Twilight
Summit Distribution | Release Date: November 21, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
17
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
EmpireWill Lawrence
A sometimes girlie swirl of obsession that will delight fans, this faithful adaptation is after teenage blood, and will most likely hit a box office artery. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
A genuine love story might be difficult for a young audience to handle, but this fantasy is blissful madness--an abstinence fable sexier than sex. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
On screen, Twilight is repetitive and a tad sodden, too prosaic to really soar. But Hardwicke stirs this teen pulp to a pleasing simmer. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Twilight - directed with savvy humor by Catherine Hardwicke - turns vampirism into a metaphor for teen lust. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineTracie Cooper
In terms of bringing the book to life, Twilight is a complete success, so much so that most of the film's flaws work within the context of the story. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Pattison grows on us as he grows on Bella: His weird mannerisms and nervous delivery stop seeming like quirks and acquire an intensity that's hard to resist by the end. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
Twilight has a few gory plot turns - mostly offscreen - and one near-sex scene that may offend a few Amish people, but the rest is maybe 33 percent less wholesome than "High School Musical." It's almost certainly less risque than what you were watching when you were 14. (Cue the soundtrack to "Risky Business.") Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Actually, the movie's a better movie than the book was a book, in part because Meyer struggled to put her characters' galloping emotions into print whereas director Catherine Hardwicke just visualizes them in all their inarticulate purpleness. Read full review
70
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
On the whole, Twilight works as both love story and vampire story, thanks mainly to the performances of its principals, Pattinson and Stewart. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Corliss
So Twilight isn't a masterpiece -- no matter. It rekindles the warmth of great Hollywood romances, where foreplay was the climax and a kiss was never just a kiss. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Hardwicke still manages to find the sweet spot where Gothic literature and the iPod meet and make goo-goo eyes at each other. Without embarrassment, she and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg dig right into the almost generic simplicity of the story. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Hardwicke has connected so intensely to the Meyer novel that it's hard to imagine anyone else making a better version. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The best thing in the movie is Stewart. She was the leggy hobo-camp teen in love with Emile Hirsch in "Into the Wild," and she's better at conveying physical longing than any of the actors playing vampires. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Twilight will mesmerize its target audience, 16-year-old girls and their grandmothers. Their mothers know all too much about boys like this. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Twilight isn't an especially good movie, but neither is it an abomination. At times, the dialogue is laugh-aloud bad - almost to the point of being hilarious. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The superfast running effects, with Edward dashing up mountains, or rival, evil vampires swooping here and there at amazing speed, look genuinely cheesy, like the guy running the race in the smart-phone ad. I'm surprised Hardwicke and her colleagues couldn't solve this one more effectively. Set pieces such as a vampire baseball game fall flat as well. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldSara Frederick
None of the movie's flaws will matter. Teenage girls are going to love Twilight,and many are sure to see it more than once. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Bummer. The vampires have no fangs. The humans are humdrum. The special effects and makeup define cheeseball. And the movie crowds in so many characters from Stephenie Meyer’s book that Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) is less a director than a traffic cop. But there’s a reason that Twilight has already become the movie equivalent of a bestseller: The love story has teeth. Read full review
60
SlateDana Stevens
As a life lesson for teenage girls, Twilight (excuse the pun) sucks. As a parable for the dark side of female desire, it's weirdly powerful. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
It's disappointing when a big-screen romance can't match up to the one in your imagination, at any age. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
An underwhelming vampire romance long on camp but short on emotional insight Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Though Edward and Bella reach certain heights in Twilight, notably during a charming scene that finds them leaping from piney treetop to treetop against the spectacular wilderness backdrop, the story’s moral undertow keeps dragging them down. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Every generation gets the cinematic vampires it deserves...The current decade, judging from the bloodsuckers on display in Twilight, will be remembered as one of guilt, restraint and denial. It's just not that fun to be undead anymore. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin Chang
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 full review
50
Village VoiceChuck Wilson
In the 17-million-copy land of "Twilight," the calling card isn't blood and fangs, but the exquisite, shimmering quiver of unconsummated first love. By that measure, the movie version gives really good swoon. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Despite questionable casting, wooden acting, laughable dialogue and truly awful makeup, nothing is likely to stop young girls from swarming to this kitschy adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's popular novel. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerTravis Nichols
Those who want something to really sink their teeth into should head home on a rainy day, put on some goth anthems and reread the books. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Sometimes sensitive and often silly but really, essentially, beneath his pallor and her panting and their intertwined frustrations, it's just two long hours of coitus interruptus. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This adaptation of the best-selling novel by Stephenie Meyer never rises above the level of a teen soaper on the CW, and its pale, sulky boy toys (Kellan Lutz, Peter Facinelli, Jackson Rathbone) are more silly than scary. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
Edward's a remarkable young gentleman when you consider the hell he's been through: It turns out he's always 17, his fate to keep repeating high school, forever and ever. If that's my only option, kindly burn me at the stake. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The movie is mainly geared to putting new twists on what John Hughes comedies used to call "sucking face." It will satisfy Meyer's devotees. Read full review
50
PremiereJenni Miller
The religious symbolism couldn't be more obvious (or disturbing). Keep your religion out of our vampires, Hollywood! Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubGenevieve Koski
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 full review
42
Christian Science MonitorRobert Koehler
A young and as-yet-unformed actor, Stewart is cast in a role she's simply not ready for, and her effort to work hard – exactly what any actor must hide from the audience – is painfully visible in every scene. By contrast, Pattinson is smooth as glass, a born movie star who only needs to slant his eyes to grab attention. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
In a film that has the courage of its absurdity but not much else, Mr. Pattinson gets the best of what passes for style. Read full review
30
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Q: When is a vampire not a vampire? A: When it goes out in daylight, sees itself in a mirror, doesn’t drink human blood, and still manages to suck. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
I've had mosquito bites that were more passionate than this undead, unrequited, and altogether unfun pseudo-romantic riff on Romeo and Juliet. Read full review
25
ConsequenceRandall Colburn
Watching Twilight, I was floored by how earnest all of this was, how seriously everyone involved took what is clearly a horrible, unhealthy, doomed relationship. And is there anything more teenage than that? Read full review
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