The Ultimate Twilight Ranking

by sophie

Twilight. A quintessential piece of literature and film. No other media dares come as close to this tale of a teenage girl falling in love with a vampire older than her dad. In this article, we will appropriately rank these films based on the story, cinematography, acting, and the LOOKS. 

Here we go: [worst —> best]

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt. 2

Part two is just a strange movie to me. It harbors Jacob’s inevitable downfall as he imprints on his crush’s infant NEWBORN and Bella’s personality for the last four other movies disappears.

Now, I know that in the Twilight universe, when you become a vampire it’s sort of a loss of self and you even find yourself forgetting your human life, but that’s so cringe to me. It bugs me

when vampires become vampires and talk down on “the humans” as if that is not square one of

their own existence. Like, you’re literally a human who just can’t die. I feel like the Bella we got to know throughout this whole franchise just dissolves and is replaced by someone who is suddenly super confident and just fits so well into the Cullen cult and is not super thrown off by her demon baby. Like, I wish we saw more growth and more awkward Bella. I get she feels like she was born to be a vampire, but I wish we saw her adjusting to her new life more instead of having every life milestone thrown at her all at once. It was a bit overwhelming to me. I also just don’t care about Renesmee. She is just too much for me to handle. I know having a kid with your husband is seen to be the final step in sealing the deal of acquiring true love, but I wanted to see Edward and Bella do romantic escapades, not carry around their weird CGI baby. Lee Pace is the redeeming factor in this film.

Twilight Eclipse

I am surprised at how low I ranked this. It used to be my favorite one when I was first watching Twilight, at like 12. Do not get me wrong, there are a lot of good aspects about Eclipse. First, I love the backstories and flashbacks we get from so many of the other characters. Rosalie and her creation into a vampire, Jasper the Confederate, and also the tribe’s history with the Cold Ones was pretty cool. Second, this was Jasper’s best hair. That’s it. Third, and most importantly, the love triangle that Twilight is infamous for is the strongest in this film. The first two films were respectfully reserved for each Jacob and Edward, but now we can really see them interact. Jacob is still fighting to win Bella over and Edward is forced to tolerate Jacob. It makes for good tension and when Bella asks Jacob to kiss her after he discovered her and Edward’s engagement was literally crazy.However, now that I’m older, I fault this movie for the Victoria and Riley plotline with the army. I’m just bored. Every time we see them on their way to attack the Cullens I am just not that into it. It drags on too long and I’m waiting for the next scene with the love triangle. Overall, I feel like this plot line was a cheap attempt to make this into an action mission film and that’s not what I want from a monster romance.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt. 1

Girl, this movie was drama. I mean, it’s so traumatizing how pretty and romantic things were in the beginning with Bella and Edward’s flowery forest wedding (which I’m obsessed with the hanging flowers for life) to absolute body horror to such a high degree. I would say this is the scariest of the Twilight movies, strange considering these are literal vampire movies. The horror of the pregnancy itself and whether or not Bella will have enough time to become a vampire is really quite stressful, but makes for a really strong central plotline that is very riveting. Where Eclipse might have stretched out their plotline a bit too thin, Breaking Dawn Part 1 capture my attention a lot more because it was more personal and not some action movie complicated scheme. I really enjoyed their honeymoon when they went exploring and swimming and especially chess. We got to see more intimate details of their relationship than most of the other films. I appreciate how it gave a glimpse of their hobbies so we could humanize them before their happy time had a wrench of a baby thrown in the midst of it all.

Twilight

Tale as old as time. Of course the first must be highly ranked. It is the indie film to end all indie films. With its cold blue tint and occasional shaky cam, the first installment of the Twilight franchise is charming because of its intimacy and stark comparisons between Bella’s innocent youthfulness and the juxtaposing physically young, but emotionally fermented Edward. I must confess, I am surprised by how popular the baseball scene is amongst other Twilight fans. To me, the scene that really steals the show is at the end when Edward is asking Bella if she is willing to be a vampire at the prom. Like, it’s so romantic…looking. They’re on the gazebo, lights everywhere, and also all the other people dancing just leave them alone. As toxic as Edward can be, I found this scene really pretty. I also find how cute Bella is in this movie and it gives a magical feel that she’s finally found a person who is so “protective” over her who happens to be the strongest being you can have protect you. To me, Edward is opening his world and finally embracing it and Bella is finally having some fun in her life.

Twilight: New Moon

You can’t even deny it. I think the most memorable thing about Twilight in general, is when Jacob became hot and ditched his shirt and this was the birthing stone. This movie was juicy because Bella got broken up with by Edward, and even though she pined after him still, the breakup gave her some moral freedom to be somewhat emotionally involved with Jacob…romantically. The romantic tension in this movie was insane. From the theater scene on the stairs to the rain scene when Jacob showed off his short hair for the first time. Where Twilight One gives off early winter-ish vibes, New Moon is definitely a fall movie. I think the drastic color grading difference between the two films serves to reflect the nature of both male leads; Edward is a cold dead vampire, and Jacob is a warm living werewolf. In all seriousness, I found this movie for the most part really sweet. Jacob and Bella bond and she gets out of her depression up until Edward tries to off himself.