What is it about this cast?

I've come to the conclusion that this cast has a chemistry that is lacking where other ensemble casts are concerned. Instead of trying to make an Academy Award winner, they all went out and had fun, got their paychecks and went about their business, probably figuring that this was going nowhere.

However, what if money had been no object? Different director, different cast, different outcome.

Suppose Martin Scorsese had directed this? What would his cast have looked like? Imagine this? Leo and Kate as mom and pop Cullen. Tom Hanks as Charlie Swan. Daniel Day Lewis as Billy Black. Hey! He once played a Mohican. I'll leave the picks for the younger cast members to you. Dozens of actors could have filled the bill. I predict, however, the movie would have gone straight to DVD. Why? Because it would have lacked, shall we say, sparkle. All great actors and a great director who probably would have over thought all their roles and how the movie should have been. These actors would have been falling over one another trying to seal that AA nomination. It would have been silly. After all, this movie was all about the teens. It could have been so screwed up.

Instead the finished product was a fresh twist on the Hollywood heavies. Was it a grand movie? No. Was it entertaining. Yes. An award winner in the Slum Dog Millionaire way. No. Good in an indie way. Oh, yeah. The heavy critics whined that it didn't represent the book and they are kind of right. However, as a ground piece for what was, at the time, a possibility of the coming movies, it works. This franchise needed more money to do the next movie justice and they got it. We now expect that these next movies will follow the books more closely. I also expect that each subsequent movie will make more money than the last movie. I only hope that the different directors don't try to over think their direction. The books are what they are. Stick to the script.

The cast of Twilight gave us faces to go along with the names from the book that we had come to love. Re-reading the books is a bigger pleasure because the imagination now has something to lock onto. My hopes are that all step up their game in this second movie, especially Kristen Stewart. Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking Kristen. However, what she brought to Bella, she has brought to her other female characters over the years. Her best performance ever had to be as Jodie Foster's daughter in Panic Room. Otherwise, she's pretty much been the same, breathy, stuttery female character. Her performances in Twilight and Into the Wild could have been interchangeable. We will just have to wait and see what she does as Joan Jett. I'm truly hoping that she doesn't hold back.

That's my take on it. Thanks to the studios that passed on this one. Thank you Summitt for being such skin flints. Otherwise, Twilight could have been a disaster. As it is, some very talented young actors and very talented character actors will be seen again. And again.

And we really can't wait.