DVD Review: Twilight: 2-Disc Special Edition
If you are a huge Twilight fan, you'll be in line at your local video store for "Twilight Friday" parties. Starting at 10 pm this Fri. at a lot of Borders, Walmarts, Hot Topics etc., you can score the DVD or Blu-Ray when it is released at midnight. To find your local outlet for this bash go to www.twilightthemovie.com.
Meanwhile, we be da Press! So, we got it early and we're gonna tell all! For those living on a far planet, here's the story: Based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer, Twilight centers on the trials of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), a teen returning to the Pacific Northwest, who is bowled over bigtime by tall, pale and handsome high school hottie/outsider Edward Cullen (Rob Pattinson). Old childhood pal Jacob (Taylor Lautner) is ultra glad to see her back in town but can't compete with Edward's special "lure". See, Edward and his whole "family" are vampires who have sworn off human blood in favor of the occasional animal hunt in order to live among us peacefully. Even when Bella figures out Edward's secret, she doesn't care. She's crazy in love and overjoyed that Edward seems just as nutz for her! We know this spells trouble.
Special Features: There will never be enough for the avid Twilight fan but these two discs pack quite a few. Note that you can't skip the beginning trailers and go directly to the menu. You can only fast-forward through them.
On Disc One is the film, which seems to be a clean transfer and sounds fine, and a really fun Audio Commentary by director Catherine Hardwicke and stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. The trio starts and ends by doing pretty good impressions of one another. Some of the comments are hilarious, especially Robert's many self-put-downs. For example: "Where's my fake six-pack in that scene?", "I look Asian in that scene", "I've got a butt chin", "He wears lipstick and has a bouffant", "Sometimes I look like I've had facial reconstructive surgery", "That's when I had pecs for two days". He also puts down his "effeminate hands" and "scraggly sideburns" and answers his own on-screen questions...Do you know what vampires eat? "Cheeseburgers".
Kristen often gets embarrassed watching herself and also comments on her appearance "I can see my contacts in that shot" and the noteworthy "Remember when I was standing on your toes dancing all night and your toenail turned black and nearly fell off?" Now that's good stuff! Catherine gives us all kinds of interesting technical tidbits as well as funny comments. Everybody complains non-stop about how darn cold it was. A very good, candid commentary track. Hopefully, since Catherine won't be back for New Moon, the new director will provide as good a track.
Also on the first disc are several short Extended Scenes cut for pace and intro'd by director Catherine. Nothing here that is extraordinary.. a bit more in the meadow or the clip in Edward's room that has been on the internet. I enjoyed three Music Videos by Muse, Paramore and Linkin Park of tunes on the movie's soundtrack. The first two are intro'd by Stephenie Meyer and Catherine.
Disc 2 contains the rest of the Special Features. The Deleted Scenes are all quite short. First of all, hey, wasn't there supposed to be a much longer, much steamier love scene in Bella's room? Was that a rumor? It's not on this DVD.
What you do get is one short reaction by Emmett to Edward's gaze at Bella across the school parking lot, one slightly longer, teeny bit hotter Bella dream of Edward and a scene that Catherine says is Kristen's favorite in which Bella lets Edward bite her finger for just a taste of that forbidden blood. We see James and love Victoria and Carlisle and wife Esme get a bit frisky and that's about it.
The "Making Of" Featurette is called "The Adventure Begins: The Journey from Page to Screen" and it contains a lot of on set footage including Rob trying and failing, time after time to tap the iconic falling apple with his foot and catch it even though it's attached to a support string. Stephenie talks about the dream that launched the book. The actors talk about their characters and there is a photo shoot for publicity. Special effects, locations and weather difficulties are discussed and the vampire baseball scene is dissected with actors complaining about the painful flying harnesses. The ballet studio fight scene was Kristen's first day on the film and we see how it was shot, including a scruffy mannequin standing in for James and getting its head ripped off. Post production editing, CGI and music are discussed. Overall, a pretty thorough featurette although I would have liked to have seen more cast goofing off on set between scenes.
"Comic Con Phenomenon" follows the cast, Catherine and Stephenie to the San Diego Comic Convention last year where devoted fans and Twilight Moms gush about the movie and their hopes for it. Rob and Kristen seem stunned as they take the stage in front of six thousand screaming fans. Most of the panel discussion that day is on the DVD and the group answers fan questions. It's obvious that none of them were expecting the amazing frenzy or big turn out. Interesting stuff.
Finally, we have "Trailers and Sneak Peeks", EPK style, "selling" footage with a few cast interviews and a couple of the early trailers for the film.
Where is the Blooper Reel; those golden boo-boo outtakes? Rob and Kristen are funny enough on the Commentary that you just know there were endless flubs that would have been so much fun to watch. Bummer.
Wrapping Up: Hey, if you are a true fan, you would buy this DVD if it presented the film as a scratchy black and white print!! But, luckily, it looks and sounds good and includes enough extras to delight most fans. The commentary track is outstanding and if you missed Comic Con, it's nice to see what the cast was up against there. Deleted and Extended scenes are always welcomed although we were misled about the hotter love scene we thought would make the DVD and we mourn the lack of a fun Blooper Reel. All-in-all, if you are a true fan.. you can get in line this Friday and get an early copy to tide you over until New Moon hits theaters. If not and you want to know what all the fuss is about, head in to the video store and rent a copy over the weekend.
