I said I would blog about Twilight and so here's my take...
Mike and I went to see this Saturday night. We'd gone on a date earlier and funny enough, everywhere we went where people were talking about "it" turned out to be a discussion on what their review of Twilight was. It appeared to be either a love/hate relationship for everyone that saw it. I'd read all the books so I suspected I'd hate it but went in with no real expectations. Surprisingly, after Mike got pushed out of the way by some 35 year old women racing to get seats... I actually enjoyed it! (Mike might characterize it differently if he looked over at me in the middle of the movie and saw me grinning ear to ear.)
This is what was good about Twilight. One: it doesn't take huge creative liberties with the book. For the most part, it stuck pretty close to the book (even if events were out of order in some cases) and even had some direct lines from the book which is fun if you've read them. Two: I read the books... I knew it was an completely unbelievable, teen novel. What makes me laugh about people that talk about Twilight is when they say they hated it because it was sappy... uhhh, hello?! Did you read the books? This movie was based on the book, which hate to disappoint the people that thought it was somehow going to magically become an action-packed horror film but it was targeted to teen girls. If you can't get on the same level with that to tolerate what is going to appeal to teen girls (or middle aged woman, apparently) then you're better off going to see Quantum of Solace (although, let's not get started on how unbelievable James Bond is). Finally: I wanted to see a love story with all the good "love story" inclusions... the beginning love/hate relationship, boy pursues girl, jealousy, love triangle, mystery, action, boy saves girl... it's all in there. So I got it!
So what bites in Twilight? Edward. (ha ha) But really, surely there is another actor out there that can pretend to be 17, make-up his face white, wear gold/black contacts and dye his hair reddish brown to be Edward? The criteria for that actor couldn't have been that ovewhelming since they were going to change everthing about him anyway, right? Just one thing: he was supposed to be good looking! I could even got over Bella's buck teeth and the apparent need to keep zooming in on them during the movie but Edward is supposed to unbelievably good looking and the actor playing Edward really was pushing "cute" at best. I will admit after awhile he grew on me (more because of the characterization he had to fulfill than how he looked). Beyond his looks, I had a hard time not laughing at his "i'm-completely-confused-and-the-world-is-too-overwhelming-for-me look" he constantly wore throughout the film. Surely, as he is a vampire that's lived over 80 years all over the world with two medical degrees... he'd be able to latch onto situations a bit quicker.
Despite my disappointment in Edward... I loved Twilight (how that works when you're so upset with the main character is beyond me). In fact I loved it even to the point that I may or may not have attempted to convince Mike to go buy tickets for the showing that followed so I could watch it all over again. =) Aww... the life of a 22 yr old stuck in a 14 yr old fantasy... I feel no shame. =)
