My turn for a Twilight review

When Twilight came out in the theaters, there seemed to be a rash of Twilight blogs popping up everywhere about how everyone went to the midnight showing of Twilight. Are you kidding me? Midnight? So here were my initial thoughts when I read those blogs.

A) How are people my age, with kids, able to keep their eyelids open for the entire length of a movie that starts at midnight?

B) Is this movie so great that people can't wait for a showing that's not at a freakishly late hour (for a movie anyway)? Or is the midnight showing just to add to the vampire theme?

C) I can't remember the last time I stayed up that late to start a movie. If it's past 9ish, it's too late for me.

D) What is Twilight and what's with all the hoopla?

I vaguely remembered in the back of my mind that a couple of my friends had on their blogs or facebook or something a long while ago about how they were reading a book called Twilight, or Breaking Dawn, or other books with black covers and a chess piece or hands and an apple or such. I'm visual, so I remember the appearance of the book covers they posted more than the titles. I guess I don't read enough to be "with in" in the literary world. I just can't squeeze sitting down to read a book into my schedule because too many things would suffer as a result. I can only listen to books on CD these days so I can multitask. I'm a multitasking queen these days! Blogging while nursing or watching movies is my specialty. (Can you guess what I'm doing right now while typing? Yep. Nursing.)

Back to my review. Suddenly, the countdown until Twilight was released was plastered all over Walmart and I was hearing about it everywhere. I heard the author was Mormon and went to BYU, so I thought it was interesting that her book had become another phenomenon like Harry Potter. We recently suspended our satellite service since it was sucking our lives away, and we got Netflix instead. We put in on our queue, and it arrived while I was in the hospital with Paisli last week. Hyrum texted me and asked if he could watch it without me, but I wouldn't let him. I had to see what all the excitement was about, and we have to watch movies together so neither one of us is out of the loop when we quote movies or talk about them.

I finally got to watch Twilight on Saturday. I realize, from the reviews my friends posted on their blogs, that the movie isn't as spectacular as the book, but what movie ever is unless it's a 6-8 hour BBC version? I make it a point to never read a book before watching the movie if I can help it. Reading the book first always ruins the movie. By watching the movie first, I can enjoy the theatrical version and then read the book later and fill in all the gaps and details. I can never enjoy any theatrical version of "The Count of Monte Cristo" because the book is phenomenal and no movie version can come close to comparing, and I read the book first.

What did I think of the movie? The first time through, I thought it was okay. A little odd, but fine. I found it strange that a Mormon author would use the Lord's name in vain, and that the prom would have a gambling theme, and that there would be a steamy bedroom make-out scene that almost led to underage, premarital naughtiness. Maybe those things weren't in the book though. Maybe that's just Hollywood's corruption of a good thing in order to boost ticket sales with lusty overtones. I guess I'll have to read the book now to find out. Or maybe someone who has already read the book can tell me. I did watch most of it again the following morning (Hyrum started it while I was sleeping since I said I didn't want to watch it again instead of returning it) since we couldn't take the kids to church for fear of spreading their crud or them catching new stuff while they're vulnerable (especially Paisli). I liked it better the second time because I caught more stuff. I have to say though,

A) Doesn't anyone in Forks think it's weird that ALL of the Cullens, who everyone thinks are foster kids, are ghostly white? Not that Bella isn't super white too, but come on! A little too much coincidence to ignore.

B) Edward is not as drop dead gorgeous as everyone made him sound. He's a bit too creepy to be gorgeous. And Bella's voice is a bit obnoxious. She sounds completely bored or indifferent ALL the time. A bit husky or manly maybe too. But she IS gorgeous. I love her hair.

C) Why are there so many names in this book that are also in my family? Edward (my brother-in-law...Daisha's husband), Isabella (my niece's middle name...Tasha's daughter, Cage), and Cullen (my little sister's married name...Shira). Hmmm. Maybe I'm overlooking some genetic predisposition to vampiring in my family.

D)Isn't it strange that the Cullens all have ultra-cool cars? I don't know of any foster kids with such luck.

I think it's interesting how the books with mass hysteria and devout followers attached to their titles are about either teenage witches/wizards or teenage vampires. So if you're an aspiring author and looking to make a killing, I'd say write a book about teenage zombies or something else equally dark and controversial, so there is sure to be book burnings and protests, thus increasing your book sales since naughty or banned things always draw more interest. Oh, it needs to be a series too, that way it can be made into a movie...or 6, and you can get even more money.

I looked up the author, Stephenie Meyer, and read a little about why she wrote the book and how it came to be. I thought it was awesome that she started it by saying "As you might have guessed from the length of my book, I can't tell a short story—this is going to take a while. You have been warned." I like her already because that's exactly how I am. I'm a long-winded typer. Would that make me a long-fingered typer?

Hyrum checked out The Host (by Twilight's author) on CD and I started listening to it with him, but I got bored and found my mind wandering too frequently to stay caught up on what was happening (he since continued it and says it's getting better). Hopefully Twilight is better, or I'll just stick to the theatrical versions of the book.

Overall, I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars since I liked it enough to watch it a second time so quickly. I wouldn't have stood in line for tickets though, or gone at midnight. But...I didn't read the book first, so maybe I would have felt different if I had.