Twilight: A Movie Review

Last Friday, I headed off to the theater with a bunch of girl friends. Our destination was "Twilight" (and Edward, in all his on-the-screen glory). All but one of us had read the Twilight books and we were very excited.

From the very first scene, I loved Kristen Stewart as Bella. She fit the role perfectly and really embodied how I had pictured Bella in my mind. It took me awhile to warm up to Robert Pattinson as Edward, though. I actually can't really think of a good reason why. By the end of the movie, I thought he was great. Maybe it was because I kept thinking of him as Cedric Diggory. Maybe it was because I didn't expect Edward to be quite so obviously tortured. Anyway, by the end, I was rooting for Edward and wishing that "New Moon" was already being filmed.

I read only one review before going to see the movie. It wasn't a terrible review, but it also wasn't a glowing review. Personally, this is how I prefer my reviews. Too good and I'm always disappointed by the actual movie. Too bad and I don't even want to go see the movie. This reviewer had a big problem with the special effects in "Twilight." And I agree, for the most part. The special effects are slightly cheesy and not that exciting. The part where Edward and Bella are sitting in a tree and talking is cool. The part where Edward runs up the tree with Bella on his back...not so cool. When I heard how much money the movie made during opening weekend, all I could think was, thank goodness, hopefully, they can afford better special effects for the next movie. The reviewer also had problems with the baseball scene. I personally thought it was really cool. Of course, that's probably because I was expecting it to be bad based on what the review said.

Perhaps the most telling thing about the movie, though, is that my friends and I all left the movie theater happy. One girl is a HUGE fan and we were worried that the movie wouldn't live up to her expectations. It did. One girl hadn't read the books and we were worried that she wouldn't get the hoopla. She did. She even gushed as we walked out, "I want to marry Edward!"

However, the best part of the movie for us was when Charlie shows Bella to her room in one of the first few scenes and the camera panned to a "Reading is Sexy" sticker on Bella's corkboard. My friends and I all have that pin and so we sort of squealed when we saw it. It was also pretty cool to see a bunch of people lined up outside our theater an hour before the next showing, sitting there and reading and talking about the book. I'm sure they were all thinking the same thing as me when I left the theater. Oh, I can't wait to see New Moon. (Although, how are they going to make Jacob age so much??!! He's such a baby face in "Twilight.")

Movie Rating:

Bite Me by Parker Blue Book Review

Bite Me by Parker Blue
(Bell Bridge Books, Paperback)
Rating:

Having decided that half-demon Val is a bad influence on her little human sister, Val's parents kick her out of the house on her 18th birthday. Val's luck isn't all bad though. She befriends a telepathic hellhound and a cute vampire hunter. As a half-demon, Val is specially equipped to hunt vampires so she joins the special forces team and starts to make a life of her own. All that is threatened when the vampires target her little sister.

Bite Me is a captivating first novel. Val is a spunky heroine who is struggling to control her demon side. Tormented by the demon that lives inside her, Val distances herself from the people that she loves. Fantasy fans will enjoy Val's exploits as a vampire hunter and Twilight fans will appreciate Val's inner turmoil. There are, unfortunately, several references to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, including the tagline on the cover of the book, "Don't call her Buffy. Unless you're ready to meet her inner demon." It was the only bit of pop culture that was in the book and it seemed to detract from the writing. I say, let the audience draw Buffy comparisons on their own. Fang, the hellhound, was also a little over the top at times. His jokes and sarcasm were sometimes too corny for me to fully appreciate. I did like the idea of a faithful hellhound, though, and appreciated his heroic efforts. All in all, this was a fun book and I will definitely be checking out the sequel. I'd like to learn more about Val's special talents and see her begin to accept her heritage.

Bite Me has been nominated for the 2008 Cybils Awards in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category.

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer Book Review

Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
(Hachette, Hardcover)
Rating:

When last we left Bella, she was engaged to be married to everyone's favorite vampire, Edward. Jacob had ran off into the wilderness and the Volturi were minding their own business in Italy. Breaking Dawn begins with a wedding and ends with a supernatural throwdown. Basically, a little something for everyone.

Breaking Dawn started with a midnight party for me. I joined about 100 other Twilight fans and made tissue paper corsages, racked my brain to remember minute trivia, and dressed to the nines (okay, it wasn't exactly to the nines. It was a simple black dress, but I did have sparkly powder for my arms and face so I had a shiny, vampire glow). And then I didn't pick up Breaking Dawn again until two weeks later. When I did pick it up, I couldn't put it down.

The Good: Bella as a vampire. This was my favorite part about the book. It was so much fun watching Bella find her place in the world. I never really understood the perks and drawbacks of being a vampire until we witnessed it through Bella's eyes. Sometimes Bella's actions made her seem as if she'd been a vampire for centuries and sometimes she acted like a child with a new toy. That juxtaposition really drove home the fact that Bella was born to be a vampire. She has an amazing super power and becoming a vampire wasn't nearly as hard as she expected. Bella makes being a vampire seem fun, whereas Edward always made it sound undesirable. Jacob's section was another of my favorite parts. Without giving anything away, let's just say that the middle section of the book would have been boring if it had been from Bella's perspective. Jacob's voice gave it a sense of urgency and an element of fear.

The Bad: The plot was a little too crazy for me. If I hadn't already been invested in the outcome of the series, I probably wouldn't have gotten past the first section. There was a certain young character whose entrance in the story was weird, graphic, and not in keeping with the tone of the series. And who made Bella keep too many secrets from Edward, something that after reading the other books I'm not convinced that she could have done. The ending was also too neat. I'm not a fan of killing off key characters, but let's face it, books are better when there is loss involved. The sad parts make you appreciate the happy ending all the more. The loophole that Alice used to make the Volturi admit defeat just wasn't terribly exciting. Another silly thing that bothered me...I was hoping that Bella's dislike of blood as a human would be one of her super powers as a vampire. I thought it would be cool (and pretty smart) if she hated the smell of human blood and was never tempted to kill humans. And Renesmee's diet of "donated human blood" wasn't well thought out. If it was that easy, why wouldn't all the other vampires just do the same?

In Conclusion: Overall, this is a fun book if you've read and enjoyed the first three. Stephenie Meyer once again does what she's good at, leaves cliffhangers at the end of each chapter in order to keep you reading. Edward fans will rejoice and Jacob fans will find a new object for their fervor. Although Breaking Dawn feels like it completes the story arc, I wouldn't mind reading a book about Bella (and Jacob and Renesmee) that was set ten years in the future.