I'm watching the Twilight movie for the third time. I know most of you have either read the book or seen the movie and I thought I'd see how you liked it. I give it mixed reviews, which is why I'm renting it instead of buying it. It's weird. There are parts of it I hate (the High School parts), and parts of it I love (most of the 2nd half). That's why I keep watching it, I'm trying to decide if I really like it or not.

Some of the casting is so good and some of it is so bad. They have her Dad, Carlyle, Rosalie, and Alice completely pegged. Edward, Bella, and Jacob are pretty good. Jessica, Emmett, and Erick are atrocious. Laurent, James, and Victoria are all perfect, but Jasper is just disturbing, which I guess is good casting. Come to think of it her friend Jessica is pretty disturbing too. I can barely stand to watch her, she's so dorky and twitchy - ugh.

Robert Patterson doesn't fit my concept of Edward at all. He delivers his lines kind of awkwardly sometimes and just doesn't seem to have the kind of elegance and tenderness I would have expected. Jacob is cute as a bug with those dimples, almost too cute. 

I've known a lot of indian boys. When I was in college, my best friend was a full-blooded Navajo. But I never saw one with dimples like that. I don't see how they are possibly going to make him big enough to make a convincing werewolf. Jacob is supposed to be about 7 feet tall when he gets his full growth. 

Bella - I just don't know. She's definitely got that awkward teenaged attitude down pretty well, but she's so weird you wonder how on earth Edward could be in love with her.

And the special effects, oh my gosh, were they on a tight budget or what? They would have been better off to just cut out the running scenes rather than show that stupid sequence with them running up the hill. The fight scene with James is pretty good though. Hope they have a biggest special effects budget on the next one, and some acting lessons....

They stuck pretty close to the book, thank heavens. But I wish they'd left in her birthday party. I would have loved to have seen what Alice came up with for decorations. The hotel they stay in in Phoenix, I swear that's the Holiday Inn I stayed in on my last business trip. I'll have to take a look next time I'm down there.

The Prom at the end totally makes the rest of it all worthwhile.

PS: I just saw some candid shots of the guy who plays Emmett. He's blond! That would have made him so much more believable if they'd just left his darn hair alone. That hairpiece they have on him in the movie is terrible and that's one of the reasons he just doesn't look quite "right" as Emmett. Hopefully they'll make some changes for the next movie.