Twilight (12A) (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Twilight (12A)

2:31pm Friday 19th December 2008 in Reviews

STEPHENIE Meyer’sTwilight novels, a series of teen fantasies in which vampires and mortals live side by side, have become one of the biggest publishing phenomena since Harry Potter.

In August in America, a midnight release for the fourth book in the saga resulted in 1.3 million copies flying off shelves in the first 24 hours.

With such a sizeable fanbase, Catherine Hardwicke’s film, adapted for the screen by Melissa Rosenberg, was always going to be a licence to print money.

So it comes as a pleasant surprise that despite many flaws, Twilight is an entertaining and sprightly romantic yarn.

The occasional zinging one-liner compensates for gushing declarations of love.

Special effects are convincing without ever being dazzling and handsome leads Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson stare at one another with such intensity, it’s hard not to be swept up in their characters’ ill-fated romance.

The story centres on teenage misfit Bella Swan (Stewart), who moves to Forks, Washington.

As the new girl at school, Bella makes friends but the only person she wants to meet is outsider Edward Cullen (Pattinson).

In the parking lot, Bella is almost crushed to death in a traffic accident, only to be saved by Edward.

“Are you going to tell me how you stopped the van?’’ she asks him, referring to his superhuman strength.

“A rush of adrenaline,’’ he offers. “It’s really common, you can Google it.’’ Edward eventually reveals that he is a vampire but he does not drink human blood.

When predators Laurent (Gathegi), James (Gigandet) and Victoria (Lefevre) begin to feed on the unsuspecting Forks’ locals, the Cullens close ranks to protect Bella from her immortal pursuers.

A subplot involving family friend Jacob Black (Lautner) and his American Indian tribe poses tantalising questions for subsequent films.