Twilight Movie - Worse adaption from a novel i have came across

[amyrainey]

Hi, let me start by introducing myself
I am amy raineys husband and I would like to being with saying I am not a twilight hater as my wife puts it (she is quite a fan of twilight)
I first watched the movie not long after it came out with my wife, and last night I sat down to watch it with her for a 2nd time, and have enjoyed the movie both times. However when I went to bed I decided to start reading the book, and while Stephenie Meyer is not one of my favourite authors as I feel she goes into to much detail (which in my mind restricts ones imagination) i quickly became applaud at the poor job that Catherine Hardwick and the screen play writers did at adapting this novel into a movie.
Within reading the first 2 chapters of Twilight I became to relize that the movie got almost all the details wrong, and a few major details within that.
It seems interesting that Bella got off the plane, picked up by her father and met Jacob and Billy Blake, picked up the car and went straight to school in what would have been mid afternoon by the time she got back, HOWEVER in the novel she got told about the car on the way back to her fathers place, got home and went to bed what seemed shortly after, and didn’t mean Billy or Jacob for a few days AFTER she got to Forks...
The movie also forgets to mention that she cried herself to sleep that night, and also in the movie her father gives her new quilts when in the novel it states “I pulled the faded old quilt over my head, and later on the pillow”
The next day at school the novel describes the school as a “collection of matching buildings” when in the movie it seems one big building.
The first day at school I noticed a lot of mistakes,  in the movie bella meets Eric in the carpark where in the novel she meets Eric in English class (her first class)
Later on in the Cafe she sees the Cullens for the first time and they are SITTING down in the far corner of the cafe, however in the movie they are walking in (a fair adaption in order to introduce themself) however the interesting part here is the conversation she has with angela.  Angela explains who they are then talks about how they are all together together and then goes to talk about Edwards foster parents. She also explains how they moved down from alaska about 2 years beforehand.
I think it would have been important for then to add that bit as it gave Bella something to relate with, not being the ONLY newcomer, and feeling like an outsider and would have given the watchers more background on bella, however they decided to leave it out of the movie.
The next part they left out/screwed up was when bella meet mike. In the movie she met mike in Gym class after hitting him on the back of the head with the volley ball, however in the novel she meet him at the end of Biology, and while this is a minor issue 2 key parts were left out.
Firstly, the line from Mike as stated “So did you stab Edward Cullen with a pencil or what? Ive never seen him act like that”. I find that line interesting as it shows that Edward was acting strange around bella and other people were noticing... something I feel that the viewers should have been able to see.
The other point to make is the fact in the novel bella didn’t even play volleyball that day, she watched...
“The Gym teacher, Coach Clapp, found me a uniform but didn’t make me dress down for today’s class. At home, only two years of P.E were required. Here, P.E was mandatory all four years... I watched four volleyball games running simultaneously. Remembering how many injuries I had sustained – and inflicted – playing volleyball, I felt Nausated,”
And the last mistake which was properly one of the biggest as it gave the wrong impression about Edward early on was in the office after Gym class. In the movie he appeared angry at not being able to swap classes and seemed rather rude, abrupt and arrogant, and stormed out saying “I guess ill just have endure it”, however in the novel he was arguing in “a low, attractive voice” and left  say rather politely
“Nevermind then... I can see that it’s impossible. Thank you so much for your help.”
After he left Bella then handed in her papers instead of like in the movie walking straight out the door.
These are some of the mistakes I have noticed in the movie, and I think the worse one was the appearance of how they made Edward look, and the mood they placed in at. It gave a wrong appearance of Edward to the viewers early on and didn’t show what he was really like.
And all these mistakes happened in the first chapter of the book.
I look forward to hearing what you guys have to say about it. I will leave you saying that I did enjoy the movie, but I believe that the screen play was poorly written and the director was poor, im looking forward to new moon and am glad that they changed directors and hope there wont be as many mistakes in new moon.

