Twilight Movie~ Changed/Added scenes

[Jestak]

I watched the movie again last night and there was one changed sequence in particular where I disliked the changes. Like a few people upthread, I didn't like how they changed the scenes immediately after the baseball game (corresponding to "The Hunt" and "Goodbyes"). In the book, it's Bella who comes up with the basic plan for her to leave Forks and go to Phoenix. It's Bella who intuits that James follow Edward wherever he goes, and that she and Edward have to separate. For me, that segment is a big one in character development, and a big part of why I find her such a good heroine. Even when she by rights ought to be scared completely out of her wits, her mind is still working--in fact, she keeps her head a lot better than Edward does during that episode.

And in the movie, almost all of that is changed to make Bella totally passive. What annoys me the most is that this isn't a case where stuff is left out of the movie for the somewhat defensible reason of keeping the running time under 2 hours. This is a case where the scenes from the book remain in the film, but they are re-written in a way that isn't true to the characters.

[Jazz Girl]

I watched the movie again last night and there was one changed sequence in particular where I disliked the changes. Like a few people upthread, I didn't like how they changed the scenes immediately after the baseball game (corresponding to "The Hunt" and "Goodbyes"). In the book, it's Bella who comes up with the basic plan for her to leave Forks and go to Phoenix. It's Bella who intuits that James follow Edward wherever he goes, and that she and Edward have to separate. For me, that segment is a big one in character development, and a big part of why I find her such a good heroine. Even when she by rights ought to be scared completely out of her wits, her mind is still working--in fact, she keeps her head a lot better than Edward does during that episode.

And in the movie, almost all of that is changed to make Bella totally passive. What annoys me the most is that this isn't a case where stuff is left out of the movie for the somewhat defensible reason of keeping the running time under 2 hours. This is a case where the scenes from the book remain in the film, but they are re-written in a way that isn't true to the characters.

And here in lies the problem with all of the adaptations. I love Twilight for what it is and what it gave us as fans. But, in loving it, I have to decry and completely abhor Melissa Rosenberg's "take". She is where most, if not all of the things wrong with the adaptations start and end. She has commented before about the jist of script adaptation being in taking readers turned viewers on the same emotional journey as the books. But, what she misses is that, maybe with this series more than any other, the journey itself depends on the completely sameness of certain characteristics, scenes and even lines to even come close to taking us on that same journey. Turning Bella from a heroine fighting for her right to live and love who she wants into a passive damsel in distress with occasional bouts of brattiness just doesn't work. Kristen was able to do some good, despite the hideously mangled Bella she's been given. But, the actors and director can only do so much.

[Jestak]

And here in lies the problem with all of the adaptations. I love Twilight for what it is and what it gave us as fans. But, in loving it, I have to decry and completely abhor Melissa Rosenberg's "take". She is where most, if not all of the things wrong with the adaptations start and end. She has commented before about the jist of script adaptation being in taking readers turned viewers on the same emotional journey as the books. But, what she misses is that, maybe with this series more than any other, the journey itself depends on the completely sameness of certain characteristics, scenes and even lines to even come close to taking us on that same journey.

For me there are two big shortcomings to the film adaptations, and one of them is definitely the writing. I don't think Melissa Rosenberg "gets" Bella at all. But I wouldn't put all the flaws at her door. I would say the biggest problem is the decision, presumably by Summit, to keep the movies to roughly two hour running lengths. That simply hasn't been enough time to capture the intricacies of story and character development; as a result, both films have seemed very undernourished to me.

Of course, this is true of many book-to-film adaptations. The only way, I think, that we could have gotten a Twilight Saga on film that came close to living up to the books is if there had been a good, talented director/writer team with a high level of creative control in charge of the project, the way that Peter Jackson & Co. were with Lord of the Rings. Most of the post-LotR adaptations of fantasy have been similar to the Twilight films in being less than fully satisfying--Stardust is the only possible exception I can think of, although I understand that a couple of the Harry Potter films have been quite good (I never got into Potterdom).

So when I watch the first two Twilight films, I try to content myself with enjoying a few really wonderful scenes (vampire baseball!), and with taking pleasure in certain performances (Ashley Greene!). And then, I go back to the books.