Twilight: The Movie vs the Book

I’ve been meaning to write a blog about Twilight the movie for a while. Then after I started it I decided I should read the book again first. So I did. And now I watched the movie. Here are my comments...


And just in case for whatever reason I actually have to say this: SPOILERS!!

“Under a near constant cover of rain” - seriously! Have you looked at the average rainfall for Forks? It’s like 18 inches a month! (okay, I just double checked and it’s over 10 inches a month for six months of the year)

Okay, in the book, Charlie buys the truck off Billy because Billy can’t drive anymore as he’s confined to a wheelchair. Remember that for later!

I’m not sure how they can explain Bella’s natural clumsiness without a narrative, but her hitting Jacob with the truck door just looks like bad directing - or so I think.

First day of school. Bella leaves the window down on the truck. In Forks - the super rainy place. Suuuuuuuuure!

Ah, in the book gym comes after biology. Minor technicality but it does come into play in the book. But since those scenes aren’t in the movie, I guess it doesn’t matter...

“Aren’t people from Arizona supposed to be like really tan?” - Man that line does not make me miss high school at all!!!

Lunch! I like the way they introduce the Cullens better than in the book. :) One of the rarities where I prefer the movie over the book!

Love Edward’s smirk when Jess says that no one’s good enough for him.

Edward’s got a good stare - just sayin’... Channeling Colin Firth IMO.

Still wish Hardwicke had gotten a better response out of Rob for when Bella walks in front of the fan, but I do think it’s growing on me. It’s a scene though that always makes me laugh.  Love that Bella smells herself - I could totally see me doing that!

Wow - those stares though. Even if I was attracted to the guy I might be - no, definitely would be - creeped out by them! I’d be thankful that he’s trying to change classes after!

“Fine - I’ll just have to endure it.” Love that line!

Hmmm... there were no cafe scenes in the book - just sayin’. All the characters in the cafe are added for the movie.

Side note - Forks is much more racially diverse that I would imagine for a Northwest logging town!

I like her mom... (in the book they use email though, not phonecalls)

In the book, Rosalie drives a BMW - a Mercedes in the movie. And Emmet’s Jeep isn’t introduced until the game of vampire baseball. Again, just sayin’... :)

Okay, I’m glad they left the Lauren chick out of the movie.

Grrr.... the Grisham Mill scene and later the boathouse scene. Neither of these were in the book. Personally I wish they hadn’t added them to the movie. Maybe they did it to appeal to the male audience. I don’t know. I’ll gripe more about this later.

Love Bella’s mittens! I would buy a pair if I knew where to get them...

Back in Biology. Yep, if Edward started charming me with his questions (nevermind that it’s part of his vampire lure - the whole “you find me irresistible even if you don’t want to” thing) I’d be willing to get past the stares from last week. Yeah, I’m a sucker that way...

“You were gone.” Um, yeah Bella, I’m guessing Edward knows he was gone. (I forget if that line is in the book.)

I do wish they had kept some of the linear story in the movie as far as Bella and Edward goes. She should have discovered his cold hands during lab.

LOL - I love that Edward just turns and walks away!

Bella sleeps kinda funny. Or maybe it’s because I usually sleep on my side that I think it just looks kinda funny...

Wonder why they had Bella saying she was going to Jacksonville instead of Seattle - maybe it sounded more plausible?

The greenhouse scene isn’t in the book either, but it doesn’t mess with the story too much. Other than I wish that they left the cafeteria scene in the movie...

“Hey look - it’s a worm! It’s a worm!”

Okay, I guess they kinda left the cafeteria scene in with them talking at the buffet, but it’s just not the same as in the book. :(

LaPush - Yep, I’ll buy that as a PacNW beach - for reals! (oh wait, it is, isn’t it?!)

I’ll still hold off on my griping about the boathouse scene...

LOL at the name of the book below the link for Quileute Legends!  Guess it’s not a real book though, and the “author” is actually the name of a production team member.

Personal pet peeve with the Port Angeles scene - when Bella’s being cornered in the alley, there’s a couple making out in the background. Apparently they just ignore her trouble then?? They’re gone when they show another wide shot. So either they don’t notice the four noisy boys ganging up on a girl, or they get a whiff of trouble and get out of there before they witness anything! Sadly it actually sounds like what most people would do...

But I love, love, LOVE the growl!!! And I totally want to drive like that!

I wish they would have kept the car conversation as it was in the book - she confronts him about being a vampire in the car, not in the woods like in the movie (oops - that part’s still coming up).

Ah, the restaurant scene. One of my favorite scenes in the movie. And that’s Rob singing in the background... I would totally be like Bella though and be more concerned that there was something wrong with me. :)

The car scene part 2 - probably one of my least favorite scenes in the movie. I don’t like her reaction to his cold skin (really Hardwicke? That’s the best you could get out of her?) I’m getting nit-picky now aren’t I?

Okay, now I finally get to go off about the added characters and the Grisham Mill/boathouse scenes. Like I said, none of these were in the book.  All added for the movie. I possibly could have been okay with the added storyline except that they killed off one of Charlie’s good friends. And as we find out in New Moon, one of his best friends later dies of a heart attack! So now they’ve put Charlie through not just one but two deaths of his good friends in a short period of time!  That’s my gripe.

