EARLY THIS MORNING, at the stroke of midnight, Twilight fans across the US let out a universal scream--well timezone by timezone that is. The long awaited feature film, based on a series of books by Stephanie Meyer, finally arrived into theaters.
Twilight is a story that contains all of the following crowd pleasers: love, vampires, and the mutual understanding that something can (and, of course, will) go wrong. The plot is your "basic" (if you can call it that) love story from the very start. Girl (Bella, played by Kristen Stewart) moves to new town. Boy (Edward, played by Robert Pattinson) meets girl. Girl seems to (hilariously) repulse boy. Girl finds out boy is a member of a local vampire family, and is surprisingly not disgusted. Boy falls in love with girl. Couple engages in a painfully slow, and awkwardly filmed kiss. With everything falling into its (wonderful!) place, the situation inevitably goes terribly wrong. (Hey-- she had fair warning, about a gazillion times I might add.)
The film remains relatively true to the novel (as so many often fail to do so) which causes readers to face the facts-- while it may seem wildly romantic to read some of the lines in the book series, upon delivery, Edward is often left looking more like a creeper than a love interest. Also, Bella's character falls short-- in the novel, she is described as soft and fragile looking as well as passionate, while in the her film counterpart is played as hard and expressionless.
Twilight did not disappoint in other aspects of the plot. Each member of the Cullen clan is strangely beautiful and seems to float on air. Although silly at times, the relationship between Edward and Bella is pure and heartfelt. Not to mention, the added hilarity from the colorful Forks community including characters such as Jessica, the wears-her-heart-on-her-sleeve best friend we have all known in our own lives at one point.
Those who attended the movie's midnight premier had mixed feelings. "That was so bad! It was excruciatingly painful! Edward was a creep. They just took the awkwardness too far, I know it was supposed to be awkward at times, but that was just over the top," stated Heidi Masters, avid fan of the book series and student at Gannon University.
"It was a little different from the book, more modern, I liked that it had a lot of humor in," stated Rebecca Moore, student at General McLane High School and admirer of both the novel and the movie, "I waited in line from 6 PM to Midnight, but it was totally worth it!"
Well Twilight fans, I leave it in your hands. If you love this book series, see the movie! Did your scream for joy remain? Or did it fade into a sigh of disdain? Whether you hate it or love it, report back and tell everyone your thoughts.
As always-- Alyssa.
