TWILIGHT

After my meeting with a new clergyman friend, I went and saw Manila's advanced screening of Twilight tonight with Lennie and her friend Greg.

I was just chatting with my nephew in Tampa about it and how the vampire-human love flick fever has swept across America. Apparently, in my chat with Josh, he too has contracted the fever.

While standing in line waiting to get into the cinema, I realized I was surrounded by mostly teen-aged girls-- who were obviously there just to see Robert Pattinson. Because of them, for the first time in a couple of years, I felt like a kid again!

It was a fun movie-- largely due to the fact that every appearance of Pattinson, or a romantic phrase or act, there would be what I could only described as a cacophony of teeny-girly-cheesy-giddy noises accompanied by occasional foot-stomping! I can't blame them, the movie is cute. I would not be surprised if the makers of Not Another Teen Movie-type stupid flicks come up with a spoof of it!

Twilight is a young adult novel written by author Stephenie Meyer, an active Mormon church member. It was originally published in hardcover in 2005. It is the first book of the Twilight series, The novel is followed by New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.

The story goes: Isabella "Bella" Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona, to rainy Forks, Washington, to live with her father, Charlie. She chooses to do this so that her mother, Renée, can travel with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, who is a minor league baseball player. In Phoenix she was a bit of an outcast, so it surprises her that she attracts much attention at her new school, and is quickly befriended by several students. Much to her dismay, several boys in the school compete for shy Bella's attention.

When Bella sits next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, Edward seems utterly repulsed by her. He even attempts to change his schedule to avoid her, leaving Bella completely puzzled about his attitude towards her. After tricking a family friend, Jacob Black, into telling her the local tribal legends, Bella concludes that Edward and his family are vampires. Although she was inexplicably attracted to him even when she thought Edward drank human blood, she is much relieved to learn that the Cullens choose to abstain from drinking human blood, and drink animal blood instead. Edward reveals that he initially avoided Bella because the scent of her blood was so desirable. Over time, Edward and Bella fall in love.

The seemingly perfect state of their relationship is thrown into chaos when another vampire coven sweeps into Forks, and James, a tracker vampire, decides that he wants to hunt Bella for sport. The Cullens plan to distract the tracker by splitting up Bella and Edward, and Bella is sent to hide in a hotel in Phoenix. Bella then gets a phone call from James in which he says that he has her mother, and Bella must give herself up to James at her old dance studio, to save her. She does so, and while at the dance studio, James attacks her. Edward, along with the rest of the Cullen family, rescue Bella before James can kill her. Once they realize that James has bitten Bella's hand, Edward sucks the venom out of her system before it can spread and change her into a vampire. Upon returning to Forks, Bella and Edward attend their prom and Bella expresses her desire to become a vampire, which Edward refuses to let happen.

No, I won't theologize the movie this time. Sorry to disappoint my theologian readers! Maybe in a another blog entry!