Count me as a Twilighter.....

Rating: 7/10 (2 January 2009)

I can't remember the last time that I was literally one of 3 or 4 men in an otherwise packed theater. Tonight was just the case when my wife and I took in Twilight. My interest had been peaked by a co-worker who is female and a big Twilight fan. My wife has not read the books (nor I) but did receive the first 2 for Christmas. We wanted to check out the movie and see what all the hoopla was all about. We were not disappointed.
I really enjoyed this movie. It does play like an episode straight out of any female focused romance story that is currently playing on TV. But there is a maturity about the film that brings it up a notch. It is full on love story stuff, but being a guy who isn't afraid to embrace the chick-flick side, I was pulled into the story, even though I know basically the outcome of the whole 4 book set. Catherine Hardwicke spun a very nice tale, it is shame she will not be back for New Moon. I thought all of the acting was top notch, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson the obvious standouts. But it was the supporting characters; Edward's family, Bella's friends and family, that really helped with the enjoyment of the film.
I had heard reports of laugh inducing dialog, never caught any of that. With any story that has a target audience that is in their teen years, one must expect earnest and often overly dramatic dialog and moments. It never goes into the day-time soap variety.
There was a lot of online snipping from mucho-macho fanboys that mocked the film (without having read the books) and called in a Covenant clone. Too bad they won't let their geek cred take a hit and actually go see this film before bashing it. Not anything that will change cinema forever, but a very different and entertaining take on the vampire genre. The thing I enjoyed the most was the return of romance to the vampire tale. Recent films have taken a more action approach to the vampire tale. I can't wait for New Moon.