Twilight (2008) Director: Catherine Hardwicke

Being late to and a big fan of the Twilight saga books, I was DEAD (a-ho-ho) excited to finally catch up with myself and watch Twilight last night.

I was so, so disappointed. And I hate myself for having to say that I hated it.

So much is wrong with the film; the direction by Catherine Hardwicke is frankly appalling with the passion/pain of Bella and Edward's relationship broken down to a series of longing glances and jumping around in trees. It looked amateur and was more like a TV film or feature length 90210 episode rather than a big-screen production. It could have been much, much better with the 'right' director. And darker too.

Bella (Kristen Stewart) was actually very good and believable and Edward (Robert Pattinson) was certainly beautiful enough, if a little wooden, but there was no electricity between them even though they are allegedly in a relationship together off-screen. One of the most likeable characters was Bella's father Charlie (Billy Burke) who brought a comedic element to the movie. Jacob (Taylor Lautner) was promising in terms of what he has to come but the rest of Edward's family really didn't stand out as they did in the book. A family baseball game where they use thunder to hide the sound of the sonic-boom home runs and an amusing skit in their family kitchen were quite good fun but on the whole their role in the movie was, well, a bit damp.

There is hope; Chris Weitz is the director of the second film in the series New Moon which is due out shortly but Twilight is a major let-down for such a treasured and passionate novel by Stephanie Meyer.