My Vampire Weekend: Twilight

Well, I did it. I went on opening night to see Twilight. I braved the crowds of screaming girls (again), waited in line for more than 45 minutes to get into the theater, sat with bated breath for the darned previews to finish up, and then felt giddy glee when, as the movie finally started, a high pitched group of screams sounded throughout the theater. We laughed heartily at the screams, and soon discovered that we would hear these screams EVERY time Edward appeared on screen. Or Jacob. Or Carlisle. Or the rest of the Cullens. Or James. Or even Charlie. Most surprising was that I didn't mind. It kind of made this a different movie-going experience and I genuinely felt like a 13 year old fangirl again.

So the experience of going to see this was fun and different, but how was the actual movie? That is the tricky part for me. I have read all of the Twilight series. I tend to have a hard time keeping books and movies based on them separate. I fill in too much of the story in my head. So I am not sure if this movie will be satisfying to many die-hard fans of the book. I am really not sure those who haven't read the book will like it. I can say it was fun to watch. But I don't know about the quality so much...

Kristin Stewart and Rob Pattinson were great and so perfectly cast. Except for a couple of actors, I was pretty happy with who was cast for each role. They could have toned down the cheesy coolness that is Emmett (I really hated when he was standing in the Jeep...). There were parts that could have been better (did anyone else think that Edward's sparkling in the meadow looked more like he was just really sweaty?).

OK, I confess that I went on a week's vacation for Thanksgiving in the very middle of writing my review and I have lost all my flow... So I will just say that I enjoyed this movie-going experience and seeing how Catherine Hardwick translated it to screen, but I was missing a few things too. I am curious to see how the movies progress, as each book brings in new complications, both story-wise and filming-wise...