[littlelamb]

I don't think anyone can disagree with you. The movie and the book have many, many differences. I do think however, that the really important details were left the same. I know Stephanie Meyer chose Summit and worked closely with the crew so she could have a large amount of input on the film. If they had left everything identical to the book, we would have an incredibly long movie (lol I don't think anyone here would object). I think they did well condensing the book into a movie in a sense that it flowed well. Had they kept everything accurately I'm not sure they'd have the same wholeness that Twilight had.

As for Rob's portrayal of Edward, he read Midnight Sun (Twilight from Edward's perspective) and acted according to that role which is much darker than the side Bella sees in Twilight.

It is fun to compare the differences though! I love both the book and the movie. I think they compliment each other. I think it is going to be interesting to see how all the movies compare with all different directors. Hopefully a good thing! 

[tdlfan227]

well, i can't agree or disagree with you. there are some things i wish were different, yet they only had a 2 hour time thing that they could do it in. so all the details that were left out were because of this most likely.

[amyrainey]

i think that catherine hardwick changed the screenplay to more suit herself, i would have rather alot of it stay the same as the book. im a book worm and i have read many movies that were turned into novels, from lord of the rings to hunt from red october and now twilight, and i personally thing that having kept more to the novel would have made the movie a lot better.

my wife told me they changed directors to new moon and im looking forward to watching it and comparing it to the novel to see how much better job it will be.

big difference thou to twilight and new moon with be the lot larger budget that they have to work with thou.

[MSUBando]

I think everyone is hoping for New Moon to be faithful to the book, but I don't think we can expect any of these films to be exactly like the book.  There is just too much story in the book.  You have to condense some of the scenes and pick out the information that is most important to getting the message across to filmgoers.  But that is the reason I prefer to read a book after seeing the film version because the book always fills in more information.  

I was okay with the changes that were made to Twilight.  I didn't feel it was that different from the book.  I was actually surprised at how much of the dialogue in the film was the same as in the book.  It just wasn't always said in the exact same place in the storyline as in the book.  That doesn't mean I didn't think some aspects of the film could have been better.  I do, but I'm okay with the end product.  

And, I've seen much worse adaptations myself.  

[ifellhard]

I, too, was very disappointed in Catherine Hardwicke and Melissa Rosenberg's adaptation of Twilight.  They really missed the mark on key things that were significant in the book and integral to the plot of the entire Saga.  I've heard things that give me great hope and sound very promising for New Moon with Chris Weitz at the helm. 

[lillyanne1021]

I agree, I am obsessed with the books. but as far as a book adaptation it was not good. They missed so many key things. So I agree. I am just hoping New Moon is better.

[MichaelCG]

really, i've seen so much worse stuff... and thinking of what other studios wanted to do with our beloved books... 

[lillyanne1021]

I think that Twilight was a good movie but it does not even come close to being as good as the book.

[littlelamb]

really, i've seen so much worse stuff... and thinking of what other studios wanted to do with our beloved books... 

ditto!

[MichaelCG]

I think that Twilight was a good movie but it does not even come close to being as good as the book.

but how many movies do that? i think the moment you compare the movie with the book, the movie's lost... films that book fans really liked... you may not even reach ten counting 

[TwilightMaiden]

I think that Twilight was a good movie but it does not even come close to being as good as the book.

but how many movies do that? i think the moment you compare the movie with the book, the movie's lost... films that book fans really liked... you may not even reach ten counting 

I agree, there are very few movies based on books that actually stay totally true to the original story.  I think it is best just to enjoy the movie as is.

[crazycullenburkeblack]

although i didnt like it either- its not the worst: golden compass was horrendous, which let me to have false fear in Chris Weitz: but i didnt like it either
 

I think that Twilight was a good movie but it does not even come close to being as good as the book.

[ifellhard]

although i didnt like it either- its not the worst: golden compass was horrendous, which let me to have false fear in Chris Weitz: but i didnt like it either

I've seen several interviews where Chris Weitz comments on his bad experience with The Golden Compass and how the studio recut the movie.  Here's one of his quotes from ComicCon:
“The last film that I made was recut by the studio, and my experience with it ended being quite a terrible one.”

[lillyanne1021]

No I liked Twilight as a movie.. but it was very different from the book.. I just wish that they would have put in some of the little things.. like Bella cooking for Charlie.. Or had done the meadow scene better.