Movie Review: Twilight

Pale Teenagers + Nice Hair Style = Vampire Movie?

Since it was a full moon and it's the brightest that anyone has seen for the past 15 years, I ventured out to see Twilight. I have always liked vampire movies, over the years vampires had been romanticized and they are not awkward Frankensteinian, half-man, half bat creatures like Nosferatu anymore. The power of vampire itself is really sexual, they were said to be able to hypnotize women into giving up their blood willingly even though they might be grinding in bed. Thanks to Anne Rice, the homoeroticism of vampires were brought up front and center in her novels and in the Movie Interview With The Vampire. The new generation of vampires abandoned their tuxedo wearing Eastern European accented ways (Sorry, no more Count Chocula) and go with a lightly pale teenage facade to ensnare the heart of teenagers everywhere if not their blood.

Naturally, I can't help but compare Twilight with the other recent vampire saga of True Blood. It's very much like the lottery, we all wanted to be seen as someone special and somehow the female human characters in these vampire flicks are sought out by vampires as the one, lucky girls. Even more special is that the ones seeking out these girls are always the brooding vampires who are trying to give up feeding on people. Why? a vampire who doesn't feed on people is just a normal guy with extraordinary powers. How convenient?

Bella is a girl whose parents were divorced, since her mother is traveling with her new husband a lot, she decided to move in with his father somewhere in a small town in the state of Washington. Since the weather in Washington is rain more than sunlight, she fit right in with other pale teenagers in her new his school. One of these said pale teenagers is Edward (played by heartthrob Robert Pattison, who's Cedric in Harry Potter). After one freak accident, Bella befriended Edward and discovered that he is quite different from your normal teenager, he's fast, he's strong, he's hot and he's cold - he's a vampire. A fatal crush starts to develop between these two as Bella gets dragged deeper and deeper into the vampire world.

This film is obviously catered for teenage girls but I'm sickened when the myth of the vampires are altered so much for it. Vampires don't sparkle in sunlight! They don't shimmer with diamond skin, that's Emma Frost. There's a scene where they first met and a fan was blowing on Bella and sending her scent over to a disgusted Edward which he later explained that he can't stand her intoxicating smell (Ooh, cheese), it would be a lot more convincing if he said she had garlic breath.

I don't know what I feel about vampires trying to normalize themselves, I object to an ultra-sensitive vampire. It reminded me of the Japanese tend about gays, in fact teenage girl overtly romanticize it into an ultra-feminine point of view that it became something completely unrecognizable afterward. Given the eye candies are plentiful in the film even they might be a tad too young, I wish vampires would still maintain a shade of black and perhaps, red, instead of all pastel.

Nice haircuts by the way. C+