Before I begin my review, I would like to pre warn everyone that this may be a little lengthy, I adore the twilight series and all things twilight related, read on at your own risk...

Background
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Twilight the movie is an adaptation of the number one bestselling book "twilight", written by Stephanie Meyer. It was released in England to cinemas on December 19th and is directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Certificate 12a.

Story
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17 year old Isabella Swan, who prefers being called Bella, moves to the rainy town of Forks in Washington to live with her dad, after her Mum re-marries and wants to travel with her minor league baseball playing husband. Bella likes living in Arizona and enjoys the sun and heat; however, she wants her mum to be happy so in self sacrifice moves to Forks.

Once started at her new school, Bella meets a variety of people and a few friends; she also meets the gorgeous Edward Cullen who she sits next to in Biology. Initially Edwards seems to detest Bella and seems instantly irritated by her. He even attempts to change his classes.

We learn as the story progresses that Edward is in fact a vampire, his initial hatred for Bella is because she smells irresistible to him and he hates being tempted to stray from him and his families "vegetarian" way of life, they only survive on the blood of animals. Edward becomes fascinated with Bella and falls in love with her; Bella can't help but return the feelings to such an intriguing creature, even after she learns his secret.

The more Bella and Edward get to know each other and each other's families, the deeper in love they fall but when a trio of "nomad" vampires (Human killers) come across the Cullen family and their very human friend things take a turn for the worse and it becomes a cat and mouse game of survival.

Character / Actors
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Bella Swan is played by Kirsten Stewart, this is the only film I have ever seen her in, she fits the part well, playing an outsider who doesn't quite fit in and nails the infatuation aspect of falling in love at 17. She spends most of the movie either being scared or upset and portrays these emotions well but unfortunately this is about all her acting ability manages. I feel she lost some of the key "Bellaness" that is learnt from the book, she is supposed to be rather stubborn and sarcastic, yet we do not get any of these moments to connect with her in the film. She may not have had many chances to and may be down to direction rather than acting ability but she was definitely a little bland.

Robert Pattinson plays Edward Cullen; you may recognise him as Cedric Diggory from the Harry Potter film, Goblet of Fire. I will attempt to stay focused, because as the character is supposed to be, he is definitely gorgeous to look at or think about! He plays the very "intense-tortured soul-I-don't-want-to-be-a-monster-I-am-self loathing" part brilliantly and is believable as well as gorgeous. Did I mention he is gorgeous? No? Well he is...his character is likable and it's easy to be sympathetic towards his situation. I was pretty impressed by his acting, being one of the few characters in the film who really had to act at any point. He is very good at all the deep and meaningful stares that are supposed to portray his emotion and internal torment, I think he did very well and will be one to look out for in the future, especially for me as I find it very hard NOT to look at him in general (fan girl moment sorry!)

Bella's father, Charlie, is played by Billy Burke. He is another actor I do not recall seeing in anything else, but I am very impressed with him, he has a natural likability as Charlie and is funny and has a good warm on screen presence. He is slightly awkward due to not being used to having Bella living with him, but it's very endearing in a fatherly way.

The rest of the cast are:

Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen
Nikki Reed as Rosalie Hale
Jackson Rathbone as Jasper Hale
Kellan Lutz as Emmett Cullen
Peter Facinelli as Dr. Carlisle Cullen
Elizabeth Reaser as Esme Cullen
Cam Gigandet as James
Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black
Anna Kendrick as Jessica Stanley
Michael Welch as Mike Newton
Christian Serratos as Angela Weber
Gil Birmingham as Billy Black

I will not go into detail about each of the characters because I am going to try and keep this review under 2000 words! But in brief, each played their part true to the book and all I feel fit the part well, the only exception I will make is for Rosalie, who I think played the part well, but maybe added a bit too much to the scowling nature Rosalie is supposed to have and occasionally over did it. These characters are a lot more prominent in the books but are much more a second thought in the film. I hope they develop the characters more in the future.

Book Vs Movie
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All movie adaptation of books are bound by the same preconceptions of readers wanting to see THEIR vision on the large screen. The problem with this being simply that every person is going to envision each character, prop and location slightly differently with whatever limits their imagination provide.

I feel Stephanie Meyers writing is very descriptive and as such has made it even more difficult for the film to have any room for change. The book has a very devote following and me myself as a Twi-Hard fan was a little sceptical of seeing my favourite book ruined by miscasting and changing the story. I must however say this was not the case.

There are obvious differences between the two but they stayed true to the story and characters and within the time frame of a 2 hour film as opposed to a however many page long book. I think they did very well.

There are a few key things that seemed to be lost in the transformation from page to screen, Bella and Edwards relationship for one, although the main focus, still feels slightly rushed. I think this could have been rectified with a classic (and cheesy) montage, just to show a little time passing as they get to know each other. It is mentioned how long they have known each other on occasion in the film, but it easily feels a little like "Hi, Your hot and weird, I've known you a week and seen you about 3 times, I'm willing to die for you and want to be with you forever" a little more interaction would have been nice.

Besides little things, like the inclusion of a field trip that was not in the book, Bella's friends not looking how I expected (Main friends ranging from Black, Chinese, blonde and slightly Italian looking, A little PC gone mad anyone?) and the sacrilege that is leaving out the line "Do I dazzle you?" I think the film was true to the book and the characters.

Cinematography/locations and effects
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The film is shot on some extremely beautiful locations. The lush greenery of the surroundings and the cloudy dull grey colours of the sky, mixed with the pale skin of the actors and very earthy tones of their clothing, makes they film very visually pretty. It is clear and bright with lovely panning shots of forests, but at the same dark and grey at the appropriate times.

I was a little disappointed with the wire work for any jumping done by the Cullen family, they are supposed to be inhumanly graceful yet, they still look like actors doing bad wire work. I especially cringed at the scene when Edward throws Bella onto his back and leaps from is room into the forest, it isn't cut very well and you can clearly see the time gravity takes over from the leap and their legs start to drop, but then we get a nice close up facial shot and them landing seconds later. A little niggly I know for me to comment, but it could have been better.

I have read a few negative comments regarding the fight scene at the end, but I couldn't see anything really wrong with it, it isn't quite as dramatic as some bit battle end scenes, but isn't the main focus of the story.

Stop rambling now was it actually any good?!?!
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In a word yes, trying to not be biased, it was an enjoyable film, that is both easy to watch and to get into. The storyline is not overly complex and the visuals are stunning (not just talking about Rob Pattinson now!) There is romance, slight thriller elements and a bit of action as well as spots of comedy.

I enjoyed the film as a companion to the books; I went in not expecting to see my imagination perfectly depicted on the screen and came out not disappointed. Taking the film at face value as a "teen vampire romance" it does a good job and I for one enjoyed it. For those who are fans of the books I think will either appreciate that they get to see their favourite story in live action, or be too hung up on the book comparisons to fully enjoy it.

I have seen this film with people who have never read the books and those who have, and with a group of friends whose ages ranged from 17-30, both male and female. All of whom enjoyed it on some level, some more than others.

I would recommend this film to anyone, it probably does appeal to girls more, but give it a go regardless, it portrays young love and infatuation well and is a nice sweet easy to watch story if nothing else.

(Word count 1674 at this point, I will not be childish and round it up to 2000 by simply saying how drool worthy Rob Pattinson is, I will leave that to those of you who decide to see it to find out) Enjoy!

Thanks for reading :)