Twilight

I know, right? It took me forever to see this film. I waited because I wanted it free from the library.

Now my wife thought it was better than she expected it to be, but, for me, it pretty much met expectations.

Twilight stars Kristen Stewart as Bella, Robert Pattinson as Edward, and Peter Facinelli as Dr. Carlisle Cullen (Edward's "father").

I mention Facinelli because I remember watching him in Can't Hardly Wait. Seeing him as a father figure makes me feel quite old.

Things follow closely to the book. They do combine a couple characters from the book into one for the movie to keep things running smoothly.

The acting is horrific. This is the single biggest strike against this film. I began laughing every time Stewart opened her mouth to speak. Let's hope things get better as the sequels are made.

Strike 2 comes with the special effects. (i.e. cutting frames to make the vampires appear to move quicker)

When all is said and done, this film would have done better as a made-for-tv movie. However, because there are more tween girls in the world than there are me, this film was a hit.

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

These books take forever to be available at the library. You'd think they were popular or something.

Eclipse is the third book in the Twilight series. We have vampires fighting werewolves, and vampires fighting vampires. And somewhere in the middle of the action is this incredibly sickening love story.

Bella is the human. Edward is the vampire she loves. Jacob is the werewolf she loves.

Yes, that's right - Jacob has she loved.

So there's this triangle thing going on. And werewolves hate vampires and vice versa.

That's the love story. The action comes because there's a vampire from the first novel who continues to hunt Bella to avenge her mate's death. Or something like that; and there's a big royal rumble in the woods to finish the book.

I had the same issues with this book as I did with the first two novels - so I won't get into them. You can search for those reviews on here.

The biggest complaint I have for Eclipse is Bella. That character drives me crazy! Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I cannot see a girl acting this way. Maybe I'm wrong. It's possible.

In this story, and for the series as a whole, Bella wants to have sex with Edward but she doesn't want to get married. Edward is opposite, he wants to wait for them to get married first. This drives Bella crazy.

At the end of Eclipse Edward gives in and tells Bella that he's ready to do whatever will make her happy. And do you think Bella is overjoyed?!?! Not in the slightest! She goes against her entire argument, for 3 books now!, and says, "let's wait until after we're married".

Just one more book and my suffering will be over.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

This book was originally titled, Don't Leave Me! The main character, Bella, is constantly screaming this to her non-human eating vampire love interest - Edward and it's so incredibly annoying.

Stephenie Meyer has created a novel for the teenage girl in Twilight. Now that Harry Potter is complete, teens need a new sensation to hit. If you walk though the Young Adult section of any book store, you will see the many attempts by publishers and their authors to catch that pop culture fire. Because this book is about vampires and teenagers, how can you go wrong?

Bella moves to Washington State to be with her father. She's a very shy and self-loathing kind of person. Throughout the entire first third of the story, Bella is obsessed with a certain boy who looks different and gives her fierce looks.

Let me amend that, she's obsessed with him for the entire story. And that's what I don't quite like about this. Edward, the vampire boy who she can't stop thinking about, is very authoritarian. He literally orders her around in every circumstance. And when things go wrong, it's always her fault.

The romantic part comes because, since he's a vampire, he's attracted to her because she's a good meal. But because he loves her he fights that urge. Whenever he gets a little carried away, he blames her. And Bella takes it!

Of course, it's been a few years since I was in high school so I may be fuzzy on the whole boy/girl relationship thing for teenagers. I kept thinking, "Stop taking all that crap from him". Maybe that means I was sucked into the story and characters Meyer was telling - I've fallen into the trap.

So, while I don't consider this a work of literary genius, I am going to have to finish the series.

Curse you series writers!