TWILIGHT

Suck it up, I’m gonna talk about it. People need to stop mocking teenies for loving things like Twilight while the WWE is still making money, that's all I'm sayin'.




It wasn’t quite what I expected. Though I’m sure all of my film major roommates and friends would disagree, I actually was impressed with the cinematography. It surprisingly felt like they thought about shots, angles, dream sequences and random flashbacks. Which is unusual if you were to compare Twilight to movies made for a similar age range *cough*High School Musical*cough*.

The acting wasn’t great. Some of Edward’s subtleties were made painfully obvious (ok, not that many, but the first Bio class when he first smells her…and *covers his nose*?!?!?!? Vamps don’t need to cover their nose, they just don’t breathe. Come on now.). And someone needs to teach Bella how to hyperventilate…or show any kind of emotion other than the shy awkward go-to emotion. Unfortunately, the best cast kid was Jacob (damnit, I hate that kid), though Jessica came in a close second (so nice to see her as the Alpha girl after being the blond’s bitch in Camp). And why is Angela suddenly a Jess-clone? She’s supposed to be the one *good* friend to Bella, which is why Edward sets her up with Ben in the book (well, in his version of the book).

And as it is with all movies that are made from books, they did change a few things: the bad vamps played a part much earlier in the movie, Jacob doesn’t tell Bella about the “Cold Ones,” and they cut out the awesome Bella faints in Bio when blood testing scene, which always cracks me up. The one that really pissed me off though, was that they threw in a line for Twihards that doesn’t really make sense in the context. When Bella confronts Edward about his vampiness, he comes right out with the line, “You are my brand of heroin.” Now, in the movie, it’s a total WTF moment, because it’s out of NOWHERE. In the book, they’re having a deep and emotional conversation about the possibility of a future for them, and Edward’s trying to tell Bella how dangerous he is.

He makes the comparison of putting an ex-alcoholic in the room with a glass of wine (or whatever it was), versus putting him in a room with a finely aged scotch. (Yes, I'm sure I got this wrong, but I don't currently have my book with me, so I'm relying on my memory, which we all know is crap. Correct me if you honestly care that much.) Realizing this isn’t an intense enough analogy, he changes our friendly alcoholic to a junkie in a room with heroin, from which comes the line, “you are exactly my brand of heroin.” The way he says it in the book is amazing: it sweet, and beautiful, and you love him even more for it, even though he’s saying it to push Bella away, to convince her of his danger to her.

And the growth of their relationship in the book is awesome: they go from not being able to sit next to each other, to barely being able to touch, to – after weeks of dating – finally kissing, a first kiss that most girls wish was theirs. Now, this is the one time that the movie kicked the book’s ass, though again if you hadn’t read the book, the reaction wouldn’t make quite as much sense.

In the book, it takes Edward great control to stop himself before he looses his “human” sense not to kill her, which is why he pushes Bella off of him when they kiss. In the movie, it takes probably 30-40 seconds between him leaning in to kiss her and him actually kissing her. It’s awkward, but you know it’s him testing his self-control, which is actually really endearing. They have a quick peck, then Bella attacks him…but in the movie, Edward attacks back…totally hot! And this is when every 16 year old girl in the audience squealed with joy, because honestly, who didn’t want to be in a t-shirt and undies in bed with Edward (though, I’m sure we all could have done without the phone call from mom which ended when Edward showed up, overhearing mom’s last bit of advice: “be safe!!!”)

Ok, so enough rambling about random bits and pieces. Overall, if I were a critic, I would give it something in the C range. Decent story, overall decent acting, decent script, nothing special. But as a fan, I give it an A. Why? Because for most of us, we don’t need the Oscars to approve to find something entertaining as hell. And it was. And I’m sure everyone in that theater agreed with me. There was a huge cheer at the end of the movie (not to mention the various giggles at awkwardness and squeals at kisses), and everyone left the theater laughing, joking, and excited about being able to talk about the amazing time they had in the last two hours.

So I say see it. Put aside expectations (both good from the book, and bad from the haters and in my case mockers), and spend two hours enjoying a good old fashioned fairy tale.


By the way, some things I noticed:
There were actually parents there without kids
There were guys without girls
I was in the minority – I don’t own *any* Twilight merch
In my quiet suburban town, they had three screens running for the midnight show, and they’ve got it running every half an hour tonight.
NPR just did a mini feature on the opening (so it’s gotta be a big deal)