Oh man. This is hard. Because, I'm such a technical critique...
So, the book... the story was great. You have to read at least the first 2 books to appreciate the conflict. It attracts the tweenie girls because of the love triangle and the "beautiful" vampires and the expensive cars and the prom. hah. But, really, as a 38-year-old, I can appreciate the inventiveness of the characters and the vampire's inner conflict between love and his desire to suck the girl's blood dry. And of course, the werewolf being the "better" logical choice for the girl, but not who she loves... sigh. But, with all that said, the writing is not too great. I mean, the thing about JK Rowling is that she has a way of describing an alternate universe without you getting lost, bored, or disinterested. Meyers describes one scene to death that it makes the book drag and you just want to skip a few paragraphs to get on with it.
The movie... man... it has a great storyline to work with plus a stellar cast and enough vampire action to attract a good audience base... but the director really sucked! Okay, so, it is a teen movie, and I guess that is what they wanted it to be... But, man, the hype that book got, they should have gotten Bryan Singer to direct it! This movie REQUIRES a director who pays a lot of attention to characterization... because that's what the story is about! It's not about vampires eating vampires... not really. It's about a vampire falling in love with a human. And the director can't quite decide whether to pay more attention to deepening the characters or giving more action and in the end, decided to do blah on both! The movie ended up really choppy and stilted. Bryan Singer's way of pulling out the characters amid all the action (Xmen, Superman Returns) is what this movie needed. But then, it's really boo-hoo to the producers who didn't want to spend enough money on it.
In any case, I saw the movie twice (once with my girlfriends, then another time with my husband) and I liked it enough because of Jacob (Taylor from Sharkboy - love that guy). I can just see the mischevousness of Jacob in his toothy grins (except, what's up with that wig?). And I've always liked Pattinson (Cedric Diggory from Goblet of Fire). Surprisingly, my husband liked it enough (never read the books and not a big fan of chick flicks). So, hey, all is not lost.