Twilight Reviews: Our Verdict on All Five Films

Our Twilight reviews give one verdict for each of the five films, and the pattern is simple: the series starts as the most sincere teen romance of its era and slowly becomes a confident ensemble saga. Everything below is my opinion. The official ratings are included as facts, because a parent choosing tonight's film needs the rating more than my taste. Full reviews for each film are coming and will link from here.

Twilight (2008), directed by Catherine Hardwicke, is good in the way a first film can be good: it is rough, it is earnest, and it knows exactly what it wants to feel like. The rainy Pacific Northwest setting, the unusually pale Cullen siblings at school and the moment Edward stops a sliding van in the parking lot all do their job with very little fuss. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson carry scenes through awkwardness rather than polish, which suits two teenagers who cannot say what they mean. It runs 122 minutes, was made for $37 million and took $405 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. Verdict: a charming, uneven start, best for viewers who like a slow, moody romance. It is rated PG-13 in the US, 12A in the UK and M in Australia.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009), directed by Chris Weitz, is the slowest film of the five, and it is also the one that gives the series its warmth. Edward leaves Forks, Bella sinks into grief, and Taylor Lautner's Jacob Black becomes the friend who keeps her moving. The film runs 131 minutes, and a stretch in the middle leans on a single mood for too long. Then Michael Sheen's Aro arrives and the film finally gets some menace. It cost $50 million and grossed about $710 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. Verdict: patient viewers will be rewarded, and impatient ones can skim the grieving stretch. It carries the same PG-13, 12A and M ratings as the first film.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), directed by David Slade, is my pick as the best made film in the series. A string of killings in Seattle points to an army of newborn vampires, Victoria (played here by Bryce Dallas Howard) is behind it, and Bella has to weigh Edward against Jacob while the danger closes in on Forks. For once the romance and the plot push in the same direction. Howard Shore's score gives the film a weight the earlier ones lack, and at 124 minutes it stays tidy. It cost $68 million and took about $698 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. Verdict: the strongest place to start for anyone who wants story as well as longing. Ratings are PG-13, 12A and M.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011), directed by Bill Condon, is the film where the series takes its biggest tonal gamble, and I admire the nerve more than the result. The wedding half is warm and genuinely funny, with the whole Cullen family and Charlie in one room, while the honeymoon half struggles to hold a steady tone. It runs 117 minutes, cost $110 million and took about $732 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo. Verdict: worth it for the wedding and for Billy Burke's Charlie, and less so for the second half. This is the only film with a higher Australian rating, MA15+, while the US stays PG-13 and the UK 12A.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012), also directed by Bill Condon, is the most entertaining film in the series, and its audience agreed. At 115 minutes it is the leanest of the five, and it gathers a large ensemble of vampires from around the world, including Jamie Campbell Bower as Caius and Maggie Grace as Irina. It cost $120 million and took about $889 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, the biggest gross of the saga. Verdict: a crowd pleasing finale, though the visual effects on the youngest character have aged less kindly than the stunts. Ratings are PG-13, 12A and M.

The Twilight movies age ratings are PG-13 in the US and 12A in the UK for all five films. In Australia, four films are rated M and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 is rated MA15+. Those are the official classifications, and I would always trust them over my own read. If you are weighing a younger teenager's viewing, the Twilight movies in order page shows the sequence, and where to watch Twilight shows what is streaming today.

The films follow the same story as Stephenie Meyer's books, a human teenager who falls for a vampire in the small town of Forks, Washington, but on screen it leans on mood, music and the faces of Stewart and Pattinson. For a closer comparison with the source material, see Twilight books vs movies. You can also meet the leads on the Bella Swan, Edward Cullen and Jacob Black pages.

No new Twilight film has been announced, and the only new project is Midnight Sun, an animated series ordered by Netflix, with Lionsgate Television producing and Stephenie Meyer as an executive producer. It is television rather than a film, and it has no release date or cast so far, according to Deseret News. For the latest status, read about the new Twilight movie situation. If you want my full ordering of the saga, see Twilight movies ranked, and the Twilight movies hub covers everything else.