Twilight: Revisited

My friends and I recently saw the movie version of Twilight this past weekend. In preparation for this event, I decided to re-read the first book before seeing the movie. The following are my thoughts on the book the second time around as well as my impressions of the movie. For those of you who haven’t read the book and have no interest in it or the movie, sorry....but feel free to leave a comment regardless.

The Book
Since reading Twilight I have discussed it with many different people. One of the views that surprised me at first was that Bella was a weak-willed push over and Edward was the instigator of an unhealthy and controlling relationship. I did not get this impression when I first read the book. However since I was looking for it this time around, I can totally see how some people would have that point of view. The biggest problem I had with Edward this time was his refusal to acknowledge Bella’s ‘no.’ Let me explain. I recently re-read/skimmed the book “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin De Becker. This book is supposed to be a guide to acknowledging why we fear certain things and how often when we are uncomfortable it is because our subconscious has picked up on something that our conscious mind will not acknowledge. The resulting fear is nature’s way of protecting us. One of the things De Becker talked about in his book were cues that dangerous people often give off. If we are aware and looking for these qualities in a person it may save us from a bad and possibly deadly situation. One of these was if the man refuses to acknowledge your no. The example he gave was a man offering to help a woman whose groceries had spilled down the stairwell. She said no, she had it. He ignored her, with “oh come on let me help you.” He then tried to “help” her by carrying one of her bags. She resisted and he insisted, saying “you know there is such a thing as being too proud.” When she finally gave in it was at that point that she relinquished control of the situation and let him know that she would do whatever he said from that point on. He later raped and nearly killed her. So when Edward repeatedly refuses to acknowledge Bella’s no it puts me on edge.

I was annoyed at the length of their relationship. I know for many Mormons their courtship happened just this fast. From the first or second date/third time they’ve talked they knew that they were “completely and irrevocably” in love with whomever. But I have a problem with people falling in love so fast with so little actual experience with the person involved. So consequently I can’t help but laugh when Bella is suddenly in love with Edward whom she knows little to nothing about. Okay so he’s a vampire who listens to Debussy….well obviously I’m going to fall in love with him! I was again annoyed that she figures out what he is, they hang out for two days and then she’s on the run and he’s somewhere else for the rest of the book. Where is the relationship? They exchange a few pleasantries in class, go out on a date, and suddenly she’s willing to die for him and vice verse?

During this reading I was also attempting to understand the mass appeal of this book. Don’t get me wrong I liked it and went out and bought a copy. But I don’t see why this book is so different from any other vampire book I’ve read. One thing I think is funny is the scores of people saying, “okay there are vampires in it, but it’s not like a vampire story!” I wonder how many vampire stories these people have read to compare them too. Moving on. I had a couple of different theories this time around. One: It is very melodramatic. Now I was never this way, but I have the impression that most (?) teens are. Everything is a life or death situation, everything matters. Now in this case there really were a few of these, but maybe that’s why the teens could relate. I read something mentioning how didn’t we all remember when we had a crush on someone and our whole day would hinge on seeing them. Our hearts would race and our palms would sweat at the mere mention of their name. This book captures that feeling. Two: Edward is "perfect," or so the totally biased, fighting against the raging hormones of adolescence teenager says. Meyer doesn't seem to go into that much detail of what Edward looks like, but every girl that reads this just knows he's gorgeous (with her own unique picture in her head of just what that entails). Three: He listens to Bella and talks about his feelings. Most guys are not comfortable talking about their feelings like a girl and Edward does this ad naseum. He also spends all of his time asking Bella questions (as if he's more intrigues by the fact that he can't read her mind then by the answers themselves). I suppose most girls would love this. *shrug*

The Movie
Now I must admit that my knee-jerk reaction was; “Wow, that was stupid.” However, I have since thought more about it and discussed it with a few other people and have decided that while it did have its moments, overall I enjoyed it and want to see it again. I had a problem with some of the actors and their acting abilities (Jasper looking 12 years old with that perpetual deer in the headlights expression he has…he is supposed to be this super tough, bad–assed vamp and he looks ridiculous…enough to elicit helpless giggles whenever he comes on screen). Robert Pattinson is incredibly hot, I’ll give you that. However I thought his interpretations of Edwards various expressions were also hilarious. In the book Edward snarls, sneers, laughs, smolders, is cold, hard, unmoving, etc… In the movie it seemed Pattinson had two expressions. First he looks at you straight on, and then from under his impressive (read: big) eyebrows. I think the under the eyebrows look was supposed to be his feral “I’m a deadly animal seconds away from ripping your throat out” look, but it was still pretty funny. Going along with that, the scene where they all jumped in front of Bella in a defensive stance was also pretty funny. I didn’t think they looked at all scary or intimidating like they were supposed to.

I liked Bella for the most part, but Kristen Stewart seemed to come off with an attitude that I didn’t think Bella had in the book. I have seen her in interviews and gotten the same attitude impression from her, so I think maybe that’s just how she is. I didn’t like the diminished roles Jasper and Alice had, but I wasn’t too upset about that.

I thought they did a good job of portraying the teenagers in this the way I remember teens from my high school being; immature (chasing each other with worms) and young looking. I read an article about how that was very different from the sexed-up teen dramas now popular. I don’t know if teens in other places are like the ones in these other dramas, talking about and having sex, maliciously hurting one another and cussing up a storm, but in my home town in Southern Utah where nearly everyone is Mormon, few were having or even talking about sex (that I know of) those that were, were gossiped about (like in the movie the scandal of the vamp couples living together) and there wasn’t much swearing…but much chasing with worms…or the eye from the toad we were dissecting in biology, etc…

I also thought the special effects were kind of hokey (yes I know they had a low budget). In the book the vampires move so fast it’s as if they just suddenly appear across the room or wherever. I thought they would have done good to emulate this by simply cutting from them in one part of the room to them somewhere else…you know in a kind of stop motion thing. Instead they had them move super fast by making them blur. I thought that was pretty funny. Edward’s sparkles were um…interesting, not at all like I pictured it. These movie sparkles looked more like he was sweating and had a light “glisten” in the sun. It was also funny the way all the vamps looked as if they were wearing poorly applied Halloween makeup to make their faces white, and the scene where they all walk into the lunchroom was hilarious. However, all this aside, I still thought the movie was entertaining and will probably find some way to go and see it again. What did you think?

One more thing; was anyone else totally freaked out about how high up in those trees they were? I wouldn’t have let go of Edward. Also; wasn’t Carlisle hot? I know they said he was in the book, but I don’t think I pictured him that way since he was such a father figure. Okay I’m not done…the kissing scene…wasn’t that the funniest thing in the whole movie? Literally 30 seconds of puckered, moving closer… “Don’t move”…..closer… “Don’t move”…closer still…until they finally kiss. *lol* Totally awesome: Edward catching that apple with his foot and his mad driving skills. They said he drove fast in the book, but that was freaking awesome.