Twilight: a Man's Perspective

I made a deal with Ciara that if she went to see the new James Bond with me, I'd go see Twilight with her. So, last night I kept my word, and took Ciara and my two youngest sisters to the movie.

Now, I was coerced into reading the first book, but only got about a fourth of the way through before school started up again. Based on the minuscule amount of information I know about the series, I think the movie portrayed the book well.

The book starts out rather slow, so the story was changed slightly (at least up to the point I read) to accelerate things in the movie a bit.

What I Liked
Based on the the trailers, I thought it had potential, but feared sitting through the movie wanting to scratch my eyes out (like when I watched The Notebook...or as much of it as I could stand). Thankfully, the movie kept my attention for the whole 2 hours and 14 minutes, which kind of (pleasantly) surprised me.

The vampires were cool. They all had fantastic hair. In fact, I've decided that one day after (probably after the resurrection) I'll have some sweet dreadlocks like that Indian vampire. I thought the baseball scene was awesome! Although I think human baseball is ridiculously boring, I think I could watch vampire baseball for hours.

I liked the lighting a lot. It kind of gave everything a nice harsh contrast, and made the movie seem a little darker. Also, I thought everyone was cast very well. A few people said they didn't like Bella, but I thought she did a good job of playing a pasty white, depressive, impulsive, and somewhat hormonal high-school girl.

Things I didn't like as much
I didn't like all the staring between Eddie and Bella. It made things a little over dramatic (even hyper dramatic at times...yes, I just made up that term). Also, I thought James was supposed to be some wicked tough vampire (according to Mr. Dreadlocks), but Eddie beat him up without a whole lot of effort (the vampire fight was still pretty sweet, I just thought it went by quickly).

The sparkly skin looked a little goofy. I know they're supposed to shine, but I thought it looked a little weird. Also, the special effects while Edward was running up hills and trees and things looked a little weird from time to time.

Also, I wondered about what happened when the people in the city discovered that the vampire barbecue in the ballet studio...

Overall
Overall I enjoyed the movie, and would watch it again once it's out on DVD. It wasn't too teenage-girly, and was entertaining. There were a few goofy special effects things, and too much staring; however, the overall plot and story compensated for those slight flaws. It's an intriguing and refreshingly new story for the silver screen. Shhhh, don't tell Ciara...but I liked it.

Here's a song for you all!