Man, I actually really enjoyed the film. It's not great, but what it does with the book is legitimately amazing. Cuts out all the inane babbling between Edward and Bella, for instance. Too bad it couldn't cut out the problems with the plot.
The film's treatment (not sure how much is Hardwicke's or Rosenberg's doing) of high school life was very sweet, in showing how every small interaction is magnified in significance. (This becomes a kinda bad pun in the biology lab scene when they work with microscopes while scrutinizing each other.) Certain moments ended up staying with me, like when the girls were trying on prom dresses. I dunno, it is just endearing to see young girls watching themselves in the mirror, self-conscious and anxious about how they look but pleasantly surprised with what they see.
Some of it was awkward, like Eric and Mike and all the other boys trying to fawn over Bella, but that was kinda inevitable because it's a stupid premise. Other small things were done well, like the relationship between Bella and her father Charlie.
Also I liked how the principal characters were strengthened. Pattinson wasn't the charming/cocky guy from the book, instead he looked/talked/behaved like a fucking alien. Edward seemed genuinely withdrawn into himself and isolated. In that scene where he jumps off Bella's truck and tells her he's going to take her to meet his family, he acts kind of...socially retarded? Like, he's just so excited with this idea he had that he's just going to share it with Bella right now, oblivious to his own weird behavior.
Similarly, Stewart wasn't the useless fill-in-the-blank (with yourself, the reader) girl; she was actually pretty strong and stubborn in pursuing her decisions. When Edward blubbers about not being able to handle his feeeelings, she forces him to deal by asserting her own feelings. She doesn't get intimidated by his withering attempts at scary faces. She's intelligent, curious, figures stuff out and gets shit done. Whereas in the book Edward is the one in control, telling Bella what's good for her and setting the limits on her sexual desires (and carrying her around like a child to boot), in the film it is clear that they are mutually just a little nervous around each other, like in the bedroom scene after their first kiss. In other words, they both act like teenagers. He still withdraws rather violently when they approach intimacy (which is problematic for obvious reasons) but his reaction is presented as an expression of vulnerability rather than a patronizing castigation of Bella.
Honestly, it's incredibly retarded that Edward is supposed to be over 100 years old and his first love is a 17-year-old, and it becomes really problematic in light of the franchise's fanbase. The imbalance of power in the dynamics of their relationship is even more creepy in the book. I think it's good that he came across as about equal in maturity to Bella in the film.
One big problem with the book is that Edward is, for all intents and purposes, Bella's imaginary friend, in that he is basically with her all night every night. Like, he was literally a crush come to life. What I mean is, I think when young girls have their first crushes, they're basically just a new kind of imaginary friend in that they build the person up in their mind and start imagining the crush everywhere, reacting to all the different going-ons in their own life. (I, uh, draw this from my own memories.) Edward as a character was just an extension of that fantasy. The film removed this bullshit, I thought.
I don't know if I like that this film is so hyped though. Whenever I read something online about the reaction of fans I find it terrifying. Little girls should not be thinking the things this book is telling them!
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