The Twilight saga: book vs. movie

The Twilight saga is a great series, but did the movies do a good job bringing the books to life?

The Twilight saga is a series many know and, despite what they might say, love. The series by Stephenie Meyer is a historical retelling of a love story between two star-crossed lovers, who happen to be a vampire and human. After its publishing and rise to fame in 2005, the series was then adapted into a live-action movie series three years later, starting in 2008. 

The books are rather long and not many have the time to read them from start to finish. I think this is very unfortunate because for those that do fully understand the obsession many have with the series, reading the books will somewhat enlighten you. Meyer’s work is far more enticing and enjoyable than the movies made them out to be. 

The main characters, Bella Swan and Edward Cullen are more developed characters in the books compared to the movies. They have a personality that can be relatable and is far more entertaining than the movies portray. No offense to Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, I love them, but the movies were a far cry from the books and how I envisioned the story. 

Not only is Bella a more opinionated and sarcastic person, but Edward is very comedic. While this does come through a bit in the movies, it’s not the focus like it is in the books. There are also entire characters missing from the movie that are in the book, like Lauren who was cut and portrayed as a sort of mashed character with Jessica in the movie. We also don’t get to see the aspects of Bella’s life beyond the Cullens and Forks High School, which is very important and a large portion of the books. 

I will recognize that with movie adaptations you are not always going to get the full story for the sake of screen time, but that means scenes and what is included and not needs to be chosen very deliberately. I think that this was not done very well with the movie adaptions and it really hurt them in the end. 

The Twilight book series, while great, was not done justice when it was adapted into a movie series. I think that they left out crucial details that developed characters, added to the storyline and made the series overall make sense. They fall in love quickly, sure, but there is a lot that happens from the first time they meet to the last book when they are married. Overall, great book series but a very comedic movie series. I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.