Latter-day Saint Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster book series hits the silver screen today as Twilight opens across the country to untold thousands of fans. Come and read what the critics are saying.

Geoff Berkshire of Metromix: After years away, 17-year-old Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) returns home to the small town of Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie (Billy Burke, endearing). Fitting in at school turns out to be the easy part. Figuring out what's up with handsome and mysterious classmate Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) is more of a challenge—especially after he saves her life by stopping a moving truck with his fist. As Bella grows closer to Edward and his family she realizes the Cullens share a dark, and potentially dangerous, secret: they're vampires.

The buzz: Based on the first of four best-selling novels by Stephenie Meyer, this is the year's most anticipated movie for legions of devoted fans. Their seemingly insatiable appetite for all things “Twilight” has spurred a full fledged media frenzy making “Twilight” the rare movie that's a phenomenon before it's even released. So the pressure is on for the movie to please fans of the book and live up to the hype.

The verdict: As far as human/vampire romances go “Twilight” has nothing on the best seasons of TV's “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but director Catherine Hardwicke's cinematic vision is blessedly (sorry, hardcore Twilighters) a lot more enjoyable than Meyer's clunky prose. READ ENTIRE STORY HERE.

Gina McIntyre of the Los Angeles Times: Catherine Hardwicke knew exactly what she was getting herself into when she signed on to direct the big-screen adaptation of " Twilight," the first installment in author Stephenie Meyer's bestselling young adult franchise about everygirl Bella Swan and her vampire beau Edward Cullen. The filmmaker had turned up to see the author on an L.A.-area stop on her 2007 book tour and witnessed firsthand the near hysteria the books inspire among legions of largely young, largely female readers.

All Meyer had to do was say the name "Edward," Hardwicke said, and the room would erupt in screams.

But the prospect of translating the story -- in which Bella finds the unlikeliest of soul mates after moving to small-town Washington for her junior year of high school -- was intriguing to Hardwicke for its bigger themes about the perils of first love and the turmoil of adolescence, all told from its heroine's point of view… READ ENTIRE STORY HERE.

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune: “Twilight” is a film of intelligent strengths and easily avoidable weaknesses, a modest film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's publishing phenomenon. It is faithful to its source material, which will likely please the fan base. It's also better written than Meyer's book, which tends toward froth and fulmination. (Sample line: "I was in danger of being distracted by his livid, glorious face.") Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg delineates the cliques and claques of the Forks, Wash., high school students, human and otherwise, with an eye toward actual teen dynamics. And she tones up her heroine, who was a passive Victorian simp—pure fainting-couch material—on the page.

Director Catherine Hardwicke, who made "Thirteen" and "Lords of Dogtown," didn't have the money (or, likely, the impulse) for blockbuster machinery. She keeps the scale of things intimate, focusing on all the fervent, sexually charged but doggedly chaste murmurings of her charismatically sullen stars: Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, the new kid with the "Daria" vibe and the complicated emotional defense system, and Robert Pattinson (cue the teen screaming) as Edward Cullen, tortured, sensitive vampire with astonishing fwoopy hair. I mean it: astonishing. The first time Bella accidentally brushes against Edward, she recoils. "Your hand is so cold," she utters. She may as well add: "And your hair is so fwoopy!" READ THE ENTIRE STORY HERE.

Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: LOS ANGELES — Until now, tiny Summit Entertainment has been largely ignored by the major studios and looked down on by A-list agents and managers. But because of a classic bit of Hollywood bungling, the fledgling movie company finds itself sitting atop one of the biggest pop-culture phenomena of recent years.

Ticket sales for the movie's opening weekend could approach $60 million, box office analysts say, driven by Ms. Meyer's devoted fans and Summit 's marketing pyrotechnics. That kind of money — especially for a film that cost just $37 million to produce — propels to the center of Hollywood… READ ENTIRE STORY HERE.

Justin Chang of Variety: Vampires and the poor human beings who love them have been a hot onscreen item this season, as evidenced by HBO's lurid hit series “True Blood” and the marvelous Swedish import “Let the Right One In.” For less discriminating palettes, there's the much-anticipated “Twilight,” a disappointingly anemic tale of forbidden love that should satiate the pre-converted but will bewilder and underwhelm viewers who haven't devoured Stephenie Meyer's bestselling juvie chick-lit franchise. Built-in femme fanbase will lend this Summit Entertainment release some serious B.O. bite, with Robert Pattinson's turn as an undead heartthrob keeping repeat biz at a steady pump…

[E]ven with angsty rock songs, lurching camerawork and emo-ish voiceover at her disposal, Hardwicke can't get inside the head of her young protagonist, Isabella “Bella” Swan (Kristen Stewart); consequently, Bella's decision to get hot and heavy with a hot-and-hungry vampire, far from seeming like an act of mad, transgressive passion, comes across as merely stupid and ill-considered. The result is a supernatural romance in which the supernatural and romantic elements feel rushed, unformed and insufficiently motivated, leaving audiences with little to do but shrug and focus on the eye-candy. READ THE ENTIRE STORY HERE.

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun Times: If you're a vampire, it's all about you. Why is Edward Cullen obsessed to the point of erotomania by Bella Swan? Because she smells so yummy, but he doesn't want to kill her. Here's what he tells her: He must not be around her. He might sink his fangs in just a little, and not be able to stop. She finds this overwhelmingly attractive. She tells him he is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen. I don't remember Edward ever saying that to her. Maybe once. He keeps on saying they should stay far, far apart, because he craves her so much.

Should a woman fall in love with a man because he desires her so much? Men seem to think so. It's not about the woman, it's about the man's desire. We all know there is no such thing as a vampire. Come on now, what is " Twilight " really about? It's about a teenage boy trying to practice abstinence, and how, in the heat of the moment, it's really, really hard. And about a girl who wants to go all the way with him, and doesn't care what might happen. He's so beautiful she would do anything for him. She is the embodiment of the sentiment, "I'd die for you." She is, like many adolescents, a thanatophile. READ THE ENTIRE STORY HERE.