Luke warm...

Rating: 3/10 (27 March 2009)

I don't like to overgeneralize but, it seems most of the crowd that loved this film are in their teens/early 20's and I'm not necessarily their target audience. Personally, I wasn't particularly interested in seeing this film because I've been so disappointed by over hyped productions in the past and have always been let down... this was no exception.
I give it credit for being somewhat different in it's approach to the vampire mythology. As for the vampires themselves, they were at least more (pardon the pun) 'fleshed out' than the humans. You could almost sympathize with the vampires on a certain level for trying to fit into society and letting go of their infamous past indulgences. The humans on the other hand were cookie-cutter stereotyped high school students without much depth.
As for as a storyline here, don't expect much. If you want to see real characters involved in a good vampire/human love story, watch True Blood on HBO or the first two Underworld movies (although I think the romantic interest may have been a werewolf, but nonetheless).
The movie plays out like the atypical 90210/Melrose Place type of teen trials and tribulations, except with vampires. In my own opinion I feel that this is probably why it's done so well with younger audiences.
I was fortunate because, I rented it for $1.00 and so don't feel too bad except for the loss of two hours. It was by far not the worst movie in the genre that I've seen, but it had so many possibilities that were never explored or developed to make this a better film than it could have been.
UPDATE:
My nine year-old daughter decided that she wanted to watch 'Twilight' recently, so my wife and I agreed to give it another try. I had such negative feelings about it the first time around, it was only fair to see if I was just in a bad mood the first time I watched it.
I can honestly say my first impressions were vilified the second time. The story was slow, flat and once again, I couldn't care less about the characters. Aside from a couple of somewhat interesting additions to the vampire mythology it was mostly a uninspiring experience.
The movie is fine for tweens and young adults as there isn't much in the way of 'blood and guts', nor is there any nudity or much foul language. Pretty faces abound in Twilight which is why it has gained such a wide appeal with the younger audiences. I waited awhile before letting my daughter watch it, but she's mature enough to handle Twilight's content and she liked the movie overall.
Aside from the reasons mentioned above for my dislike of this film, I just can't something seriously that merchandises itself to death. While not necessarily a kids film, Twilight sure has a lot of material that's popular at the elementary school level.