Film Review: Chemistry brightens up 'Twilight'

TWILIGHT — ** 1/2 — Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Campbell; rated PG-13 (violence, brief gore, mild profanity, slurs, brief drugs)

The big-screen version of LDS author Stephenie Meyer's best-selling novel "Twilight" is what you might call a critic-proof movie. Like the recent "High School Musical" cinematic feature, fans and devotees are sure to see this film no matter how well — or how poorly — it's reviewed.

Fortunately, there's some good news in that regard. While this romanticized horror/fantasy tale is not exactly a classic redefining of the vampire mythology, it's not awful. In fact, it's better than the trailers suggest.

The ads teased that it was going to be something akin to one of the more-generic television series on the CW network. It does have some of those cheesy, teen soap elements, but it may also remind some of the beloved, original "Lost Boys" movie.

Some good casting certainly helps as well. Kristen Stewart ("Zathura," "Into the Wild") stars as Meyer's heroine, Bella Swan. She has just moved from Arizona to the Pacific Northwest where she's now living with her father, Charlie (Billy Burke), the police chief of a small town.

A few, friendly new classmates (Michael Welch, Anna Kendrick, Justin Chon and Christian Serratos) are trying to help Bella fit into her new surroundings, though she finds herself drawn to the mysterious Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), one of the stepsons of prominent physician Carlisle Cullen (Peter Facinelli).

But Edward warns her to keep away from him, and soon she discovers why. When he saves Bella from a potentially fatal auto mishap, Edward displays superhuman abilities, including speed and strength.

And eventually Edward reveals that he and his "family" are vampires, though he claims they are "vegetarians" that prey on animals rather than humans. However, something or someone has been attacking the normal townspeople recently.

Director Catherine Hardwicke ("The Nativity Story") gets in some trouble when she tries, unsuccessfully, to stage a couple of gimmicky action scenes (particularly a vampire battle sequence), but she's bailed out by screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who brings some of the dry, off-kilter humor sensibilities she displays as a producer and writer for Showtime's "Dexter."

Their adaptation is a little overstuffed with characters, but some human characters have been combined and some scenes have been rearranged or changed to keep things manageable.