Twilight

Rating:

* * *

Verdict:

Teenage girls will want to see this more than once.

Teenagers too cool for

High School Musical 3

will flock to

Twilight

, a dark and brooding vampire drama, based on the first in the popular series of young adult novels by Stephanie Meyer.

Twilight is a Romeo and Juliet love story between human Bella Swan (Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Pattinson) and, while it features the required violence, it's more fantasy romance than vampire flick.

With a well-blended mix of teen angst, television melodrama and action, director Catherine Hardwicke (

Thirteen

) has created a film that should keep fans of the novel satisfied and attract newcomers to the series, although it doesn't stand up to those

Harry Potter

comparisons.

When Bella moves from sunny Arizona to live with her father in Forks, a small, wet and rural town in Washington State, she initially finds the place depressing, but is quickly distracted by mysterious, beautiful classmate Edward.

It's obvious that Ed isn't quite right - the incredibly pale skin, red lippy, the Edward Scissorhands-like head tilt, and the fact he struggles to form words and speak normally.

But wait till you meet his family. Edward and his four siblings are all adopted and don't mix with any of the other kids at high school. But it's not long before Bella and Edward fall in love, and Edward shares his dark secret with Bella, who is largely unfazed by news of her boyfriend's liquid diet, and her life is soon divided between worrying about the prom, and being in mortal danger from vampires not quite as human-friendly as Edward.

It might come with an excess of longing looks between the leads but this skilfully shot film is more intelligent than your average teenage drama, and will leave fans eager to see the sequel

New Moon

.

Francesca Rudkin

Cast:

Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson

Director:

Catherine Hardwicke

Running Time:

121 mins

Rating:

M (supernatural themes and violence)

Screening:

Hoyts, SkyCity, and Berkeley Cinemas