TWILIGHT **½

Catherine Hardwicke is the director of the first of the Twilight series films which stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, and Elizabeth Reaser. Rated PG-13 for some violence and a scene of sensuality. The running time is two hours and two minutes.

A modern-day love story based on the best selling series by Stephenie Meyer between a teenage girl (Stewart) and a vampire (Pattinson) who's a member of a family (Facinelli and Reaser) who don't have fangs and who choose not to drink human blood. Their relationship is threatened when a clan of new vampires comes to town and threatens to disrupt their way of life by killing humans, a fact which sets the girl's father (Burke), the sheriff, on their trail.

This is a well made film with good production values and a competent if not particularly appealing cast. To my of thinking, however, in an effort to boost the boxoffice the film has been mis-sold as an action thriller and it's nothing of the kind. It is a modern romance teenage girls will no doubt love but males and adults are going to find slow and boring, with most of the film's time spent in introducing the couple to each other and in developing their romantic relationship. There is some action but if you've seen the trailer, you've already seen most of it. Clearly, the intent is to create a "franchise" with sequels. Whether this first film will leave enough of what appears to be a huge initial audience with a desire for sequels remains to be seen.