Another tangent... if you were a teacher at the high school, and you saw a female student walking into the woods behind the school with a male student following 20 feet behind her, wouldn’t that sound some kind of alarm in your head?

I’m not a big fan of the woods scene. Of course it’s supposed to be one of the climaxes of the movie where she confronts him about being a vampire and he throws her on his back and runs with her, but there’s just something in the way she delivers her lines that I just don’t buy. And the camera angles - while I’m fairly confident Hardwicke was purposely inconsistent with the distance between Bella and Edward, the lack of continuity is kind of like nails on a chalkboard to me...

And while I’m ranting (really though - I do thoroughly enjoy this movie!) I like the running/fast vampire scenes in New Moon better.

“How old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“How long have you been seventeen?”

“A while.”

I like the vague confirmation. :)

Oh Edward, how sparkly art thou! (does that sound like the early 1900’s?)

“You’re like my own personal brand of heroin.”  I admit - I like that line...

“So the lion fell in love with the lamb.”

“What a stupid lamb.”

“What a sick, masochistic lion.”

Awwwwww.....

The meadow scene - again I wish it was more along the lines of the book. Although they do spread the conversation that takes place at the meadow throughout the movie.

Another one of my favorite scenes - when they show up to school together. Just because I guess. :)

Okay, I admit it. I still get confused during the rock scene. How many different days does this encompass? Two? Three? First it’s just overcast, then downpouring (different shirt), then overcast again with them completely dry in their original shirts. Theories?

I love Edward’s expressions when he realizes that something he said didn’t come out right. “It wouldn’t be like drinking your blood for instance.”

“So you’re worried not because you’ll be in a house full of vampires but because you think they won’t approve of you.”  Is it just me or does Rob’s English accent come out when he says “worried?”

Oh hey Billy! You can drive after all! Though that is a nice truck, so maybe it’s outfitted with those hand pedals or something.

I would love to get a screen capture of Edward glaring at Billy though. It would make a nice desktop picture don’t you think?!

Meet the Parents (cue Jaws theme). Okay if I had just told my boyfriend’s parents that I was hungry and then he says that I already ate, I’d be smacking that boy! Just let me be a respectable guest! Sheesh... :)

Did I mention that I love Alice’s hair? Jasper’s is pretty cool too for that matter.

I love those doors that open to nowhere! I gotta get me some of those!

Side note - the tree climbing scene isn’t in the book. It’s cool though.

That’s really Rob playing the piano. Whether it’s him playing the music we’re hearing I don’t know...

I won’t say anymore about the side story they added.  

Rumor is that Stephenie Meyer (in the cafe scene) was working on Breaking Dawn on her laptop. She made sure that they didn’t shoot from an angle where they could see the screen otherwise people would try and read what she was writing. My question is, why work on the novel at all? Just do the fake characters/writing. No one would know the difference if they can’t see the screen!

It was in this scene that I realized they made Bella a vegetarian in the movie. She’s not in the book. I kind of liked this angle though. Bella’s a vegetarian. Edward’s a “vegetarian.” Kinda cool...

Oh - I looked at a county map. If the killer had headed east, I don’t think that Kitsap county was the next one over.  Just sayin’...

Bella and Edward sitting in a tree (er... bedroom). K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Um, Bella if you’re so against being cold, why are you wearing just a t-shirt and underwear? Charlie’s okay with you cranking the heat up like that? There I go being all nit-picky again...

Typical dad with a shotgun... :)

Vampire baseball!!!! Oh yes... Personally I think Jasper and Emmet steal the scene here.

James still makes me think of a Brad Pitt wannabe. And not in a good way.

Back at the house, I’m still not sure Charlie wouldn’t have seen Edward in her room...

Why do they keep insisting on calling the tv the “flatscreen?”  Just say TV already!

“Bella you are my life now.” Again - awwww....

Phoenix - Bella being thrown against the pillar? Ow!!!

Kinda wish they had kept the part of Alice’s origins in the story, but I can understand why they didn’t.

Here he (Edward) comes to save the daaaaaaaaaay!

There’s a bit more of the fighting scene than is described in the book, but it’s good. Let’s see Edward fight for his woman!

I love a good bonfire.

So if a vampire bites you but doesn’t drain your blood, you become a vampire. When Edward was sucking out the venom then, I guess we have to assume his own venom didn’t go into Bella? Kudos to my sister for asking this question.

Oh hey, another song by Rob! I have to admit, based on these two songs I don’t think I would care for a whole CD of his songs, but they fit the movie and I like them on the soundtrack.

A bigger annoyance of lack of continuity - her oxygen tube in the hospital!

I’m guessing Carlisle dressed her wrist, otherwise wouldn’t the doctors at the hospital be concerned about a human bite mark on her wrist?

Prom time! Dude, my dad never gave me so many cans of pepperspray!

This is the one time the Edward irks me - he really puts himself between Bella and Jacob. Let them be friends at least!

“I leave you alone for two minutes and the wolves descend.” I love it!

Those are beautiful grounds!! Gazebo, lit tress - gorgeous!

One last question - wouldn’t Edward have heard Victoria’s thoughts? Or was he just so engrossed with Bella that he missed it?

Um okay - on to New Moon!