Twilight 2008

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: Unfortunately, it just didn't work. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: A deeply sincere, outright goofy vampire romance for the hot-not-to-trot abstinence set. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Twilight the movie is cautious, a sort of Tiger Beat-ified Twin Peaks. In its undercooked way, though, it's enjoyable. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This adaptation of the best-selling novel by Stephenie Meyer never rises above the level of a teen soaper on the CW. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Not that Twilight's fate hangs on intelligibility. It hangs on fangs that aren't bared, and on a bloodlust that isn't indulged. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Twilight is often a lot of fun to watch -- the atmosphere of wet green trees and subtle danger, the gothic breathiness of doomed romance, the way all the vampires have better hair than anyone else -- and seems to give its intended audience what it wants. Read more

Ruth Hessey, MovieTime, ABC Radio National: I succumbed to the palpable chemistry between the leads, and remembered my own girlish fantasies with something of a head-spinning rush. Read more

Genevieve Koski, AV Club: 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. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Twilight will doubtless thrill fans of the books, who have long waited for its release. And while it's not a failure, everyone else will wish that the film had, if you'll excuse the expression, a little more bite. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A darn good hunk of pop moviemaking. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Low-key is not the adjective you'd expect to describe a highly anticipated vampire movie, but there it is. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Gothic wooziness stifles many of Hardwicke's lighter impulses, such as her knack for jiving humor in scenes among friends and family. And some of the more cartoonishly gymnastic CG stunts look plain silly. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Finally, a chick flick with some bite to it. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Hardwicke stirs this teen pulp to a pleasing simmer. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: My hope is that the sequels are actual attempts at movies. The world doesn't need any more toothless cinema. Read more

Nancy Churnin, Dallas Morning News: Catherine Hardwicke's choppy direction plays all this much too seriously. The film lacks the clarity and cleverness that might have ameliorated the campier moments. Read more

Sara Frederick, Miami Herald: Teenage girls are going to love Twilight, and many are sure to see it more than once. Hang on to those earplugs: This time next year, you'll need them again. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: With its vapor-thin plot and goofy gimmicks (game of vampire baseball, anyone?), Twilight seems best left to its impressionable teenage fans. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Twilight, the first movie adapted from Stephenie Meyer's series of best-selling teen novels, is going to be a big hit with young girls, and deservedly so -- the picture delivers. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg does a decent job adapting the first book in Meyer's series, and despite a tendency toward cheesy effects, Hardwicke keeps things moving swiftly. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Combines the plot of HBO's True Blood with the intensity level of Saved by the Bell. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: There's a playfulness that seems just so right in Catherine Hardwicke's Twilight. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Amazingly, it feels real -- the actors pull it off. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: If its muscles are flexed, we can expect three more of these movies. Hopefully, like the Harry Potter films, they'll get better as they go along. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie was directed by Catherine Hardwicke. She uses her great discovery, Nikki Reed, in the role of the beautiful Rosalie Hale. Reed wrote Hardwick's Thirteen when she was only 14. That was a movie that knew a lot more about teenage girls. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Twilight is, by its very nature, all about unfinished business, the story of a brooding, caring romantic hero and the woman who cannot -- although she wants to -- yield to him. Only his eyes penetrate her. For now, that's enough. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: Invest any spare cash you have in companies that deal in hair gel. I have a feeling this film is going to be huge. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: As a parable for the dark side of female desire, it's weirdly powerful. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: There's nothing transporting about the visuals. Twilight was a famously low-budget production compared to most traditional blockbusters, but this is ridiculous. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Director Catherine Hardwick leads her young cast through the story's soap opera elements with honest respect for the material. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Sometimes sensitive and often silly. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Twilight is the Diet Coke of vampire movies, but central to the film's success is that you believe in the love between Edward and Bella. Read more

Leah Rozen, TheWrap: Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: It rekindles the warmth of great Hollywood romances, where foreplay was the climax and a kiss was never just a kiss. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: [Hardwicke's] earnest, moody approach to Stephenie Meyer's tremendously popular novel may be just the thing for the 14-year-old girl in all of us. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Some will find it all too polite, but compared to rival blockbuster exercises in explosive CGI mayhem, its character-based index of longing and protectiveness at least provides a viable alternative moodscape. Read more

Christopher Orr, The New Republic: Twilight is silly and melodramatic and hard to dislike in much the same way as its target audience, with a distinctly teenage sense of tragedy. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Meyer is said to have been involved in the production of Twilight, but her novel was substantially more absorbing than the unintentionally funny and quickly forgettable film. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: 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. Read more

Chuck Wilson, Village Voice: The movie version gives really good swoon. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Twilight works as both love story and vampire story, thanks mainly to the performances of its principals. Read more