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Twilight
Summit Entertainment


5.9

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 417 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some violence and a scene of sensuality

Starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Cam Cigandet, Nikki Reed, and Jackson Rathbone

Bella Swan has always been a little bit different, never caring about fitting in with the trendy girls at her Phoenix high school. When her mother re-marries and sends Bella to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she doesn't expect much of anything to change. Then she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen, a boy unlike any she's ever met. Edward is a vampire, but he doesn't have fangs and his family is unique in that they choose not to drink human blood. Intelligent and witty, Edward sees straight into Bella's soul. Soon, they are swept up in a passionate, thrilling and unorthodox romance. To Edward, Bella is what he has waited 90 years for - a soul mate. But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal pull of her scent, which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy. But what will Edward & Bella do when a clan of new vampires comes to town and threaten to disrupt their way of life? (Summit Entertainment)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Horror \| Romance \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Melissa Rosenberg Stephenie Meyer (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Catherine Hardwicke
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 21, 2009 Theatrical: November 21, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	120 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Empire Will Lawrence

A sometimes girlie swirl of obsession that will delight fans, this faithful adaptation is after teenage blood, and will most likely hit a box office artery.

The New Yorker David Denby

A genuine love story might be difficult for a young audience to handle, but this fantasy is blissful madness--an abstinence fable sexier than sex.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Pattison grows on us as he grows on Bella: His weird mannerisms and nervous delivery stop seeming like quirks and acquire an intensity that's hard to resist by the end.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Twilight has a few gory plot turns - mostly offscreen - and one near-sex scene that may offend a few Amish people, but the rest is maybe 33 percent less wholesome than "High School Musical." It's almost certainly less risque than what you were watching when you were 14. (Cue the soundtrack to "Risky Business.")

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Actually, the movie's a better movie than the book was a book, in part because Meyer struggled to put her characters' galloping emotions into print whereas director Catherine Hardwicke just visualizes them in all their inarticulate purpleness.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

On screen, Twilight is repetitive and a tad sodden, too prosaic to really soar. But Hardwicke stirs this teen pulp to a pleasing simmer.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Twilight - directed with savvy humor by Catherine Hardwicke - turns vampirism into a metaphor for teen lust.

TV Guide Tracie Cooper

In terms of bringing the book to life, Twilight is a complete success, so much so that most of the film's flaws work within the context of the story.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

On the whole, Twilight works as both love story and vampire story, thanks mainly to the performances of its principals, Pattinson and Stewart.

Time Richard Corliss

So Twilight isn't a masterpiece -- no matter. It rekindles the warmth of great Hollywood romances, where foreplay was the climax and a kiss was never just a kiss.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Hardwicke still manages to find the sweet spot where Gothic literature and the iPod meet and make goo-goo eyes at each other. Without embarrassment, she and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg dig right into the almost generic simplicity of the story.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Hardwicke has connected so intensely to the Meyer novel that it's hard to imagine anyone else making a better version.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

The best thing in the movie is Stewart. She was the leggy hobo-camp teen in love with Emile Hirsch in "Into the Wild," and she's better at conveying physical longing than any of the actors playing vampires.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Bummer. The vampires have no fangs. The humans are humdrum. The special effects and makeup define cheeseball. And the movie crowds in so many characters from Stephenie Meyer’s book that Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) is less a director than a traffic cop. But there’s a reason that Twilight has already become the movie equivalent of a bestseller: The love story has teeth.

Miami Herald Sara Frederick

None of the movie's flaws will matter. Teenage girls are going to love Twilight,and many are sure to see it more than once.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Twilight isn't an especially good movie, but neither is it an abomination. At times, the dialogue is laugh-aloud bad - almost to the point of being hilarious.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The superfast running effects, with Edward dashing up mountains, or rival, evil vampires swooping here and there at amazing speed, look genuinely cheesy, like the guy running the race in the smart-phone ad. I'm surprised Hardwicke and her colleagues couldn't solve this one more effectively. Set pieces such as a vampire baseball game fall flat as well.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Twilight will mesmerize its target audience, 16-year-old girls and their grandmothers. Their mothers know all too much about boys like this.

Slate Dana Stevens

As a life lesson for teenage girls, Twilight (excuse the pun) sucks. As a parable for the dark side of female desire, it's weirdly powerful.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

It's disappointing when a big-screen romance can't match up to the one in your imagination, at any age.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

An underwhelming vampire romance long on camp but short on emotional insight

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Though Edward and Bella reach certain heights in Twilight, notably during a charming scene that finds them leaping from piney treetop to treetop against the spectacular wilderness backdrop, the story’s moral undertow keeps dragging them down.

