The book is ALWAYS better than the movie

***Spoiler Alert!!!  Don't read if you plan on seeing Twilight.  (This means YOU - Tiburon)***

Yesterday morning, Michelle and I traipsed down to the Jordan Commons movie theater for a free showing of the movie "Twilight".  My insurance agent rented out one of the large theaters for her customers.  The place was packed with all kinds of people - young, old, men, women - all waiting to see what the hype was about.  (I'm sure the guys were dragged kicking and screaming by their wives and girlfriends.)

I am not one of those die-hard-screaming-I-love-Edward-and-own-everything-Twilight kind of girls.  I'm just not that into it.  But, I couldn't pass up seeing the movie, especially when it was free.

I have learned over the years that if I've read the book prior to seeing the movie, I'm severely dismayed.  For me, the movie never lives up to my own imagination and everything that can be said via the written word.  In book-to-movie conversions we get Hollywood's watered-down/Reader's Digest interpretation of the book, which, more often than not, is seriously lacking in detail, lines, plot and emotion.

Needless to say, I was prepared this time around to be sorely disappointed.  I did not re-read the book prior to going to the show.  (I did that once with one of the Harry Potter movies and ended up hating the movie because it just didn't live up to my expectations.)  Fortunately, by lowering my expectations, I wasn't as bummed as I had anticipated.  Sure, it's nothing in comparison to the book, how could it ever be, and of course there were some definite inconsistencies between the two mediums, but all in all, I thought it was decent.

I really thought that Kristin Stewart (Bella) and Rob Pattinson (Edward) did a good job and portrayed the two characters well with the lines and direction they were given.  (I mean, you'd have to be a pretty good actor to play a guy moodier than a PMSing teenage girl.)  I thought the other characters were seriously lacking in substance, but what do you do when you've only got 2 hours for a story based off of a 500+ page novel?  There's just no way to get all of the subtle nuances of a book into a film.  I get that.

The one character that downright failed to live up to his book counterpart was Jasper (played by some guy named Jackson Rathbone).  I guess he can't truly be faulted for his freaky hair (thanks a lot hair and make-up!).  But, seriously!  These people are supposed to be hot-looking, model-esque vampires and the dude just looked like an utter mutant.  (That's him on the left. Yeesh!)

All-in-all, I give it a sideways thumb - not great, but also not an out-and-out disaster, either. So, unless you're a die-hard fan (which in that case, you've probably already seen it), you can probably wait to watch it on DVD.