Twilight

For those who havent read Meyers best-selling book series, a quick tutorial: Gawky teen Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) moves from her mothers home in Phoenix to the perpetually overcast town of Forks, Wash., on the Olympic Peninsula, where her dad (Billy Burke) is the police chief.

Bella quickly makes friends among the high schools geeks and watches with fascination when the Cullens, the mysterious adopted children of the towns doctor (Peter Facinell), walk into the cafeteria. And when the hunkiest Cullen, Edward (Robert Pattinson), rudely avoids her, Bella is even more intrigued.

Its not giving anything away to reveal that the Cullens are vampires. Theyre the good kind, though they drink animal blood and never hunt humans, even though were so tasty. And with their all-white wardrobe and a talent for glimmering in sunlight, they look more like Glinda the Good Witchs relatives than the kin of Dracula and Nosferatu. When Hardwicke concentrates on Bella and Edward, and the couples attempts to tamp down their romantic tension before Edward takes a bite he might regret, Twilight soars. Stewart, who has grown into a coltish beauty since Panic Room, gives Bella a spark of defiant strength, which plays well against the pin-up looks of Pattinson. After setting up the Bella/Edward relationship, and hinting at something with the lupine Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) that wont be resolved until the sequel,

Twilight doesnt deliver the slam-bang ending thats required. A showdown between Edward and a hunter-predator (Cam Gigandet) skimps on spectacle and is disappointingly bloodless for a vampire epic.