Friday, March 27, 2009

Thoughts on Twilight [Spoilers]

I watched Twilight the other night. I didn't have plans to see it but my sister had rented on pay-per-view and recorded it to the DVR, so all I had to do was click play. I've never read the books except for reading like the first three pages in a bookstore to see what all the hype was about.

All I really have to say about this movie is, "Eh." It's not a bad movie. The story flows nicely and isn't overly complicated. I liked the idea of a vampire family that doesn't drink human blood. It's a nice twist on the tortured vampire who doesn't want to be a monster. Ussally you end up with a lone vamp brooding about how hard it is to not drink human blood. In this movie you have a nice family of mostly well adjusted vamps who have risen above their baser urges. I would have loved to have seen a movie focusing on just them. You could easily add in some action by bringing in a group of normal vamps and having them clash.

As much as I liked the vamps, there are a few things I didn't like. Biggest thing was Bella on discovering that Edward and his family are vampires decides to confront him about. I know that they fall in love la de da but at that point she barely knows him. She knows a little about his family, has spoken to him a few times, knows he's strong enough to stop a car with his bare hand and thinks he may be a vampire. To me her, confronting him was a stupid thing to do. Everything she knows about vampires says that they kill humans and drink their blood. Which leads me to believe that she's either insane or suicidal. (From something a friend told me about a later book I'm betting on suicidal with a dash of mental instability.) Edward then tells her he's dangerous but she refuses to listen. Even after he has shown he how fast and strong he is all she can say is, "I trust you." This feels backwards to me. Shouldn't the vampire have to prove he's harmless rather than try to show how deadly he is? Any love I had for Bella was smashed in that scene.

One other thing. I had heard that Twilight's vampires were different in that they could go out during the day and in direct sunlight they sparkled. Now I was expecting sparkles like from a sparkler. Little bits of light exploding from their skin. Instead I got glitter covered vampires.

The rest of the movie was fairly enjoyable. I would honestly rate this movie a 3 out of 5. It's a fairly standard teen romance story with vampires. Nothing too outstanding but it is watchable with only one wallbanger moment.

2 comments:

  1. In MY day, vampires did not glitter and sparkle like make up from a tween slumber party, they exploded the moment they touched the sun like a spontaneously combusting Twilight Zone granny in a rocker.

    Everything I've heard about the books tells me not to read them, however I'm sure I should entertain myself and give it a shot eventually.

    Honestly, it all makes me want to puke. I wish other better, well versed young adult writers were half as popular as this.

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  2. Everything I've heard about the books tells me to run away fast in the other direction.

    From a friend who likes the books: In one of the later books Edward leaves Bella to protect her because being around him is to dangerous. So, Bella starts doing dangerous things and when she's in danger she imagines she can here Edward telling her not to do dangerous things, which makes her do more dangerous things so she can 'hear' his voice.

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