Ten Years of Twilight Blu-ray Review: Collect to Update

By: Lynn Barker

In case you forgot or were too young (or not born) the first time around, Twilight is based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer and centers on Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), a clumsy 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.

Edward and Bella in their beloved meadowCourtesy of Lionsgate

Fateful Move and New Hottie

Bella Swan, a seventeen-year-old outcast, moves to Forks, a small Washington state town, to live with her father, Charlie (Billy Burke) town police chief because her mom Renée (Sarah Clarke), is remarried to a minor league baseball player, and they travel a lot. At her new high school, Bella makes several new friends, but she is also intrigued by the mysterious and aloof Cullen siblings. Bella sits next to Edward Cullen in biology class on her first day of school, but he seems to be repulsed by her. After a week of absence, Edward returns to school and begins socializing with Bella normally.

Edward rebuffs Bella at firstCourtesy of Lionsgate

Near Accident

A few days later, Bella is nearly struck by a van in the school parking lot. Edward saves her by instantaneously covering a distance of over thirty feet, and putting himself between Bella and the van, stopping it with only his hand, and making a conspicuous dent on the side. He subsequently refuses to explain his actions to Bella, and warns her against befriending him. Now she is totally hooked on him

The Cullens at schoolCourtesy of Lionsgate

Intrigued and New Family

Bella researches and figures out that Edward is seemingly human, but has mysterious powers resembling those of a vampire. He eventually confirms this, but says he and the other Cullens only consume animal blood. The pair fall in love, and Edward introduces Bella to his vampire family. Carlisle Cullen (Peter Facinelli), the family patriarch, is a doctor, wife Esme (Elizabeth Reaser) is the family's matriarch. Alice (Ashley Greene), Jasper (Jackson Rathbone), Emmett (Kellan Lutz), and Rosalie (Nikki Reed) are their informally adopted children.

Cullens out huntingCourtesy of Lionsgate

Ancient Threat

Bella and Edward’s relationship is soon put in jeopardy when three nomadic vampires, James (Cam Gigandet), Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre), and Laurent (Edi Gathegi) arrive in Forks. James, a tracker vampire, is instantly intrigued by Edward's protectiveness of a human, which incites him to hunt Bella for sport. Edward and the other Cullens put their lives on the line in an effort to protect Bella, but James tracks her to Phoenix, Arizona, where she is hiding with Jasper and Alice.

James, Victoria and Laurent come to townCourtesy of Lionsgate

The Trap

James lures Bella into a trap by falsely claiming that he is holding her mother hostage. He attacks her by biting her wrist, infecting her with vampire venom. After a ferocious battle, Edward subdues James just as the other members of the Cullen family arrive. Alice, Emmett, and Jasper kill James, decapitating and burning him, as Edward removes the venom from Bella's wrist, preventing her from turning into a vampire. In the aftermath of the battle, Bella has suffered a broken leg, and ends up in the hospital.

Edward and Bella dance at the promCourtesy of Lionsgate

Returning to Forks

Upon returning to Forks, Edward accompanies Bella to the high school prom, where he refuses to grant her request to transform her into a vampire so they can be together forever. As the two dance in a gazebo, totally in love, they are unaware that James' mate, Victoria, is secretly watching, plotting revenge for her lover's death.

Bella's dad CharlieCourtesy of Lionsgate

Special Extra Features

• Audio Commentary by director Catherine Hardwicke and stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Is totally worth a buy since you won’t get the two stars together again after their famous break-up. They do impressions of one another and their comments throughout are silly/funny like Kristen’s 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. This is candid and fun.
• Extended Scenes are cut for pace and intro'd by director Catherine.  Nothing here that is extraordinary.. a bit more in the meadow and in Edward’s room.
• Deleted Scenes are all quite short. One is a 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. 
• Music Videos – three of them with now-famous tunes by Muse, Paramore and Linkin Park from the soundtrack. The first two are intro'd by Stephenie Meyer and Catherine. If you like these artists, well worth a watch.
• The Adventure Begins: The Journey from Page to Screen is the “making of” featurette 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 discuss 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 before the 2008 film was released. 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 Blu-ray and the group answers fan questions. It's obvious that none of them were expecting the amazing frenzy or big turn out.  Interesting stuff.

Wrapping Up

Summit Entertainment is releasing a boxed set of all five Twilight movies, with new watercolor artwork by artist Justin Erickson. Covers depict characters and key scenes from each film in different color palettes. Nice looking….however, the Blu-ray for this ten years later set is a disappointment. There are NO new extras on it that weren’t on the original DVD. Fans will still probably want to upgrade from their old DVDs to a crisp Blu-ray or 4K Ultra HD version.

New Moon and Eclipse Box ArtCourtesy of Lionsgate

Any new extras are on the 4K disc (which my player won’t play). They are: Twilight Tour 10 Years Later, A Conversation with Stephenie Meyer, Featurettes “Becoming Edward” and “Becoming Bella” and more. Where is the Blooper Reel; those golden boo-boo outtakes? Rob and Kristen are funny enough on the Audio Commentary that you just know there were endless flubs that would have been so much fun to watch. Bummer.

New Breaking Dawn Part 1 and 2 Box ArtCourtesy of Lionsgate

As mentioned all of the movies are in the boxed set…hopefully with some newer extras. If you never collected the older DVDs or early Blu-rays, you might really want to get this upgraded set. There is a Digital extended edition included. We aren’t reviewing all of the Blu-rays. Again, even if no new special features are included, it might be worth buying to upgrade the “look” and sound for your home collection. For this Blu-ray, we have to go 3 stars.

Ten Years of Twilight Blu-ray Rating: 

Ten Years of Twilight Blu-ray CoverCourtesy of Lionsgate

Buy the boxed, 10 year anniversary set of the Twilight now!

What is Your Opinion?

Did you grow up watching the Twilight films? Are you glad a newer, better-looking set of the movies is coming out? Or did you think Twilight was lame to begin with?  This is your chance to trumpet your opinions! Leave a comment below or create a “review” on your Kidzworld profile page!