Twilight

Adaptations of popular books are always a bit controversial, in the sense that people who love the book tend to be a shade disappointed in the film even though the film makers did a good job.
Harry Potter is a good example.
I finished reading the book Twilight on Thursday and from about halfway through it I was desperate to see the film. First, the book.
Awesome doesn't go far enough, I was captivated from the early stages and it was just one of those books you can't put down. If you are into angsty teen dramas like I am partial to.
So to the film. Twilight introduces us to Bella (Kristen Stewart) as she tells us why she is relocating from Phoenix to one of the bleakest places on earth, Forks in Washington.
Upon starting school she is intrigued by the good-looking, white faced Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) who goes out of his way to avoid her, occasionally stiffens in her presence and stares constantly at her from across the lunch room at school.
Then he saves her life with a miraculous act of bravery and strength and this sees Bella even more intent to find out what's up with Edward.
It's not a new story but it is a well told one. It's also not a secret (to the audience and those that have read the book) that Edward is a vampire.
The story busts a lot of accepted facts about vampires, quite brilliantly I might add. Edward has four `siblings' at school all `adopted' by the local doctor Carlisle and his wife Esme. I could go on and on and on.
My thoughts are as follows...I enjoyed the movie immensely. It was much like watching The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe in that I knew the story and they were pretty faithful to it, to the extent that some lines were directly from the book.
I thought the casting was close to spot on but there were a few mistakes. Bella was as I imagined and Edward pretty close, though I thought he may have been a bit more buff if you know what I mean. The rest of the Cullens were spot on.
Bella's dad Charlie I thought they got right and her friend Mike Newton was spot on. Some of the other school characters were a bit hit and miss casting wise. I didn't see Eric as Chinese or Tyler as an African American, at least they didn't read that way in the book. Minor detail.
With the book fresh in my mind I was a bit disappointed that they didn't flesh out a couple of Bella's friends - Mike in the book was practically her shadow for quite while, following her around seemingly besotted with her. In the film he was goofy and not as prominent. There was a lot of interaction between Edward and Bella in the lunch room that went missing and would have been interesting and plenty of the pursuit by the tracker James (Cam Gigandet) that would have been helpful to non-book readers.
On the big plus side the setting was amazing and brilliantly shot. The soundtrack was perfect.
The ending was a shade different to the book but I'm not far enough into the sequel New Moon to have worked out whether it leads in or whether they are taking a different direction.
In all, this is a film that is helped plenty by having read the book. Having said that I'm giving a 8 out of 10 as I enjoyed seeing the book come to life.