He just seemed to fit to me. Anyone else??
Style:
The style for this film was also, completely wrong. Someone was telling me that Catherine Hardwicke tends to go for a realistic style (Thirteen) which is why a lot of the shots were handheld and flat looking.
At what point during the making of a movie about Vampires do you decide to go for a realistic style??
Especially when there are effects involved. Her solution to Edward's smooth, swift walking speed was to have him walk out of the classroom really fast. And it's so obvious. The running was also ridiculous. It looked so completely stupid in every way. The baseball scene was about the only thing I feel they got right, and it's because it was a totally different style. The entire film should have looked like that scene. Swift, smooth with clean moving shots and more Vampire like movements. Edward is supposed to move like a ghost, so fast and sure. Rob looked stiff and rigid and it just made the whole movie feel uncomfortable.
Script:
I was about to have a huge rant about the script writing before I had a second look at Melissa Rosenberg's imdb credits. Dexter... really?? I freaking love that show, one of the reasons being that it is so well written.
I still hate the Twilight script immensely, but I am just a little startled.
My main issue here is the line "I hate any cold wet thing".
Seriously, what the hell is that supposed to be? Who the hell would ever say that, ever? It sounds so completely stupid and suss. So I am mad at Melissa Rosenberg for that line mainly, as well as the rest of the poorly adapted script. It just wasn't well thought out and rushed.
I don't have any great expectations for New Moon. I think they have made mistake number one with the choice of Director. Chris Weitz, really?? I was hoping for someone with a more successful background in action and special effects (please note the word "successful" because Golden Compass was a failure!).
So that short novel is all I have to say about that for now.... *sigh*. I just needed to get it off my chest.