I read the books a few years ago, and they were ok. I thought they were poorly written, but I fell in love with the plot line, so I devoured the books anyways, lol. When the first movie had come out I heard awful reviews on the movies, so I thought I would never see them.
However, my cousins made me watch the first two at their apartment one night, then the next day we saw eclipse. I think that if you read the books, you would appreciate the movies more. The first movie was my least favorite, but the films got progressively better with each addition to the series.
I would recommend them to people who can easily fall in love with a plot line, but not necessarily someone who loves reading for the language used by the author, if that makes any sense