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Every generation gets the cinematic vampires it deserves...The current decade, judging from the bloodsuckers on display in Twilight, will be remembered as one of guilt, restraint and denial. It's just not that fun to be undead anymore.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

This adaptation of the best-selling novel by Stephenie Meyer never rises above the level of a teen soaper on the CW, and its pale, sulky boy toys (Kellan Lutz, Peter Facinelli, Jackson Rathbone) are more silly than scary.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The movie is mainly geared to putting new twists on what John Hughes comedies used to call "sucking face." It will satisfy Meyer's devotees.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Edward's a remarkable young gentleman when you consider the hell he's been through: It turns out he's always 17, his fate to keep repeating high school, forever and ever. If that's my only option, kindly burn me at the stake.

Premiere Jenni Miller

The religious symbolism couldn't be more obvious (or disturbing). Keep your religion out of our vampires, Hollywood!

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Sometimes sensitive and often silly but really, essentially, beneath his pallor and her panting and their intertwined frustrations, it's just two long hours of coitus interruptus.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Despite questionable casting, wooden acting, laughable dialogue and truly awful makeup, nothing is likely to stop young girls from swarming to this kitschy adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's popular novel.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Travis Nichols

Those who want something to really sink their teeth into should head home on a rainy day, put on some goth anthems and reread the books.

Variety Justin Chang

A disappointingly anemic tale of forbidden love that should satiate the pre-converted but will bewilder and underwhelm viewers who haven't devoured Stephenie Meyer's bestselling juvie chick-lit franchise.

Village Voice Chuck Wilson

In the 17-million-copy land of "Twilight," the calling card isn't blood and fangs, but the exquisite, shimmering quiver of unconsummated first love. By that measure, the movie version gives really good swoon.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Genevieve Koski

While the movie attempts to find an compelling middle ground between gothic supernaturalism and teenage romance, it usually winds up stumbling into the inane territory implied by both descriptions.

Christian Science Monitor Robert Koehler

A young and as-yet-unformed actor, Stewart is cast in a role she's simply not ready for, and her effort to work hard – exactly what any actor must hide from the audience – is painfully visible in every scene. By contrast, Pattinson is smooth as glass, a born movie star who only needs to slant his eyes to grab attention.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

In a film that has the courage of its absurdity but not much else, Mr. Pattinson gets the best of what passes for style.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

I've had mosquito bites that were more passionate than this undead, unrequited, and altogether unfun pseudo-romantic riff on Romeo and Juliet.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Q: When is a vampire not a vampire? A: When it goes out in daylight, sees itself in a mirror, doesn’t drink human blood, and still manages to suck.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.9 (out of 10) based on 417 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Arman B gave it a9:
This was one of the best films i had ever seen . because of good story, great sound track , adequate players and .. and i think it's a pretty good movie.

Shane B gave it a2:
Twilight is, quite frankly, a film in which only 16 year old goths will enjoy. While the film does at times have some decent Cinematography, the plot is over exaggerated, the acting is poor, the writing is uninspired and the film at times looks just plain ugly, making Twilight, in my opinion, one of the worst films of the year thus far.

nikki d gave it a7:
Twilight did pretty good for what they had to work with. Filming started during the writing strike so it was rushed and stuff was added. It's not a scary movie/book. Meyer personified the vampires. I think it was pretty neat how she didn't cliche the vampires. Twilight is a love story. Point blank. I think Bella's personality should've shined more. But overall it was enjoyable.

Keenan S. gave it a3:
The moment I saw a preview of this film, I knew it was going to suck, but I was still willing to give it a chance, so I went and saw it. Wow, it sure did suck. The film is atrocious and fails to deliver anything that a romance or vampire film should have. It has boring, 1-dimensional, cardboard characters who have some of the worst acting abilities (Especially the guy who plays Edward) I've ever seen in a film. The dialogue was really bad, thanks to the cliched, hackneyed script. The music soundtrack is horrible, and stands as one of the worst film soundtracks I have ever heard. The CGI effects were utterly appalling, and I've seen better CGI in the 90's. The film also does not meet certain requirements vampire films are supposed to have, such as the fact the vampires sparkle like diamonds in the sunlight. I don't mind if a few things get changed up a bit in a vampire film, but vampires die in sunlight. It's been a requirement for the last few centuries. By the way, whoever says this is the best romance since Romeo and Juliet is an idiot.

Francisco M. gave it a4:
It's definitely entertaining but it's popcorn entertainment. You sit in your couch, you see this movie and 30 minutes later you won't remember watching this.

Clif C gave it a1:
Hey people, get yourself a movie education! This is not even a movie, it's teenagers' fantasies for a guy who has a sex appeal equalling... 0. I gave it a 1 only because I had a good time laughing at it with my friends during the movie. I've rarely seen a movie so bad; oh wait: I already know one... "Twilight 2". There's nothing else to add, my comment is as profound as this movie.

Katie gave it a3:
Disappointing. The books were good. The film was a travesty. Bad casting, bad acting, couldn't link half the film to the book. No way is "New Moon" getting my £6.75 next time.

Twilight Summit Entertainment

Twilight
Summit Entertainment