Narcissistic Powerlessness

Rating: 1/10 (10 December 2011)

The vampire boy looks like a male prostitute and the werewolf boy looks like a victim of fetal alcohol syndrome. Yet these are the least shocking fantasies dwelling in the hearts of adolescent girls and women over 40.
This is the second Twilight movie I have seen, and as far as I can tell, the heroine, Bella, has made no attempt to find an academic, artistic or athletic passion, nor has she attempted any other type of pursuit of achievement or learning. She appears to be somewhat petulant and extremely selfish, playing the vampire boy and the werewolf boy off against each other, and the two romantic rivals are too damn stupid to realize this.
The vampires in these films are all frozen at approximately age 17 in physical appearance and emotional development. As far as I can tell, only one vampire has a job, yet somehow they have buttloads of money for trophy homes and private islands and private jets.
At age 17, Bella is willing to become permanently stunted herself at her own narcissistic stage of development, becoming a vampire for all eternity on the basis of the mystique and male prostitute sexiness of the vampire boy.
It's the height of romanticism in our culture to fantasize about 17 year girls who don't know any better irrevocably tying their fates to creepy immature older guys.
Vampires and werewolves fight huge battles to protect Bella from either bad vampires or bad werewolves. Bella takes no action to help defend herself...she is an object to be revered and protected.
Of course, this all culminates in Bella getting pregnant, because if the ideal of femininity is the elimination personal achievement and expression, than the crowning achievement of womanhood is to make babies...even if the baby is a bloodsucking demon spawn.
The traditional adolescant protagonist in films and movies undergoes a conflict or has an adventure and along the way gains wisdom and maturity that will help the character make their way in the adult world...'Juno' and 'Rushmore' typify this concept. None of that in Twilight, that's for sure. Bella will remain twisted and stunted, just as the American imagination has been twisted and stunted by economic deterioration and religious authoritarianism.
Besides being a major mind-rape for adolescents with any emotional vulnerabilities, parents should note that this film has a very graphic (and extremely bloody) c-section birth scene for Bella's Hellspawn bloodsucking demon vampire baby.